In another venue the question came up if anyone had a non-photoshopped graphic showing penetration of the various pistol calibers.  Such a comparison could be easily loaded to favor one cartridge over another, but it got me thinking...and then checking.

In order for this to become a fair comparison you would want to use all bullets of very similar sectional density, and the same construction.  And loaded consistently to each cartridges potential.

So, Speer bonded JHP's, Underwood ammo, in 9mm, 38 super, 357 sig 124/125 grain, 10mm, 40 S&W in 155 grain and 45 ACP/GAP in 200 grain. 

All of these have an SD of .139-.140.  Underwood loads hot, across the board.  And the Speer bullets are beloved for their performance.  Finally, it would be best if the testing were carried out by the same person under controlled conditions.

This would be a cool chart I would love to see.

What do you guys think?  Value in this data or not?

SQL;


Excellent idea and I would love to see that.  To make it a reasonably well controlled experiment there are a lot of variables to address.  I imagine it would be quite an exercise to put together though.  I don' remember seeing anything like this anywhere. 


I would probably contribute toward the cost.


Pat

I'm interested and curious as well.  I load and shoot 10MM and 45acp, and the wife just bought "our" first 9mm, so if it gets done I would be appreciative.  Thanks, Tracy

RaggedyMan could dial up his notes from the Gel testing and create a chart of penetration for every test he's done...

But there is a standard of penetration vs. bullet expansion vs. cavity vs. bullet breakup that can all play into performance.

Yes some bullets perform better than others and velocity plays a big role into that factor.

It seems now all these companies are bring out the "Gimmick" Ammo.  Yes they can be effective, some not so much especially when you look at cost per round.

I think that for something like that to be relevant, it should not be bullets with similar sectional density. You have to go to extremes in bullet weight to do that. I think a more relevant comparison would be to compare the same bullet (ie Gold Dot) in the standard weight for the caliber (ie 9mm 124 gr, .40 180 gr, .45 230 gr, .357 158 gr)

I hear what you are saying, but I think that chart already exists:



And, it shows by-in-large what is expected.  Bigger rounds leave bigger wound cavities and higher SD rounds penetrate further.  In fact in the above chart it is interesting that the 124/125/165 bullets all have nearly identical penetration, and share sectional density.  The 147/180/230 all penetrate further, with the 147/180 again tying on penetration and they share velocity and SD commonality.  The 230 45 ACP lags behind its similar SD brothers in both penetration depth and velocity.

I think the chart i am suggesting makes a great companion to this one, illustrating which cartridge has the most potential. I am not expecting a surprise.  The 10mm will penetrate the best, followed very closely by the 357 sig.  And...who knows.  I would not have expected the 357 sig to turn in such an impressive wound cavity over the 9mm with just another 140 fps of speed, but it did.

Yeah, and none of these were that new Extreme Defender??

Quote from: sqlbullet on October 18 2015 11:43:32 AM MDT
  The 10mm will penetrate the best, followed very closely by the 357 sig.

That also depends on the bullet wgt.  I've watched a ton of 10mm youtube gel-tests (yes some are much more scientific and consistent than others),and the 135's don't penetrate anywhere near as far as the 165's, 180's or 200's.  Another factor which I think was mentioned earlier in the thread references velocity...Hornady's 180 XTP penetrates quite farther than Underwoods 180 XTP. the increase in velocity of the UW ammo apparently opens up sooner/harder and stops it shorter in the gel-block.


But I'd like to see any kind of this test done.

Noob here, apologies if I'm off the mark...

Lucky Gunner did an extensive amount of testing on .380, 9mm, .40, and .45 with charts on penetration and pics of expanded bullets... If they could be convinced to add 10mm, I think it would be what you're looking for.

Here's a link to the .40 S&W tests: http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#40SW

Thanks for the link.  With this it would really just be a matter of first, ensuring the test barrels were of a common length, and then creating a table that included sectional density, and sorting the result by SD and velocity.