It is interesting how the opinions on this type of ammo has turned. Two years ago, I don't think you could have found more than two people on this forum who would defend it's use. Now there seems to be some heartfelt advocacy here for it.
I tried Glaser Blue Dots a few years ago, and I actually have some Extreme Shock stuff on hand that was in my .357 Mag. awhile. I don't rely on it for defense anymore. While Extreme Shock suspiciously formulated their own media (see paragraph 2, page 3 of
this article) for some impressive
videos, I have not seen tests in standard media that substantiate their terminal performance claims. Nor have I seen any proof that standard interior structures would reliably render these sorts of projectiles harmless.
As far as the Strassbourg Tests are concerned, they do not, in my opinion, provide the conclusive evidence that some advocates of frangibles believe they do.
The text of the report is available at Dean Speir's page. The conclusion of the paper states, in part:
After lengthy discussions between the surgeons and technical personnel involved in these tests, it was concluded that the most effective ammunition available for an unobstructed lung strike is the high velocity type which uses pre-fragmented or fragmenting projectiles or those types that cause immediate expansion on impact. It was found that the more rapid the fragmentation or expansion, the greater the organ damage. Likewise, the more violent the fragmentation or expansion, the higher the system pressure and the more rapid the blood loss. It should be understood that, with few exceptions, most of the ammunition currently available does not fragment (or even expand well) at speeds under 1200 fps if a rib is struck. The availability of a particular bullet to cause damage was easily assessed by the size of the permanent cavity created in the entrance wall of the first lung.
Lets take these tests at face value, which is being quite generous as they have never been replicated as far as anyone knows. We can conclude, as the report does, only this: These are the best rounds to use
in an unobstructed lung shot on tethered goats. I do not say that facetiously. Human and goat anatomy is different in some important ways. For example, humans have noticeably thicker and denser muscle tissue on the front of the torso than goats do on their flanks. This is especially true if the human in question has been taking advantage of the weight-lifting equipment in the prison yard. It is made worse if that attacker has an arm across his chest while bringing an impact weapon to bear. There are also differences in the orientation of organs. Also, humans have a sternum, which is perfectly located to mess with frangible projectile performance in a critical area on an attacker. All this means that the conclusions of the Strasbourg research team do not, in my mind, provide conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of frangible and pre-fragmented projectiles on violent human attackers across a spectrum of possible encounter scenarios.
As far as the safety claims of these types of loadings are concerned,
The Box O' Truth looked at this some time ago. Even the Glaser Blue in their test penetrated six layers of drywall, enough to go through three interior walls.
In my opinion, trusting these pre-fragmented and frangible rounds to work as advertised presents two serious problems. First, the likelihood that you will find your attacker physically juxtaposed to you in such a way as to render debilitating hits unattainable appears much higher than it is with more traditional ammunition. Second, and very importantly, relying on these rounds to fragment harmlessly against interior walls will give you a false belief in a non-existent safety margin that could someday culminate in some very tragic consequences.
) at citizens or those with carry permits. These CWP or license holders will face a violent attack at ranges of 20ft or less in general and will return fire while directly facing a threat(s). Now before any forum members go on a tear, I'm not saying EVERY armed citizen incident is the same but to be realistic a exotic's merit would be based on how it worked in real critical incidents.
I think on another post I put something about if a person dosent hit the bad guy by the time they run out of ammo to run. Maybe he should practice more. So I dont think Im doing to good with my jokes. Sorry