Once upon a time I was a commercial ammo manufacturer catering mainly to LEOs and PDs...one of the loads that I made was using the Hydra-Shok Corp. bullets {that were swaged by Alberts Bullet Company}. One of the most popular loads was a the 148 HS-HP. I loaded it with enough SR4756 to mke it run 950 fps from a 2" snubbie..****n at that velocity it became a whole different animal...

The factory load was VERY mild...like 670 fps from a snubbie. I remember reading an article where the writer shot a groundhog with one...it ran back into the hole and a minute later came back with blood running down it's neck. It was then killed by a head shot. The "problem" was at the velocities loaded, even from a 4" gun, the bullet would make this great mushroom with the HS post sticking out the top... However if the bullet was run over 900 fps the bullet would violently expand blowing off the HP and the rest of the bullet, which looked a little like a Hersey's Kiss kept right on a truckin'. I shot a row of one quart paper oil cans...the first can blew into pieces, the second can was split wide open and the base of the bullet went through 6 more cans. A standard HP would usually end up in can 3-4.

This is the recovered bullet from that test back about 1982...







This a MeHic 190 grain .41 HBWC {also available in .357/.44/.45} that was run through a 8# Unique jug full of water. The pieces were found in the jug and the base went through the back and was recovered on the snow behind the jug. It split open the carton and blew the cap off...





Matt's Bullets used to sell these but he stopped probably because they are very difficult to cast...



Second test using a row of plastic one gallon milk jugs with a paper carton up front...



Blew the carton apart with lead fragments left behind in the carton...the base went through several more jugs.






The problem is that people who load these bullets think that because they have these big holes in the end that velocity isn't needed to make them "work"...wrong..****n them hot enough to tear the nose off and you will not only get a great shock but also penetration...

Federal is sitting on a gold mine in that little 148 HS-WC but they are to busy making their rounds into mushrooms instead of effective defensive ammo....

Bob

ps..Hydra-Shok sold out to Federal...the whole story is in one of Marshall & Sanow books...