Rob Pincus

Multiple Rounds into Ballistic Gel

Rob Pincus
Duration:   2  mins

Rob Pincus conducts ballistic gelatin testing on the new Hybrid-X ammunition from Winchester. He fires three rounds of 9mm Winchester Hybrid-X from 12 feet into 10% ballistic gelatin through two layers of cotton fabric, to obtain wound ballistics data. What sets the Hybrid-X ammunition apart from other rounds?

WINCHESTER HYBRID-X

Ammunition is a necessary part of our self-defense gear. With Hybrid-X ammo, the round penetrates into the core before the fragmentation starts. A traditional bonded hollow-point round also opens up only after it has penetrated the body, but the Winchester Hybrid-X gets deeper into the body before it begins to spread out the damage.

Vital organs are deep in the body, not near the surface. Wound ballistics show that a round that fragments as soon as it hits a target does much less damage than one that fragments only after penetrating deep into the target.

BALLISTIC GELATIN RESULTS

Examining the gelatin block, it’s clear that the three rounds fired do not fragment in the first four to five inches. The only actions are the twisting and cutting as the bullets rotate through the block. At about the five-inch mark, expansion begins when the front of the bullet breaks apart. This continues for about 1.5 inches, then the true fragmentation occurs as the front of the bullet breaks off. The fragments penetrate as much as 15 inches.

WOUND BALLISTICS

The wound channel for the three rounds starts at about two inches when they hit the block and expands to about six inches. A couple of the petals actually exited the block. Examination of the individual petals shows that they have very sharp edges designed to cut and tear.

Rob’s testing confirms that the Winchester Hybrid-X performs as advertised. This new ammo looks to be a good choice for concealed carry and personal defense.

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So by firing multiple rounds of the new Hybrid-X into this gel block we get to see what a burst of fire would actually look like. Now, remember the idea of the Hybrid-X is that the round is going to penetrate into the core before the fragmentation starts. So, so like you'd have a delay with a traditional bonded hollow point. Once it goes into the body and it starts to open up this round is going to get deeper into the body before it starts to spread out the damage. And of course, if you think about the human body, the good stuff isn't right up on the surface, it's deeper inside.

So sure enough, if we take a look and see what happened here, we have three rounds. They're all within about an inch and a half there. Of course, the block moves a little bit, but we got lucky and it happens to have tracked pretty straight. So with these three rounds, we see that the first four to five inches, there really isn't much going on, except for the twisting that we get, as far as the bullet rotating through and cutting with that front end. Then we start to see the expansion as the front end of that bullet fragments, and starts to break apart.

We see damage each one of these individuals at least goes to about an inch, if not an inch and a half. And then the true fragmentation as the front end of that bullet breaks off. And we have penetration going all the way back out to about 15 inches at the furthest petal and the wound channel when these three bullets here together about an inch and a half center to center, maybe two inches. Now we have about six inches in spread. And of course we had a couple of these petals go out.

Now, got one that was actually stopped as it exited the gel block back here. And I have that in my hand. I can put that right out here. That gives you an idea exactly what that shape is like. Obviously that shape is going to do a lot of cutting and tearing as it moves through the human torso.

Now, this is a 10% block of gelatin, of course, you use either 10% or 20%. The FBI tests are done usually with 10% and all the recommendations you've ever heard me give in terms of bullet performance and what you're looking for in that 12 to 15 inches of penetration inside of the human body, through heavy or light clothing. That's all based on this 10% gelatin mix. So when we look at this the furthest penetrator probably went, it looks like about nine inches at the first one. And the furthest one that deep core penetrator is all the way out at about 12 and a half or 13 inches.

So that's where those penetrators stop. And of course, with a 16 inch block, we could take two away. We got 14, we have a lot going on here between 12 and 15 inches. I'll get the tape measure out and we'll measure that specifically and see exactly what's going on. Right now, the Hybrid-X these are the first shots I'm firing in here.

This is shot number two, three, and four into the gel block. And they are performing as designed. Different from a modern bonded hollow point bullet but maybe a good choice for you when it comes to personal defense.

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