Hollow point expansion.

Josh89 · May 22, 2017

Just curious how you guys test your hollow points. I tried to today with 2 5 gallons jugs of water it's all I had available at the time.wish I would have had a old shirt or something to put over the first one.anyways it went right thru them both.it was a factory load but I was going to try and test some of my own tomorrow if I get the chance.

No_Regerts · May 22, 2017

I grew up raising livestock and used several different calibers and bullet types over the years. It may not have been the most scientific experiments inthe world, but I was able to recover some bullets.

Nick Burkhardt · May 22, 2017

Line up six one gallon water jugs, throw both legs of my kids old blue jeans over the front and shoot them from ten feet. Federal HST give me the best expansion and penetration.

DizzyJ · May 22, 2017

There's probably a recipe floating around on the net on making ballistic gel. I don't think it's that hard though I've never done it.

I leave most of the testing up to the experts.

Tony617 · May 22, 2017

If you are using factory ammo for HD using HP I watch YouTube videos.

Stomper · May 22, 2017

Try an ANTIFA "protest" event aka "rioting & looting" event.

Koda · May 22, 2017

Josh89 said:
Just curious how you guys test your hollow points.

I let other people test them for me then sift thru their findings and pick what I think is best.
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/

yeah I know, not as much fun....

ageingstudent · May 24, 2017

Josh89 said:
Just curious how you guys test your hollow points. I tried to today with 2 5 gallons jugs of water it's all I had available at the time.wish I would have had a old shirt or something to put over the first one.anyways it went right thru them both.it was a factory load but I was going to try and test some of my own tomorrow if I get the chance.

If you just want to check expansion and not penetration I like to use a cheap plastic 30 gallon garbage can. You can plug the holes with a rubberized caulk (like Vulkem) and shoot it again. Bullets usually lay right in the bottom. Obviously you need a water source though.

B3dlam · May 24, 2017

DizzyJ said:
There's probably a recipe floating around on the net on making ballistic gel. I don't think it's that hard though I've never done it.

I leave most of the testing up to the experts.

I just let the experts do it as well but as I recall 10% ballistic gel is just gelatin mixed with water a 9 to 1 water to gelatin ratio by volume. The gelatin isn't super cheap for the quantities we would need though which is why I have avoided messing with it. But the process is simple mix gelatin with water in a large pot. Boil the water to dissolve then pour into your form and put it in the fridge. Like Jello it will need to be kept cold. You calibrate it to confirm your consistency by firing a bb into it at a known velocity.