Range Report..Notes and Conclusions
Notes:
As I dug through the paper their were dozens of flakes from the jackets of the bullets spread all through the paper, even on the sheets that were untouched. I believe that as the bullet plowed through the paper some of the particles shed on the way in and 'injected' themselves between clean sheets.
Conclusions:
I don't know if 4.3 gr of Power Pistol, is really a max load. If I can increase that or perfect the Acc #7 load, the target velocity of 830 fps could most likely be attained. The velocities of 827 fps are very close to that target. So I consider velocity testing to be very nearly successful and may be improved.
Penetration. Well, the 'media' that I had available was a good bit tougher than gelatin so the actual distance penetrated was small, in the 4" to 6" range. It's a wild guess, but I would really like to test in different media to get a more real-world defense penetration of 12" to 16". Or is it 18"? I believe that this load would at least pass the minimum penetration and with proper consstruction of the bullet, would be in the 12-18" zone. What I don't know and need to find out is that if the bullets will over penetrate. Again, with a XTP or Gold Dot short barrel design it could be 'tuned to fit the needed range.
Expansion. This testing nearly completely failed to show any expansion, probably due to the very hard alloy that the bullets were made from. However the one bullet that did expand beyond 9mm had a maximum diameter of .465", which is more than the target I hoped for. I would say the with proper bullet construction the .45 expanded diameter could be met and possibly exceeded.
However, my initial assumption that bullets as heavy 180 grains is probably not able to be realized because of limitations in the case size and the max OAL of the 9mm Luger cartridge. A full load of Acc #7 powder needed to be compressed and the Power Pistol appeared to reach the base of the bullet. That is only perception but pushing the theory to the max probably won't be feasible, though it would be interesting find out how heavy of a bullet can be pushed to 830 fps in a short barreled 9mm. A longer barreled gun should be able to get more velocity than the Kel Tec, used in this test.
The original statement of "How can you get a 9mm to act like a .45" is true in terms of velocity, the expanded size being equal or larger than a FMJ .45 round, and more than likely with acceptable penetration. The only factors in which the 9mm falls short is a maximum bullet weight of 165 grains which is a good bit lighter than .45 bullets. Also, the.45 wound channel is larger before the 9mm would have a chance to expand. I would think that a 9mm bullet could be made to 'mushroom' quickly, but won't equal the entry wound of a .45.
I would have done a little more testing comparing the reloaded ammo to a commercial round, but my blood sugar was getting low and we still had to clean up to be able to leave.
Below are the flakes from the bullet plating.
That's all for tonight.. I've got a lot to catch up on with my internet being down for a while.
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"He was kinda funny lookin'"
Last edited by rwsmith; 02-18-2017 at 07:47 PM.
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