I have not used or tested a 9mm in a long time. With all of the new ammo out I thought it was time to give it another go, because of post like this one
Yeah, I know. People aren't made of sand and expansion reduces penetration. I've shot a lot of handgun bullets into varying substances and I've found that reliable expansion does not exist below about 1,000 fps, no matter what the test medium, although I've never tested any in balistic gel or on humans. I've shot cap and ball .451 RBs that expanded nicely in sand and I've seen a lot of HPs that wouldn't expand in anything. I shot one of these XTPs in clay cat litter. It did not expand at all and penetrated about 8". What these pics do prove is that the XTP expands better in sand than the Remington JHP. I also shot 2 liter pop bottles filled with water with both these rounds. The XTPs busted them pretty good. The Remingtons had the same effect as FMJs. Also, I set a piece of cardboard behind the bottles to see how much expansion I was getting. The holes in the cardboard matched the bullets pictured above.
I purchased a box of Fiocchi loaded with the Hornady 124 grain XTP/JHP. Yes , they do expand well, but not excessively and they penetrate rather well. In the past excellent expansion meant less than optimal penetration and excellent penetration meant less than stellar wound channels. So I felt a lack of love for the 9mm.
Well that seems to have changed the Fiocchi loads with the 124 grain XTP does appear to give good penetration coupled with reliable expansion. I intend to do more testing, but the early results look promising
