Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Lehigh extreme penetrators

Just use a 17 magazine instead of fooling with extensions, or even a 22 round Magpul or ETS mag. Those mag extensions can get bumped or knocked off at the worst times, turning your gun into a paperweight if you don't have time to reload. I didn't believe it until it happened to me, fortunately not in a dangerous situation.

Good point!

Bought several boxes of the 9mm Extreme Penetrators as truck backup for my G19 after reading Bob's reports here and checking out Youtube vids. They are loaded up in G17 mags and a 33 rounder.

Have a G30S inbound and will be picking up a few boxes of .45 ACP, too.

Current plan is to use them as truck backup only.

If they'll keep scooting through bulletproof glass and flack jackets, I doubt a car or truck door is going to defeat them.

Crusader Bullets... I like it.

150% deeper against what? Barriers? If so, what type? Tissue?

150% deeper than what load? JHP or FMJ? How does it compare to say a FMJ-FP in 124 or 147 grain. To my memory, the 40" of ballistic gelatin sounds like what you can get with a MUCH cheaper 9mm 147gr FMJ-TC/FP. ($1.50 per round for the Lehigh vs. $0.24 for Speer Lawman 147gr TMJ)

And the Lehigh is a non-expanding bullet. For self defense I prefer an expanding bullet. I find JHP's in the 124-147 grain weight range give me adequate penetration (for me), AND very good expansion.

Now I'm no expert on the Lehigh round, but it appears to be a very old idea making its rounds again... I think Charlie Kelsey, a brilliant gunsmith and the former mastermind behind Devel had a patent on that bullet design back in the '70's...and I think even then he wasn't the first to do it. Anyhow, the Lehigh round is non-expanding but does apparently produce larger than caliber wound channels, but still considerably smaller than that of most JHP's

If I were hunting with a 9mm then perhaps it would be interesting to me, but I don't hunt with a 9mm. For defense, I find my existing JHP's adequate for soft tissue and barrier penetration for most jobs.

So an extremely expensive 9mm FMJ isn't something that I find all that interesting.

What am I missing? Is there something amazing it's doing that I'm not catching?

Now that makes sense.

But aren't there already good 9mm loads that penetrate very well? The Speer Lawman 147gr TMJ is a jacketed truncated cone flat point that penetrates deep and straight in tissue, and does very well against intermediate barriers, and does that for literally 1/5 the cost of the Lehigh.

Buffalo Bore has a hard cast flat point with a wider meplat than the Speer Lawman, but it's a pretty expensive specialty round too; but still $5.00 per box cheaper than the Lehigh.


Maybe if I used a 9mm for defense against large bears, then perhaps I'd be a bit more excited about the Lehigh.

Already have the Buffalo Bore rounds.

What's not to like about having some of the Lehighs, too?

Exactly! Some seem to fear penetration, I on the other hand embrace it.

Well they might be expensive but I think we all overlooked something. That being they are not made of lead, meaning some states don't allow lead. Fedral lands might prohibit lead too. Just a thought.

You should probably take a look at the Defender round instead of the Penetrator. Unless you've just got your mind made up that an expanding bullet is the only thing that will make you happy?

That Defender bullet is similar to the Penetrator, but has deeper flutes for more radial damage. It really does work, and causes damage like a good expanding bullet, but is not affected by punching through bone, clothing, wood, etc. I even tested it through 1/4" 6061 aluminum plate into water jugs spaced a foot behind the plate; it still damaged the jugs just like a hollow point would have without the plate in the way. BTW 9mm FMJ didn't penetrate the plate at all.

It may not be for everyone, but it is an advancement over currently accepted defensive bullet designs. Part of the "magic" involves using a light bullet for high velocity to cause a lot of damage without excessive recoil or pressure, but making that bullet tough so that it penetrates deeply. The concept is effective, and does a lot more damage than a heavy slow hard cast bullet in my testing, but still penetrates as deep as you need it to (depending which bullet design you choose).

I will say though that the Polycase/Ruger rounds, which are marketed to perform similarly, do NOT measure up the same way. I tested 45 Auto and 9mm loads; they were OK but not as good as hot Gold Dot loads or the 90gr Defender.

If you can read it, each bullet hole is labeled with the round. The holes labeled "90gr ED" were the Lehigh Extreme Defense bullet. Please ask questions about these, there is more to point out that I won't go into detail about if you guys aren't interested.

Nice testing. I liked the metal penetration then it performed well in the water jugs behind the metal plate. If this is such as old idea why was it abandoned before?

I don't want super penetration in my SD carry gun ammo.

18" in ballistic gel isn't super penetration.

Yondering
Thanks for your report! Who produces the defender,does it have the same kind of velocity that the Lehigh does? Thanks for your time.
Cheers NC

The Defender is made by Lehigh. Go to https://www.underwoodammo.com/ and you can get a full lineup of all of the available Lehigh ammunition.

Magnumdood
Thanks. I see both are price about the same. Cheers NC

If I carried a 380, the extreme penetrator would be my choice, I can also see it in the 45 acp in bear country.

I'm not so sure I'm sold on it in the 9mm vs crack heads as IMHO for rounds that can't break 1000 fps I want a non expanding bullet with a good meplat, but at 1100-1200 fps I'd prefer a bullet that expands some. But if I'm carrying a couple spare mags, one would be filled with the extreme penetrators.

Lehigh made the "Extreme Penetrator" bullet first, then refined the design further with the "Extreme Defense" bullet.

I think some of you guys are still misunderstanding these bullets. They don't expand, but they cause damage like an expanding bullet, without wasting any energy on deforming the bullet itself. This is not a bullet that zips through like an FMJ or slow hard cast flat nose.

I want the benefits of an expanding bullet too, but that doesn't mean I need the bullet to actually expand; the effect is what matters, right?

I'm not sure where 1100-1200 fps comes in, unless you're wanting weak loads. My 90gr ED 9mm loads are running 1525 fps from a G19, and Underwood sells them loaded to 1550 fps. The whole reason to use a lighter bullet is for high velocity, to cause more damage like an expanding bullet. If you're not going to push them fast, just use a hard cast flat nose and call it done; this one isn't your cup of tea.

As a side note, high velocity hard cast bullets can perform similarly to these Lehigh bullets, although not quite as impressive. I've been casting and loading the new Lee 95gr FN 9mm bullet (drops at 102gr for me) at 1500 fps; it doesn't do as much damage as the 90gr Lehigh but still a lot more than 147gr hard cast flat nose, or any FMJ, and still penetrates deeper than any of the popular 9mm expanding jacketed bullets. This one pictured was fired into water jugs at 1500 fps; it exploded the first few jugs and penetrated 5 IIRC, while my 124gr Gold Dot bullets are always stopped in the 3rd jug. You can see the nose bucked up just a bit, but it's undamaged otherwise. That's the 90gr Extreme Defender bullet in the background.

Yondering, you are correct many do not understand these bullets. There is definitely times when a deeper penetrating bullet would be desirable. The Extreme Defender is the best of both worlds wound channel like an expanding bullet with good penetration. The Extreme penetrator would be an excellent choice for protection against large predators for example.

These bullet are simply another option