Ballistic Gel Testing Results

Ammunition used for self defense purposes must be carefully picked to ensure optimal performance.   A bullet that performs properly can be the difference between stopping an attacker in time, or dying at the hands of that attacker.  I’ve discussed, in general, my thoughts on the proper ammunition for such defensive purposes.  However I don’t have the time/resources to provide specific information about the performance of various different self defense round.  That is why I’m mentioning The Brass Fetcher website:

The people at The Brass Fetcher have tested quite a few different handgun, rifle, and shotgun rounds against ballistic gel.  They provide pictures and data showing penetration depth, fragmentation, and the expansion of hollow point round.  The results are quite informative, and can shed light on how we can expect our self defense rounds to perform.

If anyone knows of other similar websites with ballistic gel testing information, please leave a comment below.

Note: I don’t suggest that ballistic gel tests are guaranteed to exactly match the real world performance of a bullet fired in self defense.  That is because criminals have bones, clothing, and objects on their person that may affect the bullet’s terminal performance.  Also, the angle at which the criminal is standing will affect the bullet’s terminal performance.  Finally, some criminals have more fat and muscle than others, which also affects the effectiveness of a given bullet on a given criminal.   That said, ballistic gel tests still provide very valuable information.