This is an initial "proof of concept" test with the end goal being the ability to compare terminal effects of various rounds fired into Perma-Gel.  I understand that Perma-Gel is not calibrated ordinance gelatin and that the best results would be obtained by firing rounds into separate blocks, but I think the proposed set up will be sufficient for general observations.   Criticism and other recommendations is welcome.  

Video




























Pictures of the gel
All shots from 10 yards through a 16 inch 1:9 barrel.
The bottom most track is the Hornady 55 grain TAP.  Just above it (look carefully) is the track for the 55 grain Barnes TSX, which penetrated the gel but was recovered after bouncing off the wood backstop.  The middle track is from a Federal XM223SP1 62gr Bonded round, notice the five petals.  I found it interesting that it had similar penetration to the majority of the Hornady round.  The track just below the top track was where the MK318MOD0 passed through.  The MK318MOD0 is copper bullet with a non bonded lead pocket in the front half of the round.  I've found that the front half of the MK318MOD0 has a tendency to fragment and the rear plug, which looks like a solid copper .223 wad cutter, displays deep penetration.  Parts of the front half of the MK318MOD0 round were recovered in the gel but the rear half penetrated through and was lost.  The top track is that of the 55 gr XM193, which yawed and then arced downward through the gel.  The front half of the round penetrated the gel and I recovered it from the ground below the gel.  









Pictures of the recovered rounds  
The rear section of the MK318MOD0 pictured came from a separate test as I was unable to locate that part of the bullet after it passed through the gel.





Ideas
Possible future tests include:
Military rounds - M193, M855, MK318MOD0
Fragmenting rounds - Hornady TAP, Winchester Silver Tip, Remington Disintegrator  
Expanding rounds - Federal Fusion, Barnes TSX
A Frame rounds - Nosler Partition, Winchester PDX1
ComBloc rounds - Tula / Wolf, Brown Bear / Silver Bear
Effects of rounds fired through barriers - I'm particularly interested in seeing the results when fired through soft body armor
Comparisons of various calibers - .223, .308, 9mm, etc.
Check to see if there is a correlation between ordinance gel and Perma-Gel, possibly a conversion formula.

I'd like to make the following improvements:
Construct a support structure to keep the gel from falling over and to catch rounds that escape the gel.
Obtain a chronograph to measure the speed of the bullet just prior to impact with the gel.
Move the camera closer to the gel (obtain measurement of the ideal distance between camera and gel).
Clean the gel. There are fragments of rounds (artifacts from previous tests can be seen in some of the posted pictures) scattered throughout the gel.  I've read that the gel can be filtered through nylon.


Special thanks to:
Old_Painless, Molon, and Zhukov for their contributions to the ammunition forum.

The SP1 load by federal its a bonded soft point
I think its the same as the fusion 62gr bullet?

Edit

My understanding is that the XM223SP1 uses the same bullet as the Federal Fusion.

Thank you
I was thinking so.

If you are thinking about doing more testing?

I would like to see some of the newer winchester loads !

mainly the 223rem 64gr PHP and the Razor load for hogs

Ditto the PSP (if thats what he means).  I just got 500 rounds for aroynd $170 made by BVAC.  Would love to see how they compare against MK 318 and the FBI load (XM556?)

Thanks for the post!

Very interesting test, thank you.  At what distance were the shots fired into the block?  

Interesting that the barnes TSX out-penetrated the MK318.  In terms of wound channels, XM193 looks the most impressive, yet it takes too much penetration for the damage to occur (6").  XM223SP1 is the next most impressive in terms of visible trauma, but is #1 in terms of effective trauma as its large wound channel begins shortly after entry (only 2" in).  I would have hoped that the fusion round would have penetrated deeper, but that is a minor complaint.  MK318 is third in regards to gel damage / disruption, and penetrated the 2nd best.


Also, is the barnes the 62 grain or the 55 grain?  In the txt you mention 62 grain, but on the picture it has it as 55gr?

The TSX was 55 grains, thanks for catching that.  I also added a line to note that all shots were from 10 yards through a 16 inch 1:9 barrel, information that was previously only mentioned in the video.  

I too was surprised by the results of the  TSX when compared to the SP1.  My concern is that the TSX may have benefited from being fired so close to the Hornady round (the gel was shot bottom to top so the Hornady round may have weakened the gel allowing the TSX to more easily pass through).  I plan to compare the TSX and SP1 in at least one future tests so it will be interesting to see if the results are repeatable.  Finally, the SP1 did appear to expand more than the TSX.

When viewing the MK318 and TSX, keep in mind that I never recovered the back half of the MK318 round and that both the back half of the MK318 round and the TSX round penetrated the gel.  If I remember correctly, the rear half of the MK318 penetrated significantly deeper than the TSX round when both rounds were shot into water jugs.

I would hope that general observations, such as one round penetrating deeper than another or disrupting sooner than another, would be the same in Perma-Gel and ballistics gel but I have not yet been able to confirm this.

It would also be interesting to see that same test at say, 100 yards.  Anything can perform well close up, it's at longer ranges where you separate the winners and losers.

Maybe shoot from an AR pistol to bleed some speed. Its easier to hit the same gel block at 10yds than 100.

That was my thought as well, which is one of the reasons I'd like to get a chronograph to put infront of the gel to measure the speed of a round just prior to impact.  One would think that rounds impacting at the same speed would react similarly regardless of the distance they were fired from.  

I'd also like to see how a fragmenting round, like the 55 gr  Hornady round used in the above test, performs out of various barrel lengths (such as 7.5, 14.5 and 20 inches).

Like to see a 75-77 OTM since those are the leading 223 rounds for bad guys.


I'm not sure "perma gel" is a good analogue to BG because I'm surprised the 193 didn't fragment. From what I've seen it fragments in BG well.

What are you talking about?  The M193 violently fragmented, and had the largest wound channel.

Seemed like the bullet was still filled with lead on my phone, but now on a computer it's clearly different.

What are you talking about??  Go up and look at the first pic, it didnt fragment at all.....it yawed and thats it, you can also see the neck length is pretty shitty as well, looks to have penetrated about 5 inches before it yawed

Looks like it just yawed, flattened out then squeezed alittle bit of lead out the back. Not very impressive.

Lets keep it friendly gents.

The M193 did fragment, kind of.  A chunk of lead got extruded from the back of the round but I expected the round to break into more pieces and smaller pieces, especially after reviewing the chart below.  I found it odd that the round did not break on the cannelure.  
 

Here are some additional pictures of the round that was recovered from the gel and two other rounds that were recovered after being shot into water.  Having a chronograph measure the speed of the rounds prior to impact, or even after leaving the barrel, would help determine if the results might be attributed to velocity, construction, or the medium (Perma-Gel).  Given InfiniteGrim's similar observations, I'm thinking it's not the medium.  



And here are two comparison photos between an unfired M193 round and the one recovered.



Comparing the recovered round to the fragmentation chart would lead me to believe the round impacted the gel at about 2400 feet per second, but the barrel and ammunition should be producing about 3000 feet per second (+/- 100 feet per second).  I suspect that the round was underpowered or a change in the bullet construction is preventing it from violently breaking apart.  I'll add a comparison of M193 from different manufacturers (PMC, Federal, Fiocchi, etc.) to my list of things to shoot into the gel.

Side note: I adjusted and cropped the photos in my posts.