I had a chance to try out some ammo yesterday and sent a few rounds toward some old books we had at work.

I shot at 7y with my Glock 23 and used 1 round of Federal XM40HC 180gr JHP and Winchester Q4369 180gr Bonded JHP versus 2 books taped together.

This was in response to someone trying Hornady Critical Duty 175gr .40 versus 3 books taped together.  They also used their Glock 23.

Mine was being shot with a Lone Wolf threaded barrel so velocity might've been slightly higher than my co-worker's 23 as his gun was stock.

The Federal was shot first at 7y and knocked the books over as they were 2 distributor manuals each about 4" thick.

I then shot the Q4369 at the same distance and they didn't knock the books over at all.

After recovering the rounds, I noted the Federal XM40HC was experiencing some jacket separation, where the bonded Q4369 did not.  Also the Q4369 looked very similar to the 8rds of 175gr Hornady shot at similar media without having little red globs hanging off the recovered rounds.

There was no retained weight testing here, nothing scientific at all really.  I just decided to see how the rounds looked when shot.

Here is a photo of the Federal XM40HC:


Q4369 Bonded JHP:

Good to see the bonded holding together.

Some nasty flare on that Federal.