jlw
10-31-2012, 09:55 AM
Be aware, no attempt to proof read the following for typos was made:
I attended a ballistics demo put on by Hornady today and hosted by one of the metro-hotlanta SOs. I had previously seen them do the shooting portion with their ammo, but today was much more informative. Previously, there were well over 100 folks in attendance, and time was limited. Today, there were about 10 of us, and we were able to do a lot of things. They did a twenty minute PowerPoint on their product line and provided some company info. Then it was out to the range.
For the pistol ammo, each ammo selection was fired five times. They had a bare block of gel, one with heavy clothing, one behind plywood, one behind sheet metal, and one behind auto glass.
First up was their .40 Critical Duty round, and it performed well. It was fired though a Glock 22. The results match what they advertise.
They are just now releasing their .45 ACP Critical Duty round and didn't have any available for the demo. One of the participants produced some Federal 230gr HST .45 ACP ammo to test. The bare gel and heavy clothing rounds were very impressive. It performed adequately on the other barriers although there was some clogging of the hollow point. I'd feel perfectly comfortable carrying this round.
We produced five rounds of our .45 ACP duty ammo. It is a 185gr Gold Dot loaded at +P pressure loaded by Atlanta Arms. I have been with the SO for 3.5 years, and this ammo is at least that old. We had jacket separation on two of the five rounds and one where the HP clogged and had virtually no expansion.
All of the .45 ACP rounds were fired through a Glock 21.
Next up was some of the Hornady 135gr +P Critical Duty fired through an M&P Shield. Shamefully, it vastly outperformed our .45 ammo fired through a full sized duty pistol.
For comparison, we fired what I previously believed was the premier 9mm duty/carry ammo available in the form of the Winchester Ranger 127gr +P+ (Black Talon). We had two jacket separations out of five rounds.
Based upon some other factors and a different set of test that I can't go into here, I still feel confident in the Ranger as a carry ammo based on the old "3 to 5" rule of gunfights, but for a duty round, I give the edge for a duty round to the Critical Duty as there is an increased likelihood of barrier shots, especially auto glass. Both 9mm rounds also produced as much or more of as wound channel as our .45 duty rounds. The Federal HST dumped a lot more energy into the gel than did our round as well.
I would like to see these test again with the .45 ACP Critical Duty for a fair comparison, but the 9mm +P version was quite impressive.
Next up was rifle ammo. All shots were fired into bare gel or through auto glass.
For a home defense/entry weapon round in .223, I strongly suggest the Hornady Urban rounds. They come in different weights. We shot the 40gr, 55gr, and 60gr rounds. This ammo dumps an amazing amount of energy almost immediately upon penetration. It created impressive wound channels as well. They stressed that it was not effective at all through barriers. Over-penetration worries are virtually eliminated with this round, but it appears to be quite effective as a bandit stopper.
We shot both the 55gr and 70gr GMX rounds as well as their 62gr Barrier round. The GMX rounds would go through auto glass and still get impressive penetration and wound channels. This stuff would be good in a .223 sniper/designated marksman platform. In that most LE related precision/sniper shots are within 100 yards, I'd feel perfectly well armed with a scoped AR filling this function and shooting this ammo. The 62gr Barrier round was probably the better "all purpose" round of the Hornady line.
They referenced some agencies having adopted running the Barrier round for patrol and having a mag of Urban for entries utilizing different color mags for each ammo. Of course, this requires the operator to be "with it" enough to use the correct mag.
Finally, they shot a 110gr .308 Urban round. We turned a block of the pistol gel sideways so that the shot only had to travel the width of the block rather than the length. The gel contained the .308 round, but the wound channel was beyond impressive. For this test they make sure the gel block is on the ground as when they previously did, so much energy was dissipating through the block that it would actually break the table upon which the block was resting.
On a side note, I asked the Hornady rep what round he recommended for the discerning .30-30 levergunner who used the platform for a home defense/patrol rifle. Without hesitation he recommended the LeverRevolution stuff.
I attended a ballistics demo put on by Hornady today and hosted by one of the metro-hotlanta SOs. I had previously seen them do the shooting portion with their ammo, but today was much more informative. Previously, there were well over 100 folks in attendance, and time was limited. Today, there were about 10 of us, and we were able to do a lot of things. They did a twenty minute PowerPoint on their product line and provided some company info. Then it was out to the range.
For the pistol ammo, each ammo selection was fired five times. They had a bare block of gel, one with heavy clothing, one behind plywood, one behind sheet metal, and one behind auto glass.
First up was their .40 Critical Duty round, and it performed well. It was fired though a Glock 22. The results match what they advertise.
They are just now releasing their .45 ACP Critical Duty round and didn't have any available for the demo. One of the participants produced some Federal 230gr HST .45 ACP ammo to test. The bare gel and heavy clothing rounds were very impressive. It performed adequately on the other barriers although there was some clogging of the hollow point. I'd feel perfectly comfortable carrying this round.
We produced five rounds of our .45 ACP duty ammo. It is a 185gr Gold Dot loaded at +P pressure loaded by Atlanta Arms. I have been with the SO for 3.5 years, and this ammo is at least that old. We had jacket separation on two of the five rounds and one where the HP clogged and had virtually no expansion.
All of the .45 ACP rounds were fired through a Glock 21.
Next up was some of the Hornady 135gr +P Critical Duty fired through an M&P Shield. Shamefully, it vastly outperformed our .45 ammo fired through a full sized duty pistol.
For comparison, we fired what I previously believed was the premier 9mm duty/carry ammo available in the form of the Winchester Ranger 127gr +P+ (Black Talon). We had two jacket separations out of five rounds.
Based upon some other factors and a different set of test that I can't go into here, I still feel confident in the Ranger as a carry ammo based on the old "3 to 5" rule of gunfights, but for a duty round, I give the edge for a duty round to the Critical Duty as there is an increased likelihood of barrier shots, especially auto glass. Both 9mm rounds also produced as much or more of as wound channel as our .45 duty rounds. The Federal HST dumped a lot more energy into the gel than did our round as well.
I would like to see these test again with the .45 ACP Critical Duty for a fair comparison, but the 9mm +P version was quite impressive.
Next up was rifle ammo. All shots were fired into bare gel or through auto glass.
For a home defense/entry weapon round in .223, I strongly suggest the Hornady Urban rounds. They come in different weights. We shot the 40gr, 55gr, and 60gr rounds. This ammo dumps an amazing amount of energy almost immediately upon penetration. It created impressive wound channels as well. They stressed that it was not effective at all through barriers. Over-penetration worries are virtually eliminated with this round, but it appears to be quite effective as a bandit stopper.
We shot both the 55gr and 70gr GMX rounds as well as their 62gr Barrier round. The GMX rounds would go through auto glass and still get impressive penetration and wound channels. This stuff would be good in a .223 sniper/designated marksman platform. In that most LE related precision/sniper shots are within 100 yards, I'd feel perfectly well armed with a scoped AR filling this function and shooting this ammo. The 62gr Barrier round was probably the better "all purpose" round of the Hornady line.
They referenced some agencies having adopted running the Barrier round for patrol and having a mag of Urban for entries utilizing different color mags for each ammo. Of course, this requires the operator to be "with it" enough to use the correct mag.
Finally, they shot a 110gr .308 Urban round. We turned a block of the pistol gel sideways so that the shot only had to travel the width of the block rather than the length. The gel contained the .308 round, but the wound channel was beyond impressive. For this test they make sure the gel block is on the ground as when they previously did, so much energy was dissipating through the block that it would actually break the table upon which the block was resting.
On a side note, I asked the Hornady rep what round he recommended for the discerning .30-30 levergunner who used the platform for a home defense/patrol rifle. Without hesitation he recommended the LeverRevolution stuff.