HPR Black Ops Ammo Test, .45 ACP and 9mm - also DRT and Extreme Shock

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• published: 11 Nov 2014
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HPR's Black Ops ammo is a new entry on the market, and is a jacketed frangible bullet. Jacketed frangibles have existed for several years (at least as far back as 2001). In this test I will explore the .45 ACP and 9mm versions of the Black Ops. The ammo will be fired into ClearBallistics synthetic ballistic gelatin to get an overview of its penetration and expansion characteristics. In order to provide perspective, I will also test it against other, relatively similar types of ammo -- the DRT 85-grain 9mm jacketed frangible, and the Extreme Shock 124-grain 9mm jacketed frangible. The test pistols were a Springfield XD-S in .45 ACP with 3.3" barrel, and a Sig P938 in 9mm with a 3.0" barrel. The nature of fragmenting rounds limits the number of rounds I can fire per gel block. To avoid the potential of cross-contamination, I am limiting the testing to one round of each. Generally I prefer to test multiple rounds of each cartridge to get a higher likelihood of statistically representative results, but in this test I thought it more important to put my limited number of gel blocks towards getting comparative results among multiple types of ammunition, rather than spending all my gel blocks on multiple rounds of the same type of ammunition. I didn't bother with denim testing, because the point of these rounds is to see their frangibility in action. Had one clogged in denim, we wouldn't have learned anything about how the round performs generally, since any bullet that clogs with denim performs pretty much the same as any other bullet that clogs with denim. It's possible that in the future I may revisit the Black Ops and/or DRT with denim, just to verify whether they do indeed expand through denim. Note: I'm not making any claims for these videos other than that these are the results I achieved, in my own testing, from the stated pistols. I have no intention to make a blanket endorsement or indictment of any product, only to review and report what I found in a given instance. Obviously it is incumbent upon each individual to conduct their own research and make up their own mind about which defensive ammunition is best for their own purposes, in their own firearms. Also keep in mind that individual firearms can be persnickety; my pistol may feed a particular round consistently whereas your pistol might jam on those rounds, so -- please conduct your own testing before trusting any particular ammo. The purpose of this testing is to find which rounds of ammo perform well enough from a short 3" barrel that they can reliably deliver the penetration (with expansion) that has been documented and proven necessary in order for the bullet to be able to reach the vital organs of an attacker and deliver an incapacitating hit. We are NOT talking about 12" of penetration through a body! We're talking about 12" of penetration through ballistic gel. For those who don't understand why the 12" penetration distance is so important, please see my blog entries on the subject: http://shootingthebull.net/blog/bullet-effectiveness-whats-the-big-deal-about-12-penetration-anyway/ http://shootingthebull.net/blog/bullet-size-the-other-major-factor-in-bullet-effectiveness/ http://shootingthebull.net/blog/more-on-bullet-penetration-and-why-we-dont-use-bones-when-testing-ammo-in-gel/ http://shootingthebull.net/blog/what-about-bullet-overpenetration/ Subscribe to the channel here to see the rest of the episodes in this series, as well as other ammo tests and equipment reviews. And check out the blog at www.shootingthebull.net.