Gelatin Testing

[50master]

I found an old thread on THR regarding the lack of gelatin testing for the round:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=236982&page=2

That is a really good point.

NONE of the magazine articles bothered to test the round and see the estimated terminal ballistics. Why hasn't that been done?

Is is because the jacketed round doesn't expand and only custom pure lead hollowpoints are worthwhile?

Does anyone know anyone who has done gelatin testing on the round?

[Ned Christiansen]

Far as I know I am the only one sofar who has put any .50 GI rounds into calibrated gelatin. My time and gel were limited but I did get some good expansion and ideal penetration (according to FBI specs). I'm no guru at this and it would be great to see it done in more depth.

[50master]

Do you have any specifics on your testing? Do you remember which loads you tested?

When my Glock upper arrives I'm going to test the factory JHP and FMJs with the new bullet tubes that are available (http://www.thebullettesttube.com/).

[Ned Christiansen]

The bullets I used were modified Gold Dots, I tried drilling the hollow point to various diameters since it will otherwise not open up at GI velocities.... I had them out to as large as 1/4" which took the 300 grains down to 258 as I recall. The rounds with the IMI 300's were not modified and opened up just fine-- but these were not in gel, they were in wet newspaper.

I'll dig out the info, I have it somewhere, and post it.

[Ned Christiansen]

Here we go:

The bullets I used were modified Gold Dots, I tried drilling the hollow point to various diameters since it will otherwise not open up at GI velocities.... I had them out to as large as 1/4" which took the 300 grains down to 258 as I recall. The rounds with the IMI 300's were not modified and opened up just fine-- but these were not in gel, they were in wet newspaper.

Just dug out the info--

August 04-- calibrated gel per FBI protocols
Bullet --- FPS ---- Expanded to----- Penetration
Rainier 275 --- 892 --- lost out back of second block --- 32" plus

Gold Dot "L" 250 grains --- 898 --- .842 (petals broke off) --- 14"

Gold Dot "M" 258 grains--- 939 --- .978 --- 11"

"L" is a gold Dot with a .290 hole in it, .180 deep,flat bottomed. "M" is a .230 hole, minus 10 degrees per side, .180 deep, spherical bottom. "S" (below), a .187 spherical-bottomed hole .360 deep.

The below rounds are in yee-haw, shade-tree ballistician media-- water and wet phone books. No claims made as to what the results mean-- I was just having fun (and no chrono):

Water:
Gold Dot "L" into water jugs, .980 expanded diameter, stopped in 2nd jug.
Gold Dot "S" 268 grains, no expansion, 10" of water plus 1 1/2" of pine, stopped by ballistic vest panel.
IMI 300 HP, no expansion, 10"water and 1" pine.

Wet catalogs:
IMI 300 with "M" hole (no weight given), expanded to .982, went 2" deep in catalog.
IMI 300 unmodified, expanded to .880 and wnt 3.5" deep.
IMI 300 unmodified, .850 and 3.5".
Gold Dot "M" with 6 flats swaged on by scrunching it in 6-jaw chuck, .880 and 3.8".
275 Rainier, no expansion and 7".

The Rainiers are hard! I regret that I did not get one or more of the IMI's into gel, I think that may be the most promising "as-is" bullet, and despite that big gob of exposed lead I've not seen any feeding problems with them.