Hollow Point Pellets – Specs & Performance Chart
Hollow point pellets – let’s shorten that to HP (and hope they still will expand on impact
).
Some....
• Some swear by them.
• Some swear at them.
• For some they are a great way to sell more pellets.
• For some they are a great way to justify buying more pellets.
• For some they are an effective way to end others’ lives.
• For some they effectively ended their own life.
The attached PDF will answer some of the following questions:
There are so many hollow point pellets out there...: How do they compare??
If I’m interested in trying HP pellets in my gun...: With which ones should I start testing??
HP are about EXPANSION of the HP cup in order to do more tissue damage...: How far could I shoot a certain HP pellet and still expect expansion (given the power of my gun)??
Or: How much power would I need in order to shoot a certain HP pellet (and still get expansion)??
Some HP are really long and might not fit into my magazine...: How long are the long ones really??
To make this HP Pellet Specs & Performance Chart more useful, I gathered some ballistic background to help you draw good conclusions from the chart.
Which HP projectiles expand better to make a Better HOLE in the quarry? –– The faster, softer HP projectiles with larger, deeper HP cups, and expansion aids
Bob Sterne (HardAir Magazine and GTA) published some very insightful articles and posts on this subject (cf. sources*). Here are some points I have learned from Bob’s excellent discussions and elsewhere:
(1) Higher impact velocity – this seems to be the most important requirement for a HP expansion. To state it simply but with a lot of oversimplification:
• Most .22cal HP pellets expand above 800fps.
• Many expand between 700 and 800fps.
• Few expand between 600 and 700fps (at least not by much).
• Many .22cal HP slugs seem to need somewhat higher impact velocities for expansion, as their HP are often rather narrow.
However, each projectile has a different mix of characteristics that facilitate or hinder expansion, as the following points show. Therefore, a better assurance of expansion offer tests in suitable ballistic mediums including actual quarry. I have collected test results from the forums and YouTube and you can find them on two separate threads.
(2) Softer lead (i.e., purer lead, with less antimony mixed in, like the pellets from JSB, and like most slugs [NSA, H&N, etc.]; HP projectiles made from tin alloy are extremely unlikely to expand [e.g., Gamo PBA Armor])
(3) Wider HP cup (e.g., H&N Crow Magnum, Crosman Destroyer – vs. – JSB UltraShock Heavy)
(4) Deeper HP cup (e.g., H&N Baracuda Hunter – vs. – H&N Terminator)
(5) Thinner walls of the HP cup (often the wider cups have thinner walls)
(6) Slits (= predetermined tearing points) that aid the HP to open up in petals function as expansion aids (e.g., H&N Terminator, Crosman Piranha)
(7) As another expansion aid serves an object that fills the HP cup with a different material that upon impact will push into the hollow point and aid in its expansion. This design is used for the HP with “ballistic tip” – this currently would include some of the following HP (in .22): JSB (Predator): Polymag, Polymag Short, Metalmag. H&N: Hornet. Skenco: UltraMag Metal Tip. Crosman: Gold Tipped. Gamo: Red Fire, Gamo Rocket, PBA Armor. The Gamo Rocket and the PBA Armor use a BB (a copper ball), similar to how Griffin designs their LDC slugs with a polymer ball, and Lead Fist Slugs with a steel ball.
Some poster have suggested to fill hollow point cups with a drop of superglue or another malleable but hardening substance; I’d be interested in seeing comparative tests in ballistic gel or DIY gelatine to prove their effectiveness!
It seems that this tip would be aerodynamically more favorable than a wide open hollow point cup, so the increased BC would aid in velocity retention resulting in higher impact velocity for better expansion.
(8) When projectiles tumble and flip inside the quarry they make a bigger HOLE then if they just went straight ahead. This tumble could be induced when the ballistic tip is being torn out of its seat in the pellet, or when the pellet hits a bone.
(9) Fragmentation is rare with typical pellets and slugs at typical impact velocities. Each fragment – if still with enough energy(!) – could make its own wound channel, increasing the permanent wound cavity.
(10) Harder impact material will cause the HP to expand wider. The ballistic mediums used in many expansion tests in the forums and on YouTube are often much harder than animal flesh: play-dough, modeling clay, water (at high impact velocities), hard soap. Therefore, the most realistic expansion tests would be using calibrated ballistic gel (10%), which is the ballistic medium that the Alphabet org trusts for their terminal ballistic tests, rather than any of those harder materials that give too optimistic expansion results.
Attachment
View attachment HP Pellet Specs Performance CHART. 152.1610303927.pdf
There is more to the killing game.... – This thread is PART (3) of a four-part series, here in logical order and with links to each:
● PART (1) Quarry: What kills’em dead – the Mechanics of Killing
• What kills is a Permanent HOLE in the quarry – nothing else. Only crushed tissue kills, not “energy dumped,” nor a “temporary wound cavity,” nor “hydrostatic shock.”
• For the HOLE to kill – it must be in the right place in the quarry: brain/spine or heart/lungs or arteries/veins (to cause hemorrhaging).
• The projectiles that make a Better HOLE in the quarry are –– larger, faster, bulldozer-nose, expanding projectiles.
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%92%80-quarry-what-killsem-dead-the-mechanics-of-killing/
● PART (2) How Much Hollow Point Expansion Does How Much More Damage?
• A larger projectile makes a larger HOLE.
• So, how much larger is the HOLE if I go from .177 cal to .25 cal? (results in Table 1)
• And how much larger is the HOLE if my hollow point projectile expands 1/10 of an inch? Or 1mm? (results in Table 2)
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4-how-much-hollow-point-expansion-does-how-much-more-damage/
● PART (3) Hollow Point Pellets – Comparison of Specs & Performance
[The current thread.]
● PART (4) Hollow Points – Testing How Much They Expand and How Far They Penetrate
Every hollow point projectile (pellet or slug) performs differently, in line with its specs and the conditions. Find a collection of Projectile Expansion and Penetration Test results for both HP pellets and slugs.
(4a) HP Pellet Projectile Expansion and Penetration Tests
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4hollow-point-pellets-testing-how-much-they-expand-and-how-far-they-penetrate/
(4b) HP Slug Projectile Expansion and Penetration Tests
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4-slugs-testing-how-much-they-expand-and-how-far-they-penetrate/#post-749008
I hope this will be helpful to some!
Matthias
*Sources:
Matt. (2019). Terminal ballistics: How bullets wound and kill. Retrieved from the Everyday Marksman website, at
https://www.everydaymarksman.co/marksmanship/terminal-ballistics/
Fackler, Martin L. (1988). Effects of small arms on the human body. Research Report. Letterman Army Institute of Research, Division of Military Trauma Research. Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20120218212956/http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Fackler_Articles/effects_of_small_arms.pdf
Arborelius, Ulf P. (1999-2013). Shooting holes in wounding theories: The mechanics of terminal ballistics. Retrieved from
http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/wounding.html
Newgard, Ken. (1992). The physiological effects of handgun bullets: The mechanisms of wounding and incapacitation. Wound Ballistics Review, 1(3): 12-17.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_PmkwLd1hmbd3pWYVVJeGlGaFE
Hollerman, J. J., Fackler, M. L., Coldwell, D. M., & Ben-Menachem, Y. (1990). Gunshot wounds: 1. Bullets, ballistics, and mechanisms of injury. American Journal of Roentgenology, 155(4), 685-690.
https://www.ajronline.org/doi/abs/10.2214/ajr.155.4.2119095
Schaefer, John C. (2014-2018). Terminal ballistics. Retrieved from
http://www.frfrogspad.com/terminal.htm
and http://www.frfrogspad.com/terminal2.htm
Gateway to Airguns. (Ed.). (2018). Hunter’s terminal ballistics. [Thread]. Retrieved from
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=148277
● Some of Bob’s excellent articles on airgun terminal ballistics (some are about slugs but the principles are similar for pellets):
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Apr. 15). The effect of caliber on airgun pellet performance. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/the-effect-of-caliber-on-airgun-pellet-performance/
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Jun. 22). Bob Sterne discusses hollowpoint slug design. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/bob-sterne-discusses-hollowpoint-slug-design/
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Mar. 17). Airgun pellet penetration – the real story. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/airgun-pellet-penetration-the-real-story/
Hollow point pellets – let’s shorten that to HP (and hope they still will expand on impact
).Some....
• Some swear by them.
• Some swear at them.
• For some they are a great way to sell more pellets.
• For some they are a great way to justify buying more pellets.
• For some they are an effective way to end others’ lives.
• For some they effectively ended their own life.
The attached PDF will answer some of the following questions: There are so many hollow point pellets out there...: How do they compare?? If I’m interested in trying HP pellets in my gun...: With which ones should I start testing?? HP are about EXPANSION of the HP cup in order to do more tissue damage...: How far could I shoot a certain HP pellet and still expect expansion (given the power of my gun)??Or: How much power would I need in order to shoot a certain HP pellet (and still get expansion)??
Some HP are really long and might not fit into my magazine...: How long are the long ones really??To make this HP Pellet Specs & Performance Chart more useful, I gathered some ballistic background to help you draw good conclusions from the chart.
Which HP projectiles expand better to make a Better HOLE in the quarry? –– The faster, softer HP projectiles with larger, deeper HP cups, and expansion aidsBob Sterne (HardAir Magazine and GTA) published some very insightful articles and posts on this subject (cf. sources*). Here are some points I have learned from Bob’s excellent discussions and elsewhere:
(1) Higher impact velocity – this seems to be the most important requirement for a HP expansion. To state it simply but with a lot of oversimplification:
• Most .22cal HP pellets expand above 800fps.
• Many expand between 700 and 800fps.
• Few expand between 600 and 700fps (at least not by much).
• Many .22cal HP slugs seem to need somewhat higher impact velocities for expansion, as their HP are often rather narrow.
However, each projectile has a different mix of characteristics that facilitate or hinder expansion, as the following points show. Therefore, a better assurance of expansion offer tests in suitable ballistic mediums including actual quarry. I have collected test results from the forums and YouTube and you can find them on two separate threads.
(2) Softer lead (i.e., purer lead, with less antimony mixed in, like the pellets from JSB, and like most slugs [NSA, H&N, etc.]; HP projectiles made from tin alloy are extremely unlikely to expand [e.g., Gamo PBA Armor])
(3) Wider HP cup (e.g., H&N Crow Magnum, Crosman Destroyer – vs. – JSB UltraShock Heavy)
(4) Deeper HP cup (e.g., H&N Baracuda Hunter – vs. – H&N Terminator)
(5) Thinner walls of the HP cup (often the wider cups have thinner walls)
(6) Slits (= predetermined tearing points) that aid the HP to open up in petals function as expansion aids (e.g., H&N Terminator, Crosman Piranha)
(7) As another expansion aid serves an object that fills the HP cup with a different material that upon impact will push into the hollow point and aid in its expansion. This design is used for the HP with “ballistic tip” – this currently would include some of the following HP (in .22): JSB (Predator): Polymag, Polymag Short, Metalmag. H&N: Hornet. Skenco: UltraMag Metal Tip. Crosman: Gold Tipped. Gamo: Red Fire, Gamo Rocket, PBA Armor. The Gamo Rocket and the PBA Armor use a BB (a copper ball), similar to how Griffin designs their LDC slugs with a polymer ball, and Lead Fist Slugs with a steel ball.
Some poster have suggested to fill hollow point cups with a drop of superglue or another malleable but hardening substance; I’d be interested in seeing comparative tests in ballistic gel or DIY gelatine to prove their effectiveness!
It seems that this tip would be aerodynamically more favorable than a wide open hollow point cup, so the increased BC would aid in velocity retention resulting in higher impact velocity for better expansion.
(8) When projectiles tumble and flip inside the quarry they make a bigger HOLE then if they just went straight ahead. This tumble could be induced when the ballistic tip is being torn out of its seat in the pellet, or when the pellet hits a bone.
(9) Fragmentation is rare with typical pellets and slugs at typical impact velocities. Each fragment – if still with enough energy(!) – could make its own wound channel, increasing the permanent wound cavity.
(10) Harder impact material will cause the HP to expand wider. The ballistic mediums used in many expansion tests in the forums and on YouTube are often much harder than animal flesh: play-dough, modeling clay, water (at high impact velocities), hard soap. Therefore, the most realistic expansion tests would be using calibrated ballistic gel (10%), which is the ballistic medium that the Alphabet org trusts for their terminal ballistic tests, rather than any of those harder materials that give too optimistic expansion results.
Attachment There is more to the killing game.... – This thread is PART (3) of a four-part series, here in logical order and with links to each:● PART (1) Quarry: What kills’em dead – the Mechanics of Killing
• What kills is a Permanent HOLE in the quarry – nothing else. Only crushed tissue kills, not “energy dumped,” nor a “temporary wound cavity,” nor “hydrostatic shock.”
• For the HOLE to kill – it must be in the right place in the quarry: brain/spine or heart/lungs or arteries/veins (to cause hemorrhaging).
• The projectiles that make a Better HOLE in the quarry are –– larger, faster, bulldozer-nose, expanding projectiles.
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%92%80-quarry-what-killsem-dead-the-mechanics-of-killing/
● PART (2) How Much Hollow Point Expansion Does How Much More Damage?
• A larger projectile makes a larger HOLE.
• So, how much larger is the HOLE if I go from .177 cal to .25 cal? (results in Table 1)
• And how much larger is the HOLE if my hollow point projectile expands 1/10 of an inch? Or 1mm? (results in Table 2)
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4-how-much-hollow-point-expansion-does-how-much-more-damage/
● PART (3) Hollow Point Pellets – Comparison of Specs & Performance
[The current thread.]
● PART (4) Hollow Points – Testing How Much They Expand and How Far They Penetrate
Every hollow point projectile (pellet or slug) performs differently, in line with its specs and the conditions. Find a collection of Projectile Expansion and Penetration Test results for both HP pellets and slugs.
(4a) HP Pellet Projectile Expansion and Penetration Tests
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4hollow-point-pellets-testing-how-much-they-expand-and-how-far-they-penetrate/
(4b) HP Slug Projectile Expansion and Penetration Tests
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/%f0%9f%94%b4-slugs-testing-how-much-they-expand-and-how-far-they-penetrate/#post-749008
I hope this will be helpful to some!
Matthias
*Sources:
Matt. (2019). Terminal ballistics: How bullets wound and kill. Retrieved from the Everyday Marksman website, at
https://www.everydaymarksman.co/marksmanship/terminal-ballistics/
Fackler, Martin L. (1988). Effects of small arms on the human body. Research Report. Letterman Army Institute of Research, Division of Military Trauma Research. Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20120218212956/http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Fackler_Articles/effects_of_small_arms.pdf
Arborelius, Ulf P. (1999-2013). Shooting holes in wounding theories: The mechanics of terminal ballistics. Retrieved from
http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/wounding.html
Newgard, Ken. (1992). The physiological effects of handgun bullets: The mechanisms of wounding and incapacitation. Wound Ballistics Review, 1(3): 12-17.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_PmkwLd1hmbd3pWYVVJeGlGaFE
Hollerman, J. J., Fackler, M. L., Coldwell, D. M., & Ben-Menachem, Y. (1990). Gunshot wounds: 1. Bullets, ballistics, and mechanisms of injury. American Journal of Roentgenology, 155(4), 685-690.
https://www.ajronline.org/doi/abs/10.2214/ajr.155.4.2119095
Schaefer, John C. (2014-2018). Terminal ballistics. Retrieved from
http://www.frfrogspad.com/terminal.htm
and http://www.frfrogspad.com/terminal2.htm
Gateway to Airguns. (Ed.). (2018). Hunter’s terminal ballistics. [Thread]. Retrieved from
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=148277
● Some of Bob’s excellent articles on airgun terminal ballistics (some are about slugs but the principles are similar for pellets):
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Apr. 15). The effect of caliber on airgun pellet performance. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/the-effect-of-caliber-on-airgun-pellet-performance/
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Jun. 22). Bob Sterne discusses hollowpoint slug design. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/bob-sterne-discusses-hollowpoint-slug-design/
Sterne, Bob [rsterne]. (2020, Mar. 17). Airgun pellet penetration – the real story. HardAir Magazine. Retrieved from
https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/airgun-pellet-penetration-the-real-story/