Testing ammo in XD9-SC

[fsmith2610]

I just finished testing seven types of ammo in my SC.

Usually I fire through a one gallon jug of water backed by wet phone books. Most ammo looks pretty good including WW 115gr SilverTips.

This time I went directly into wet newspapers backed by wet phone books. Three feet of this combination stopped all bullets. The first shot was directly into the paper and the next two were fired through four layers of denim.

Clearly the best performer in this test was Federal HST 147 gr +p. Bullets through denim are more deformed but showed very good expansion.

The worst performer was WW 115 gr SilverTips. These failed to expand under any conditions.

Cor Bon DPX 115 gr +p showed picture perfect expansion without denim and one denim bullet showed very good expansion. One bullet through denim failed to expand at all. It looks like the cuts in the hollow point are shallow. For what this stuff costs, this was very disappointing.

Federal HST 124 gr +p showed fair expanion without denim and fair to no expansion through denim.

Speer Gold Dot 124 gr +p Short Barrel was also fair to no expansion. This has been my carry ammo but certainly failed to impress me today.

Remington 147 gr Bonded expanded only when fired without denim.

Remington 124 gr Bonded +p expanded consistently but not nearly to the diameter of the 147 gr HST.

I still need to test everything for accuracy and reliability, but for now it looks like Federal HST 147 gr +p will be my choice for carry.

[highscore]

Thanks for the good work. It may same some of us from wasting our time/funds on substandard ammo.

[texjim]

I am very interested in your ammo testing. I use 147 gr for my work ammo and am pleased to see it expanded well in your test. I will follow what happens next. Thanks

[fsmith2610]

Originally Posted by texjim

I am very interested in your ammo testing. I use 147 gr for my work ammo and am pleased to see it expanded well in your test. I will follow what happens next. Thanks

Just for comparison I measured the diameter of my Gold Dot 124 +p that I fired today and the largest measured 0.560 inches. The largest Federal HST 147 +p measured 0.760 and looked like some Ninja weapon full of razor blades.

[Jack the Toad]

Man, Scs must lose a lot of velocity. I've never seen Silvertips or Gold dots fail to expand in wet newspaper. And I've tested a ton of ammo in that media in various calibers from .380 to .41 mag. Through the denim ,O.K. , but bare waterlogged newsprint? Wow!

[fsmith2610]

I've noticed in previous tests that SilverTips are highly variable in their expansion. Today I must have had the right "soup" and they went 0/3. In bare newsprint my Gold Dot measured 0.560; this is the same diameter I measured a few weeks ago into water (no denim).

Expanding to 0.76 (a 215% expansion), the 147 gr HST were far superior to the others. Given a choice, shoot me with a Gold Dot or Silvertip. Please, not with a HST.

[emery72]

Thanks for the info. Does anyone have any experience with the following ammo? It is listed on AMMOMAN.COM and I haven't seen much about it.
9mm +P EXPANDING POINT FMJ
BRAND NEW FROM FEDERAL 124 GRAIN
LEAD CORE WITH SILICONE TIP
BELOW A FULL METAL JACKET
GREAT EXPANSION, POSITIVE FEEDING

[Micky]

Thanks for the information. I have recently settled on the Federal LE Tactical HST 147gr ammo.

[fsmith2610]

Originally Posted by fsmith2610

I just finished testing seven types of ammo in my SC.

Usually I fire through a one gallon jug of water backed by wet phone books. Most ammo looks pretty good including WW 115gr SilverTips.

This time I went directly into wet newspapers backed by wet phone books. Three feet of this combination stopped all bullets. The first shot was directly into the paper and the next two were fired through four layers of denim.

Clearly the best performer in this test was Federal HST 147 gr +p. Bullets through denim are more deformed but showed very good expansion.

The worst performer was WW 115 gr SilverTips. These failed to expand under any conditions.

Cor Bon DPX 115 gr +p showed picture perfect expansion without denim and one denim bullet showed very good expansion. One bullet through denim failed to expand at all. It looks like the cuts in the hollow point are shallow. For what this stuff costs, this was very disappointing.

Federal HST 124 gr +p showed fair expanion without denim and fair to no expansion through denim.

Speer Gold Dot 124 gr +p Short Barrel was also fair to no expansion. This has been my carry ammo but certainly failed to impress me today.

Remington 147 gr Bonded expanded only when fired without denim.

Remington 124 gr Bonded +p expanded consistently but not nearly to the diameter of the 147 gr HST.

I still need to test everything for accuracy and reliability, but for now it looks like Federal HST 147 gr +p will be my choice for carry.

I went out today and tested all of the ammo that I expansion tested yesterday. In each pass I started and ended with WWB since so many forum members are familiar with it. In the first pass through I used a Weaver grip and in the second pass I used the "parallel thumbs" grip. I don't know what it's called. All shooting was from 7 yards.

There were no ftf or fte in any of the ammo tested.

Federal HST 147 gr +p was my best performer yesterday and it reigned supreme again today. I realize that many or most of you are better shots than I but for an older guy with arthritis in his thumbs, I'll take these results.

Weaver

Parallel Thumbs

Average

Cor Bon

115 gr DPX +p

2.1

1.4

1.75

Speer

124 gr GD +p Short Barrel

2.9

1.4

2.15

Hand Load

4.4 gr Bullseye / 115 gr Rainier PRN

1.8

1.8

Federal

124 gr HST +p

3.8

1.9

2.85

Federal

147 gr HST +p

1.2

1.6

1.4

Rem

124 gr GS +p

2.9

2.4

2.65

Rem

147 gr GS

2.8

2.5

2.65

WW

115 gr Silvertip

1.4

1.4

WW

115 gr FMJ WWB

3.3/3.3

4.5/2.2

3.325

[fsmith2610]

Sorry about the appearance of the results. It didn't appear on the screen that way.