Long overdue but I finally shot a couple 38 Special lead bullet loads into 10% organic gel. I used a Ruger LCR for the test. Gel was shot from ten feet.
The first load is a full wadcutter from Double Tap. This is not billed as a +P load and is loaded with a cast double ended bullet not a swaged or hollow base wadcutter.
Velocity of the Double Tap was pretty low, not surprisingly. My Caldwell chronograph showed an average of about 735 feet per second. Recoil, as expected, was mild.
I fired three rounds of the DT load. Two into bare gel and one through FBI clothing. The bare gel bullets passed through my 20" block while the bullet fired through clothing went to about 15.5 inches.
Note the dark smudge pictured behind the bullet. This is a plug of clothing that was shed as the bullet neared the end of its travel.
Next up is the 158gr LSWCHP loaded by Remington. This is billed as a +P load and appears to be a swaged bullet. I had been looking forward to this bullet and was expecting some decent performance.
I only fired two of these. One into bare gel and one through clothing. Both bullets went a little over 14 inches. Neither bullet showed much evidence of expansion.
Velocity with this was surprisingly low. My chrono showed 775 FPS with these. Recoil, again, was pretty mild.
As far as "tissue damage" to the gel; I tried to photo the tracks in gel but my cellphone camera really struggles to focus. I guess that's why Hornady and others squirt die into the gel after firing. Anyway, I really didn't note anything spectacular with one bullet over the other. Maybe that's because the SWC and full WC produce similar results in gel.