MP 359-125 hp 9mm expansion

[jmort]

This is what I would get
Reuseable and $255
Seems fair to me.
2- 10% BALLISTIC GELATIN FBI BLOCKS W/ (1) FREE FBI BLOCK MOLD

$255.00

[glockky]

That's a little expensive to me. I think I'll start with water or wet pack.

Are you guys who use water for testing just shooting water jugs or are you shooting into some type of barrel or pipe?

[Boolseye]

I used to gather together a bunch of phone books and such and soak them. Complete mess, but it did the job. In my various testing, I found that an alloy that was around 7-9 BHN and at least 900 fps was necessary for good expansion, to give you a ballpark.

[reloader28]

We drink alotta milk so I use milk jugs. Some say that water is a worthless test, but a body is about 90% water and according to my testing, my varmint boolits work pretty darn close to my milk jug results so I will stick with it.

[glockky]

I figure the water will be the easiest place to get initial results. Data gathered from that testing will allow you to eliminate some variables before moving to wet pack.

I figure if a bullet won't expand in water there's not a chance of it working good in gel or wet pack. The 9mm should be easier to work with than some of the 38 special testing I've seen, due to the velocity increase. Should have about 300 fps velocity window to play with. I'm shooting for around 1100 fps.

[41mag]

When I started pouring HP' s I found out real quick that dead soft isn't always the answer.

My main alloy uses those large iso cores which usually run around a 1/3/96. On it's own it is great for solids, but it's too brittle for HP' s resulting in the noses blowing off.

So I downloaded the alloy calculator and started brewing up small batches and testing on my own. Due to the antimony content my first goal was to reduce the percentage so I added in pure lead. Then I needed it to be malleable so I added in some pure tin to equal the calculated antimony and things started working really good.

Since then I have settled on two different blends which work great depending on the velocity I run them at. One works awesome up to 1000fps and the other does as well up to around 1350'ish depending on the caliber or cavity.

Don't be afraid to try different blends but do so in small 5 pound batches and keep good records of amounts and temps you pour at.

Hope this helps

[fredj338]

Water is always a poor test imo. It can show fragmentation from a bullet that opens nicely in gel or tissue. It can also expand a bullet decently that fails in gel or tissue or wetpack for that matter. My poor mans gel has always been proper wetpack.
The penta HP point or such always gets things going a bit better than HP. Better for lower vel bullets IMO. I am a fan of 25-1 for bullets under 1200fps. I like 20-1 for bullets going faster than that.

[tomme boy]

Factory jacketed has about 5% antimony and no tin. It makes the lead flow instead of fracturing.

[yondering]

Have a 359-125hp mold coming from miha. Was hoping to find some info on what alloy to use? I plan to PC this bullet and would like to get reliable expansion.

And do you recommend the way Penta pins or the regular hp pins?

I realize I will have to do some testing and I look forward to it. I would just like to find a good starting point. Thanks

I've done a lot of testing with this bullet, and used it on critters as well. What level of loads are you wanting to use it for? (mild/subsonic, FMJ equivalent, or hot loads?)

I use the standard deep round pin for my subsonic/suppressed loads. Cast from air cooled wheel weights, it expands well out to at least 50+ yards; sometimes parts of the expanded nose will fracture off but that's not a bad thing, and helps kill critters a little faster in my experience.

For full power +P loads I use a modified pin that creates a much shallower hollow point; also cast from wheel weights these don't open up as far but that's necessary for them to hold together at higher velocity.

I've experimented with various alloys softer than ww, all the way down to pure lead and including lead/tin alloys like 20:1, 25:1, etc, and never found any other alloy to work better than WW for this bullet, when considering both accuracy and expansion. Some guys will claim you need a 20:1 or 30:1 alloy for hollow point expansion, but not with a well designed hollow point like this one, air cooled wheel weight or equivalent works great. YMMV

Subsonic load performance in wet pack:


+P load at 1300 fps:

[glockky]

Those are some good results yondering. I had plans to shoot this bullet around 1100 fps but I'm sure I will have to adjust velocity to the alloy.

I am hoping to find a good expanding load for my glock 43 and also my 5" barreled M&P 2.0. I'm sure I will have to use different charges for each pistol but I'm fine with that. I have lots of different powder to try but will most likely stick with unique or my favorite power pistol.