I bought a bag of mixed pulled 9mm bullets from American Reloading awhile back. After sorting, I ended up with a few 147gr premium hollowpoint bullets. I loaded these with Viht 3N38 using data listed on their website.
First off, the published charge fills the case almost all the way. There isn't much room to seat bullets so I ended up with overall lengths in the 1.145" area. But even at the slightly longer lengths all loaded rounds passed the plunk test in a USP and 320.
I loaded four 147gr Federal HST, four Hornady XTP and four Speer Gold Dot using FC cases and CCI primers. This morning I fired for velocity and also fired two rounds of each into 10% gel from Clear Ballistics with the following results:
USP 9mm 4.25" barrel:
XTP avg 1,113fps with a high of 1,115 and a low of 1,111. One bullet penetrated 12" while the other went 17".
Gold Dot avg 1,115fps (chrono missed 2nd bullet) with penetration of 13" and 14"
HST avg 1,109.50fps with a high of 1,120 and a low of 1,099. Penetration was right about 14" for both.
Recoil was fairly stout but primers seem fine, etc. Velocities weren't as high as those listed in the Viht data but I assume much of that's based on barrel length.
And, for comparison, here are velocities from a SIG P320C. No gel data for these, just velocity:
147 XTP avg 1,076.50fps with a high of 1,079 and a low of 1,074.
147 Gold Dot avg 1,060fps. High 1,061 and low of 1,059.
147 HST avg 1,102fps. High 1,106 and 1,098 low.
Recovered bullets placed largest to smallest. The HST came out about 0.72in. The Gold Dots are close behind at about 0.65in and the XTP came out about 0.60in. The HST and Gold Dot appear to have retained 100% weight as did one XTP. The other XTP is now showing 139.8gr.
Overall, not too shabby.
I'll try again with some clothing. Hopefully sometime next week.
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Originally Posted by DocGKR
