Revolver Bullet Expansion

[rodfac]

I got busy, yesterday, with the chronograph and two of my favorite revolvers: a 6" S&W M57, pinned and recessed purchased in '77, and a 4-5/8" Ruger SS Flat Top in .44 Special. The pics below show recovered bullets at the velocities listed, after being shot into water (our pool and yep, the wife wasn't home). No other barrier was penetrated during the test.

Both of these home brewed loads will shoot into sub-2" groups from a sitting position at 25 yds, open sights, and at these velocities, are comfortable for regular practice and daily carry and definitely easy on the guns.

The Remington .41 load surprised me with its symmetrical mushrooming at this relatively low speed; while the .44's expansion with that excellent Hornady XTP bullet is more to be expected. While a water only expansion test isn't necessarily indicative of results in the hunting or defensive hand gun applications, it does give some idea of the bullet's ultimate stopping deformation...look at that XTP and tell me you wouldn't accept that ragged slug for either use.

Best Regards, Rod

 

[jmortimer]

Water will expand a bullet more than "real world." You should see how much a .45 Colt Gold Dot will expand at around 800 fps in ballistic gelatin. I would not count on similar expansion on a live target. I like shooting into water as well, just take results with a grain of salt.

 

[rodfac]

Here's a cpl more, both .41 Magnum hand loads. The Speer was fired at a chrono'd 1000 fps, the Hornady at 1250 fps, again chrono'd. Both loads shoot well, especially the Hornady; it will do an inch+ if I do my part. The gun was a Ruger Flat Top Blackhawk with a 6-1/2" bbl...The Speer BTW is no longer listed in their on-line catalog, but many of us rat-holed a modest supply years ago.

Water is a pretty good medium for testing relative expansion (about as uniform from one test to another as you could hope for); ie. one bullet at a given velocity vs. another and doesn't have the expense of ballistic gelatin. Deformation due to impact against bone, hair, skin and internal muscle will obviously color results; sometimes one way, sometimes another.

Rod