Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 28

Thread: Berry's HHP 124gr 9mm Initial Gel Test

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)

    Berry's HHP 124gr 9mm Initial Gel Test

    This might be more appropriate under the reloading forum. Anyway here goes:

    I've seen a number of posts on a couple boards related to the new Berry's HHP line of bullets but, up until now, haven't seen anyone firing these into gel.

    I've seen a few threads where these bullets have been fired into water jugs or some other test material so I thought I'd try a bullet in 10% gel from Clear Ballistics. While it is true that this synthetic gel isn't a direct match for true ballistic gel it likely is a better representative than water, wet phone books, sand, etc.

    Anyway, this is the 124gr loaded with a +P charge of Ramshot Silhouette. Seated length of 1.145" with a Federal primer. Chrono'ed average from 10ft is right at 1,150fps from a SIG P320 Carry.

    I only loaded six of these. Five were used for chrono with last one being fired into the gel.

    Here are some photos of the bullet. Penetration was just at 10" and the bullet appears to have expanded within the first 1.5" of gel. The one missing petal broke off at the 2" mark.











    Of course I forgot to bring my little battery operated scale to the range. But I'll get a retained weight this evening.

    Overall I am pleased and impressed with the HHP. More experimentation is in order. I'm also eager to try the 147gr loaded up to 1,000fps or so. Also need to put some denim up to see what clothing does to penetration and expansion.

    Thanks for reading!
    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Mid-West, USA
    Posts
    2,811
    Feedback Score
    63 (100%)
    Very interesting. I shoot a lot of the Berry's 147gr RN, so I'd be interested to see how the HHP version does.
    Last edited by opngrnd; 10-15-16 at 12:34.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    I have some of the 147 HHP's loaded with a stiff charge of Blue Dot and will try them out in the next day or two.

    On a related note my battery operated Hornady scale is on the fritz so I won't be getting retained weight info until I buy a replacement. My little backup Lee balance beam scale only goes to 100 grains. No help there.

    Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk
    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    georgia
    Posts
    229
    Feedback Score
    39 (100%)
    Try and slow it down about 100 fps if you are trying to get more penetration,look at the petals more velocity and they will start to shear off,reducing your depth.
    That projectile looks like it will have good expansion at lower velocities.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    So I shot a couple of the 147's through gel with some interesting results.

    First off, I don't have a Clear Ballistics mold so I used a hard plastic tub that's about 14.5" long. It is roughly the same cubic area but shorter and wider than the Clear Ballistics block.

    The plastic seemed to work well as a mold. I kept the heat at 225° just to be safe. This makes for a long process. Cook and melt time is about 6 hours at the lower temp. Add cool down time and it is an all day affair.

    Anyways, the 147's were loaded with 5.8 grains of Alliant Blue Dot which is their listed load for the 147 GDHP and each round was fired with chronograph sky screens in front of the block.

    First shot with four layers of genuine Levi's denim was just under 1,000 fps and was a complete pass through. Second shot also under 1k fps and another pass through.

    Third shot was into bare gel without a barrier. Penetration was just under 12" with beautiful expansion and no loss of material. Again velocity was just under a Grand.

    After the pass through with the 147's I next tried one of the 124's loaded with 5.7 grains of Silhouette. Chrono for these loads is 1,050 fps. One shot with denim barrier was a pass through. The second shot with no barrier penetrated about 9" and the bullet broke apart. This surprised me given my +P load was about 90fps faster.

    The gel block is melting now and I'll hopefully be able to try again tomorrow. I'm going to try to make another smaller block to place behind to catch the bullets after they penetrate the denim.

    Here are a few photos. From looking at the cavities left by the 147's it appears that they're mushrooming nicely and I noticed no detached petals, etc. The permanent cavities are difficult to photo clearly.



    Here's the biggest swath left by one of the 147's on the way through the gel. Both pass through bullets left much larger cavities in the gel than the non-denim shots.



    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    Again, none of the bullets fired with the denim barrier were recovered but here is the 147 fired into bare gel.





    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    The 147's expansion.



    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    And here's the 124 HHP after recovery. Not nearly as impressive as the last time....





    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    Test three is equally disappointing.

    Today I shot a 124gr Speer Gold Dot loaded with 6.0gr of Silhouette alongside an HHP loaded with the same powder charge. Chrono shows 1,140's for this combo.

    Both bullets were fired into two blocks laid end to end yielding nearly 30" of gel. Four layers of denim was placed in front.

    In both cases, the bullets passed through the entire thickness.

    Also another attempt was made with yesterday's 147gr HHP over 5.8gr of Blue Dot. This bullet also went through the entire thickness and was lost in the backstop.

    So now that I'm digging into the block to begin the breakup and melt process I find that the core is still fairly warm inside. Could enough residual heat from the over be effecting the block(s) to the point that the material is too soft for reliable testing?

    Tonight I will try to put the melted blocks in the refrigerator and see what that does.
    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    New Mexico
    Posts
    3,550
    Feedback Score
    1 (100%)
    Before I broke everything down on the range and tore too far into the blocks I figured I'd try a few non-denim shots. This would indicate that gel core temps don't have too much impact on penetration nor expansion.

    My Speer Gold Dot load penetrated the 15" block and was found just barely stuck in the second block. I pulled it out easily with fingers.

    The 147 HHP with Blue Dot penetrated 12" and expanded perfectly.

    The 124 HHP with 6.0 of Silhouette went 9" with violent expansion but didn't break apart like the bullet from yesterday.

    Yesterday's bare gel bullets are on the left and today's are on the right. The Gold Dot is in the middle.

    “The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •