I’d like to see a test into ballistic gel rather than a sheet of paper. That tether is not going to penetrate.
If I’m attacked by a watermellon and I need a salad and I only have one shot then this is the product for me.
If they want to invent something useful for home defense then maybe a bullet that self seals so there isn’t any blood to clean up.
A self cauterizing, anticoagulant bullet? I can see a downside. 
DOH :smack:
:dubious:
According to the product description page the .45 cal. has an instantaneous spread of 14", with 3 pieces, and incorporates “thin breakaway tethers”.
ETA: “Typical F.B.I. Jell block test: On the 45ACP Mi-3 STOPPER™ (Lethal) we have concluded that in FBI Jell… we calculate an average of 14+ inches for the penetration…… (the fragments are not designed for straight line penetration)… they are designed for internal disruption, they make a crescent shaped wound path when they enter{water based} living tissue.”
Estimated? They didn’t think to use a ruler? Or did they not actually conduct a test but are using the ass-pull shooting technique?
No specification on the weight or velocity of the bullet.
They say they ‘calculate’ 14 inches, not that they measured 14 inches, which still leaves the question open of whether they tested or not. And if you’re showing pictures and video of everything else, why not that?
Their page is frustrating as hell. What’s their muzzle velocity?
I wonder how accuracy is affected if one of the tethered fragments hits an intervening obstacle and is sheared off.
By the way, anybody notice this little gem?
How many 9mm/.45 guns don’t take 9mm/.45 ammo?
Think the marketing dept. knows anything about guns?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the phrase “backward compatible” used in relation to ammunition before.
Some guns are persnickety about ammo. My Glock doesn’t like aluminum case Blazer ammo. Lead bullets may hang up on the feed ramp of a semi-auto. The bullet’s nose shape may also cause feeding issues on some firearms. This is why, when you buy hollow points for your self defense gun, you fire a bunch to make sure they work in your firearm. But backwards compatible? That’s a marketing twit reaching in his discount buzzword bin and grabbing the first thing he finds. :rolleyes:
That’s the crap that makes me wonder about that outfit.
The rest I was aware of.
Dubious indeed. Keep in mind that when you fire fragmented ammunition you are dividing the force among several different pieces, meaning that none of them will have the force of a single concentrated piece. Yet in spite of that, all of the fragmented pieces, going off in different radial directions instead of a more direct, power-focused trajectory, exceed the minimum FBI standards? What is this, the Spread Gun from Contra?
What they claim is impossible. I wouldn’t fire it out of my .45, I’ll tell you that. I don’t want a blown gun from a double charge, which is pretty much what it would take to make their claims true.
So, their niche market is people whose 2AM home invaders aren’t sporting enough to wait for them to put on their glasses, and who don’t want a round that will go through the wall into the kid sleeping on the other side.
Fair enough. But those people are already being pitched Mossbergs and Taurus Judge Magnums. Why buy this?
Their pitch implies superior penetration and an expanded target area. You no longer have to aim center mass because the effective spread is such that even a slightly off-target shot will do the job. And you don’t need a new gun, either, you can fire it out of your regular .45!
If some ammunition company tries to sell you on a new and improved handgun round like this, run. None of them ever do what they claim. Even the difference between the latest-and-greatest hollowpoint and generic Winchester White Box hollowpoints isn’t that great. I typically load Federal Hydra-Shoks because I always have. That doesn’t make my guns more or less deadly than Joe Blow packing Ranger-Ts or old-school Black Talons, but it is guaranteed to be more effective than this fragmenting nonsense. Shallow wounds hurt. Penetration stops and/or kills.
Note that this does not apply to shotguns. They are much more powerful than a handgun simply by virtue of having more of a charge behind the pellets.