Winchester Defender Intermediate Barrier Gel Demo

Ballistic gel testing fans, Rob Pincus is back with the block and ready to try something different. One advantage of gel testing is that it gives us data on personal or home-defense scenarios that we may have wondered about.

In this range session, the question is: What happens to a round fired through an intermediate barrier—in this case, a stout 2 x 6 piece of wood of the same density and thickness that can be found in internal home construction, a garage, a shed, a barn, or other buildings?

PREVIOUS TESTING

We can compare this to tests Rob has done in the past—similar distance and firing a bonded hollow-point round into a gel block without any barrier except for clothing. We take a look at how that went (14.5 inches penetration into a 16-inch block), though you can check the full video here: Ballistic Gel Testing with Winchester Ammunition.

WINCHESTER DEFENDER

The round used for today’s test is the Winchester Ammunition 124-grain +P Defender. It’s a bonded hollow-point round that Rob Pincus has used in previous gel demos.

Rob chooses a typical home-defense shooting distance, the closer side of nine to 15 feet, and uses a solid home-defense handgun, the Canik Mete.

RESULTS

The Defender round performed similarly to when it was fired into a block with no intermediate barrier, although this time it did exit the 16-inch block, and it did deposit a number of wood chips inside the block. Rob points out that this similar performance is due to the fact that he fired a high-quality bonded hollow-point round, which is designed not to be affected by intermediate barriers nearly as much as older soft-point and JHP rounds. This is one reason Rob recommends this round for defensive use.

The bullet’s expansion and wound cavity are very similar to those of the round fired into a block with no intermediate barrier. Rob would not be afraid of stopping a threat that is on the other side of a wall or other barrier when firing a bonded hollow-point like the Winchester Defender.