Corbon JHP, Corbon DPX, Remington GS, and Ranger T water jug comparison test

[EHL]

Howdy Fellas,
I just went down to the range to test out a few SD bullets that I had picked up since they were recommended by buddies of mine.

For this test/comparison I filled my trunk up with milk gallons filled with water. I fired 4 of each of the following SD bullets and retrieved them to compare weight retention, expansion, penetration, and occurences of core/jacket seperation. The test gun was my wifes XD subcompact 9mm. I fired the bullets about 3' away from the jugs and the time of day was about 12:30 PM MST, temp about 78 degrees.

I first tried Corbon DPX, the all copper bullets in 9mm. They penetrated an average of 3 to 4 jugs and all expanded quite nicely. At their largest point, they averaged around .710" Give or take a hundreths of an inch. Weight retention was superb! They all measured the same 115 grains that they began with. This is a great round!

Next I tried out the Winchester Ranger T's in +P. They all averaged around 3-4 gallons of water jug penetration. They expanded to an average of .647". There was no core/jacket seperation any of the bullets I recovered. Weight retention was superb as well. They remained teetering around 123-124 grains, the starting weight for these bullets. The talons that came out were wicked cool too!!

I then tested out the 9mm Golden Sabers and they penetrated about 3 gallons every time. These weren't the +P variety either. They expanded quite nicely to a diameter of about .643" on average. They kept their weight to the same 124 grains that they started out as too! There was no core jacket seperation in any of the bullets I recovered back too. Super nice!!

Last of all I tested out the super hot Corbon JHP +P in 125 grain. I was recommended these because of their great #'s on speed and what that meant in terms of power. First of all, it was a pain to figure out just how much these bullets penetrated because they went all over the place!! They penetrated an average of 2-3 jugs each time. In all four specimens, there was not only massive core/jacket seperation but disintigration of the bullet itself!!! I found little sparkles of lead and pieces of jacket strewn about all the jugs that each bullet went thru. In at least two cases the jacket was left behind in the preceding jug while the lead slug went into the next gallon by itself. Expansion wasn't that great either. At it's widest, the slugs measured an average of .459" accross. Weight retention was terrible too!!! Over half the weight was lost on average!!! They averaged around 65 grains upon retrieval. Definitly not impressed with this load of ammunition and wouldn't recommend it for SD.

I was surprised how good some of these rounds performed but was surprised how badly the Corbon JHP did. Just goes to show that what they sell at Sportsmans Warehouse is seldom the best. The gun counter guys here at my local store are always advising people to buy Corbon JHP because they are the "hottest" and fastest round around. I'd post pics but I can't figure out how to "shrink" my pictures to fit. Let me know what you guys think though.

 

[johnle]

I figure the JHP Corbon penetrates deep enough and with the added effect of fragmentation, it maybe still very effective.

then again when i practice I don't just shoot once and wait to see if it's effective.

I would love to see some gel test of the corbon jhp rather then the normal backyard test.

 

[jjohnson]

Thanks!

Hey, thanks for taking the time and trouble to post results. Not what I'd had expected on Cor-Bon, but nice to know that the Rem and Winchester stuff (which I usually buy ON SALE CHEAPER than Cor-Bon) isn't exactly junk.

The SD stuff I buy is usually "top brand" stuff like Remington, Winchester, Hornady, but I don't buy much of the special high tech stuff like Cor-Bon because I can't afford to shoot up a few boxes of it that often

I doubt I'm the only one in THAT boat.

We can sit here and do "armchair analysis" all day, but it's good to get a little data once in awhile. Thanks again!

 

[NG VI]

The SD stuff I buy is usually "top brand" stuff like Remington, Winchester, Hornady, but I don't buy much of the special high tech stuff like Cor-Bon because I can't afford to shoot up a few boxes of it that often

Except for their DPX loads I really don't think I would call Cor-Bon high tech, they just load fairly ordinary JHPs to speeds faster than they were designed for. They make good ammunition but they are sort of a boutique ammunition manufacturer like Black Hills, they can't afford to put the money Winchester, Remington, ATK, and Hornady can into product developement, though they do make good ammunition.





Thanks for the post, even an unscientific backyard test is pretty useful. Fun to read as well. From my own I have gone with Federal HST, try that out next.

 

[EHL]

Thanks for the post, even an unscientific backyard test is pretty useful. Fun to read as well. From my own I have gone with Federal HST, try that out next.

Actually.........

I did actually test shoot a few other SD rounds earlier but I never bothered to post the results. I only decided to do it this time since I was surprised how badly the Corbon JHP fared. But....... Here's the results.

Test gun: Officers 3" 1911 caliber 45acp fired from 3' away from jugs.

Test bullet was Federal HST 230 grain +P
Penetrated 4 gallons of water. No core jacket seperation. Weight retention was superb. still weighed 230 grains when I put the recovered bullet on my digital scale. Expansion was where this puppy really shined!!! Diameter was .840" across! Funny thing, this is actually one of the smaller specimens that I recovered. I would have posted the measurments for that bullet, but the girl that I took shooting thought the recovered bullet was "pretty" and wanted to keep it as a souvenir. (she also took the Ranger T 45 acp bullet that I'd tested that day too)

Next test was done in .380 caliber.
The test gun was my wife's Keltec p3at. (I was gonna use my PPK/s but I wanted the shortest test barrel for this test) Fired from 3' away.

Test bullet was 90 grain Federal HydraShok.
Penetration was 3 gallons of water. Weight retention was superb. She only lost 1 grain of weight. It did expand, but the expansion was not the greatest. Diameter at the widest points was .550". There was no core jacket seperation. I must admit that I was expecting more from this bullet, but I was pleased with it's weight retention.

Test bullet: Corbon DPX 80 grain
Penetration was 3 -4jugs of water (it just about went thru to the 4th jug). Weight retention was perfect. 80 grains on my scale, just as advertised. Expansion was great! .622" at the widest part of the bullet. I think it would have been bigger but half the petals folded back, making diameter just a bit smaller. Obviously no core/jacket seperation since there is no jacket. I think a few more test shots with this bullet might even produce better results. Very happy with this expensive bullet.

Test bullet: Ranger T 95 grain
Penetration was 3 jugs. Weight retention was perfect-95 grains on my scale. Although I was surprised when I shook the jug, I saw the bullet seperate from the jacket. It was still intact when I saw it, but when I poured the rest of the water out, the bullet just slid out of the jacket. I've heard of this happening with other folks who have tested Ranger T. I was still satisfied with the bullet though. Expansion was were this beast ruled!!! Expanded to a full .781"!!!! The talons were wicked cool too!!! My wife saw that after I tested it out and she told me to only load her guns with that bullet. I couldn't believe that this nasty little thing could come out of the tiny P3AT! Very satisfied with this bullet.

Well that's all that I've got. I'd love to post pics but I can't for the life of me figure out how to "scale down" my pics. I can take pics, and I can upload them into my computer, but when I try to attach them, I get an error message saying it's too big to load. I read the tutorial that THR has about loading pics, but it's like reading chinese. Ah to hell with it. Hope you guys appreciate the info.

 

[Rampant_Colt]

no pics??

Cool biz - thanks for sharing

* Bullet fragmentation with handgun ammunition is a bad thing *

 

[Old Grump]

One of the reasons I don't generally recommend +P ammo for close up SD unless you think the extra muzzle blast is going to be helpful in some way. Numbers don't always tell the tale when it comes to effectiveness for the proposed task.

 

[BlindJustice]

I know why the CorBon JHP bullets in their Conventional JHP
line blow up - CorBon uses Sierra JHPs. Same profile - I had the
same performance testing in some wet magazines and .45 ACP.

+P just needs the right JHPs or HPs in the DPX case to hold together

Randall
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