Tuesday, February 05, 2008

I had a thought about the .30 Carbine load results

About the time I woke up I remembered the test Box o' Truth did on some British Mark VII ball ammo, in particular that with a wood insert in the nose. Looked it back up, and there's a definite similarity there.

Looking at the Sierra bullets, the design puts a lot of weight toward the back with a big empty space in front of the core, much like the wood insert moves a lot of the weight back in the ball ammo. So I think the Sierra acted much like the ball: instead of expanding(at this velocity, at least) it went unstable very quickly and deformed badly. Which, if I'm correct, would give a good result in the event of needing to use it in self-defense.

More thought needed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a quick and dirty test, round up some old phone books for your next tests.

Soaked in water and stacked they are a poor man's ballistic gel and will get you a record of the damage your load can do.

Firehand said...

Thought of that, just decided to do the jugs first.

Think I'll start collecting old books.