My First Foray into the World of Real Gel--9mn Loads

[Tokarev]

Good evening.

I have always been interested in internal, external and terminal ballistics. As a shooter and reloader, it was only logical to try dabbling in ballistic gel.

I have previously used 10% synthetic gel from Clear Ballistics but have always been curious about the real stuff. Well, I figured it was time to try my hand at making a block of 10% gel.

I used grocery store gel packs and used one kilogram of powder to 9 liters of water. Water was measured at 126° from the kitchen faucet. Powder was added slowly and the mixture was mixed the entire time until all the powder was added and there were no clumps. The mixing process took about an hour including stirring the mix gently until the foam was gone.

Next the liquid and mold went into the refrigerator for about 50 hours before it was removed and placed in a Coleman cooler for transport to the hills.

Transport time was about an hour. I set up my chronograph and fired three BBs into the block to check calibration. I think, due to the time of day and the onset of dusk, my chronograph wouldn't register BB velocity. Anyway, I've found my little BB gun registers somewhere between 570-600 fps.

After this I fired two different 9mm loads into the block. Two rounds of each load were fired into bare gel and two rounds of each load were fired using the heavy clothing layers sold by Clear Ballistics.

Loads tested were ASYM 115gr +P loaded with Barnes Bullets and the Wilson Combat 95gr load also using a Barnes bullet.

Both loads are running just under 1,200 fps (chronograph registered these) from my Ruger Officer Model.

The ASYM 115gr load feels pretty snappy. Penetration was good with both bullets reaching just over 13 inches.

The Wilson load is quite mild and would probably be a nice choice for something like a SIG 938 or Shield although penetration was a bit short with this load. Both bullets punched to about 9.5 inches in my block.

Clothing appeared to have little effect on either bullet/load with penetration nearly the same regardless of barrier VS no barrier.

Overall, a fun experiment and one that I'll try again soon!

BB calibration. Right at the edge of failure


115GR ASYM loaded with Barnes Bullet


95GR Wilson Combat loaded with Barnes Bullets


All bullets removed from the gel


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[the Schwartz]

I think that your first test is pretty good for a first attempt.

Since 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) is the upper limit for BB calibration, your calibration is so close to the standard (the width of the BB) that I would not even bother with computing a correction.

What did you get for the average expanded diameter, impact velocities, retained weight and actual measured penetration depth of the two test rounds?

[Tokarev]

I think that your first test is pretty good for a first attempt.

Since 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) is the upper limit for BB calibration, your calibration is so close to the standard (the width of the BB) that I would not even bother with computing a correction.

What did you get for the average expanded diameter, impact velocities, retained weight and actual measured penetration depth of the two test rounds?

I'll get retained weight and expanded diameter measurements for you later on today.

As far as the other stuff; I wasn't sure how successful my first attempt was going to be and I guess I wasn't really ready to take a bunch of notes. When my chronograph failed to read the three calibration BBs I was toying with the idea of packing everything back up and heading back for the house. Then I decided I didn't want to further corrupt the test by trying to figure out what impact re-cooling the block would have. Plus I'm sure my wife, as supportive as she is, wanted the fridge space back...

My chronograph was set up immediately in front of the block and, although I didn't record the velocities, both sets of rounds showed velocities of just under 1,200 fps. The Wilson Combat load is only slightly faster than the ASYM load even though it is 20gr lighter. Fired primers on the Wilson brass looked fine and normal while the ASYM primers were flat with the impact dimple blown clear out. The Ruger does this with hotter ammo but the ASYM seemed a bit extreme. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since they've taken what amounts to a bullet that's about as long as a 147gr and ramped it up to nearly 1,200 fps.

The ASYM 115gr load worked the best and would obviously be the better choice for defense with 13.25" in clothing and 13.75" in bare. The lighter Wilson load only penetrated 9.5" in bare and about 9.25" through clothing. Short of the FBI protocols and probably not much better than some 380 Auto loads although with good expansion.

Even though both loads are running close to 1,200 fps the Wilson load doesn't seem to have opened up as much as the ASYM load. The ASYM's petals, while not bent clear back, are rolled back a little more than the Wilson. Again, I'll post actual measurements later today.

Overall, I am quite pleased with how the gel turned out. I'm not sure yet how often I'm going to make blocks and just often I'm going to test. I suppose the logical thing to do is make a block whenever I have the desire to test something that doesn't have tons of test data already. No point in going through the time and effort to make a block to test something like 9mm 124 or 147 HST when there's already been a ton of testing with those bullets. I think I'll stick to testing oddball stuff like the ASYM and Wilson loads.

Anyway, if anyone has any advice, etc. I welcome the feedback.

[octagon]

Good stuff thank you for sharing. I have always been curious how close clear gel is to 10% ordinance gel when the same gun, ammo and conditions are used with each tested bare, clothed, and barrier tests. I never have found much info on the differences other than penetration and almost nothing on permanent or stretch cavity, expansion, weight retained etc. between the two.

[Tokarev]

Here's some info on Clear vs Real gel:

http://shootingthebull.net/blog/tag/ballistic-gel/

http://www.brassfetcher.com/Syntheti...20Gelatin.html

[Tokarev]

Here are the weight and diameter measurements.

115gr

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[Tokarev]

And the 95gr. Note that the bullet fired through clothing has a slightly larger diameter. Could mean nothing though since my test sample is too small to draw conclusions.

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[LOBO]

Thanks for doing the work & sharing your results with us.

[Tokarev]

Oops. I posted one of the 115gr photos twice. Here's the correct photo.

[DocGKR]

Instead of using kitchen gel, I'd recommend type 250A ordnance gel for your next attempt....