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Fiocchi 55 gr PSP fired from 16" and 11.5" AR pattern rifles into calibrated 10% gelatin. Both rifles are 1:9" twist rates and both had a Surefire FA556AR attached.

BB calibration: 596.1 fps, 3.7"

16" barrel results:

Impact velocity: 2,951 fps
Penetration: 12.3"
Retained weight: 28.0 gr
Max expansion: 0.493"
Min expansion: 0.315"





11.5" barrel results:

Impact velocity: 2,572 fps
Penetration: 11.6"
Retained weight: 36.1 gr
Max expansion: 0.483"
Min expansion: 0.382"




Some fragments I strained out of the gelatin:




Using Hornady's online ballistic calculator and the BC for a Hornady 55 gr soft point (I can't find the BC for this bullet), the 11.5" numbers represent what you should see at about 100 yards from a 16" rifle.

It is a hornady 55 gr softpoint, always has been anyways.

Really? Interesting. Do you have a reference for that so I can add the info to the video description?

I read about it on the internet, might not be a good enough reference, but i think it's right, i pulled a bullet and had a box of hornady for reloading, same thing as far as i could tell.

Thanks man, good to know. I have been stocking up on freedom's 62 psp hoping for similar results.  I can't find any (lower end) .223 soft point gel tests online.

I'll still test your Hornady 55 gr soft point hand load to be sure. What velocity did you say they were?

very impressive. It would make a nice affordable load for an SBR.

How does it perform through barriers, specifically sheetrock?

A lot of exposed lead. Does any feel there will be a lead build up in the feed ramps? I guess it is really a non-issue if I'm not running 1000 rounds without cleaning or full auto mag dumps all day. LOL.

I don't usually incorporate this into tests because it makes the gelatin dirty I would have to replace it earlier. I could use water instead, though. I've been thinking about including intermediate barriers in the testing and that would be a good way to do it. What configuration of water and barriers would you like to see? Keep in mind that I'd like to standardize it across all my future tests, including pistol and shotgun.

That's pretty close. If the Fiocchi load does use a Hornady bullet, the results should be nearly identical. I'd sure like to see some documentation one way or another.

I should clarify: I intend to keep the drywall out of the gelatin by using water instead of gelatin in the barrier tests.

That isn't bad performance for a 55 gr non-bonded SP. It also penetrates deeper than the typical non-bonded 55 gr SP. Though it most likely won't prove satisfactory as a barrier blind load, if it consistently reaches the 12" mark, it should at least prove to be as useful as certain heavier non-bonded SP loads that cost considerably more.

ETA: I just saw another test of this particular load. It achieved 13" of penetration fired from an 18.5" barrel Mini-14. This is really, really interesting. With a non-bonded bullet, you would expect increased fragmentation and correspondingly less penetration as the velocity increases. But that doesn't appear to apply to this particular load. I'm really going to have to give this ammo a much closer look. I am quite impressed by the wound cavity it produces and its ability to meet the minimum FBI 12" penetration criteria where so many other 55 gr SP loads fall short. And coming in around $10 for a box of 20, it provides much of the performance of ammunition that costs twice as much. Granted, it probably won't perform very well through intermediate barriers. But one can still keep a mag or two at the ready with something like the Gold Dot, Fusion, TSX, etc for barrier duty and use this for other applications. Based on what I have seen thus far, this would appear to be a good load for entry work or home defense where over-penetration is a concern and barrier blind performance a bit less of a necessity.