Faster or slower speeds for holow point expansion?

[maximus]

Hello guys , im reloading some 9mm 115 grains HP , and i was wondering if faster speed will make it expand better, or maybe lower speeds will give the bullet more time to expand?

im not sure im using IMR 700X 3.7 grains , and 115 grains rainiers plated HP bullets.

I need some advise plz thank you.

[MtJerry]

What alloy are you using? What velocity are you getting now?

[maximus]

Im using plated bullets and im at 1000 FPS

[leftiye]

At 1000 fps, it depends on the alloy and how aggressive the hollow point is. Soft noses of pure lead need about 1200 fps to expand well. However a bullet designed to open at slower velocities has an advantage in the toughness area as the velocity may not be enough to tear the petals/mushroom off. Soft lead Lyman "devastators in a .45 acp are supposed to mushroom nicely at 800 to 900 fps (the pictures said, I haven't yet tried mine.) If done right this puts cast hollowpoints into competition with jacketed, though with less powerful loads.

[spqrzilla]

Hollow points don't really need "time" to expand. I was reading recently that high speed photograph shows that all the expansion occurs in the first few fractions of an inch of penetration.

[Larry Gibson]

Im using plated bullets and im at 1000 FPS

I suggest switching to Unique, Blue Dot or HS5 and push that bullet to 1200-1300 fps. If the alloy is soft enough it will expand there. However, at 1000 fps if the alloy was soft enough it should have expanded given an appropriate dimensioned HP. Very possible the Ranier HPs are just to hard to expand. Also, you don't say what they didn't expand in?

Larry Gibson

[wiljen]

Fire a few into milk jugs full of water and see. you can usually recover the expanded bullet if fired into a row of jugs of water and it will give you a pretty good idea of how it behaves at that speed. I'm going to guess that a bit more velocity will help with opening one up a bit more but design plays a huge role in that too.

[maximus]

wow i fired some into 4 one gallon milk jugs , and they went right tru all 4 with very little expansion the exit hole was the size of a quarter.

shuld i go to 1150fps or this guys are just not going to expand?

[Beerd]

If the exit hole is the size of a quarter, wouldn't that indicate bullet expansion?
Line up 5 or 6 or 7 jugs to catch the bullet for examination.
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