The Problem with Traditional Handgun Hollow Points

Hollow points have been around for a long time and are getting better all the time, but there may be a fatal design flaw in the entire concept.

A traditional hollow point gets its effectiveness by expanding. It expands by creating hydraulic pressure inside the nose of the hollow point and that makes the bullet expand normally on pre-cut lines that create petals.

Follow me here for a second. Industry applications use hydraulic pressure for things all the time and it works great. The one that you use every day is the brake pedal in your car, it uses hydraulic pressure to make the vehicle stop. If you get air in the lines, it creates huge problems. You get squishy brakes that may not work at all. The air in the lines compresses and the hydraulic fluid (liquid) does not. So when you press on the brakes, the fluid moves but compresses the air and that may not make the other side of the air bubble move and the brake pads may not put pressure on the drums to stop the wheels at all.

There are way too many variables in the brake system (and it’s a closed system) to predict how the brakes will work once air is introduced into the system, so you get performance issues that could be dangerous.

Now, let’s go back to our hollow points. Hollow points work on hydraulic pressure. The bullet creates its own pressure by going really fast and hitting something mostly liquid (i.e. a human body). The liquid fills the hollow point cavity and pushes the petals out. Liquid doesn’t give (water doesn’t compress at all just like the hydraulic fluid in your brake lines). If the liquid won’t give, something has to and the bullet is designed to give and open up.

When all that is hit is liquid (like a body or a bare gel block), the bullet expands perfectly without any difficulties.

Now look at the real world. People wear clothes (at least I hope they do where you live). Clothing is made of fabrics that do compress under pressure.

When you fire your handgun hollow point through fabric, it will take some of that fabric with it inside the hollow point cavity. Now you have a plug instead of a hollow point. It’s not that the fabric blocks liquid from getting into the hollow point, the problem is that the fabric gives or compresses. If the fabric gives and compresses and gives more than the bullet does, now you have your weak spot. Pressure goes toward the least resistance. Like water flowing down hill, it’s a constant. So if the liquid uses the energy of the bullet to compress the fabric inside the hollow point, it reduces the energy available to compress the hollow point and make it expand. Your bullet won’t show any expansion or will show reduced expansion.

Unfortunately, many bullets do not expand after going through intermediate barriers (i.e. clothing and walls). And it will probably stay this way for the foreseeable future.

Companies are all building ammo against the FBI ballistic test (test outline found here). The FBI test is looking for penetration depths of 12 to 18 inches in bare gel, after going through denim, auto glass, and wood. It’s also looking for bullet weight retention and expansion. As long as companies keep making ammo to those specs, it will take a long time for something different and better to be brought to market because any company that can get any Law Enforcement contract will have to pass the test. And if they get a law enforcement contract, lots of other people will follow the cops and use the same ammo.

But there are a few bullet makers thinking outside the box. Federal got almost slaughtered in the blogs and online world when they started marketing their Guard Dog ammo because it fails to penetrate bare gel blocks to the FBI required minimum of 12 inches. But on the other side, it didn’t over penetrate on the other tests.

Most ammo has the hollow cavity filled up and then over penetrates because there is no expansion. Which one is right? Both. That’s why I’m hoping ammo companies will keep experimenting with alternatives to the traditional hollow points and come up with something better.

On the other side of the non-traditional ammo are rounds like the RIP rounds from G2 Research. I love the fact that they are thinking outside the box on bullet construction, but their advertising needs a little help. These guys are the sensationalists that are getting press and reviews because they are so far out there. They have an idea, I don’t know if it’s a good one, but it’s a different idea over a traditional hollow point. Do I carry them? No. If they prove themselves then I will… maybe if liability isn’t an issue (advertising problem).

So what do I do? Carry traditional ammo. Over the last 5 years I’ve carried Federal HST 124gr +Ps, Speer Gold Dots 124gr +Ps, and Federal Guard Dog 105gr EFMJ 9mm in my guns.

If I could get more of the Guard Dog ammo to test personally I might carry it. I like the ammo for a bunch of reasons. But I do miss the heavier 125gr EFMJ (Expanding Full Metal Jacket) rounds that they started with. I think the little heavier weight might give it the extra penetration it needs. I’m very hopeful Federal will keep tweaking this idea and make it work a little better.

The Federal Guard Dog works by having a plastic cone under the nose of the bullet backed by a normal lead core. The jacket is pre-cut to allow part of the metal jacket to fold in half and be pushed outward.

The interesting part is the Guard Dog bullet expands on impact with anything. Upon impact, the plastic cone is crushed between whatever you hit and the lead core. The jacket is pushed outward to create the expansion. No liquid needs to get the bullet moving in the right direction.

Keep an eye on some of the non-traditional ammo. Eventually, the traditional hollow point will hit it’s peak in performance and a new design will be required to push bullet performance further. I think we are already at the edge and companies like Hornady are starting to put filler in the hollow point to keep it from plugging up with other material. The plugs will be the next leap forward in construction. Once that hits the roof in performance, I think other concepts will come into play like the Guard Dog and maybe the RIP rounds.

Stay Safe,

Ben