Not sure. It seems like many FMJ ball loads are economy loads, and don't necessarily penetrate better than JHP. Until you get to 10mm with hard cast, the Trophy Bonded or boutique penetrator loads, it doesn't seem like the makers have optimized ball for penetration in 9, 40 and 45.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
I do not have any skulls to shoot but Gold Dot 124+P, HST 124+P, Gold Dot 147, HST 147 and HST 147+P did not compare to the penetration of the 124 NATO rounds fired into water jugs.
The JHP rounds all expanded big time and the NATO rounds looked like they did before firing. All rounds fired from the same G34.
While water testing is useful, to a limited extent, to get relative soft tissue performance, it's not always useful for hard barrier testing. And I think most of us would agree a brown bear skull would be a bit of a hard barrier! Ball ammo can get really erratic on hard surfaces, especially when it impacts at angles less then perpendicular. It glances off skulls of all types and windshields are another big issue for it too.
Regional Government Sales Manager for Aimpoint, Inc. USA
Co-owner Hardwired Tactical Shooting (HiTS)
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
We had this discussion in one of the threads discussing service pistols around animals, which one I can't remember, about penetrating loads in .40. Chuck or Gary, as I recall, educated me that the common .40 ball loads are not properly constructed for penetration, and may not even do as well as a good JHP. That got me off on the KKM barrel and hard cast in the G22, which didn't pan out on account of unsatisfactory reliability.
The beauty of the G2 load, if it pans out, is you can carry a pistol in a caliber that is likely reliable and durable, while doing double duty -- good performance on softer targets, and the ability to get through a hard target if necessary.
From my anecdotal knowledge, a flat point seems better at penetration than a traditional ball load.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.