I was recently given some old 9mm hollow point loads, which is to say that the rounds were purchased when Hydra Shocks were the best hollow point bullet design available.  Some of the rounds I received had the distinct Federal Hydra Shock pillar and I suspect the other rounds might have been Hi-Shocks since they were also loaded in Federal cases.  

I was able to recover some of the rounds after they were fired into Perma-Gel or plastic jugs of water.  I've fired quite a few current production Winchester Ranger and Federal HST rounds into the same mediums and they have always performed as advertised.  The Winchester Ranger rounds and Federal HST's are boringly predictable (in a good way) but I found the the older rounds to be far more entertaining (in a bad way) because I wasn't sure how they would preform from shot to shot.  I was surprised at how many failures the older rounds had in comparison to the new designs.  

As seen in the pictures, some of the rounds shed parts, there was a core jacket separation, and some of the rounds failed to open up (several such rounds are still buried in a wood backstop).  Another interesting note is that the newer production rounds almost always penetrate a 17 inch block of Perma-Gel but the older rounds that did mushroom only penetrated 10 to 12 inches (pistol rounds generally display greater penetration depth in Perma-Gel when compared to ballistics gel).

The bullets on the left side of the picture are the older rounds and rounds on the right side are current production rounds (I've fired many more but these were the ones I had immediately accessible for the picture and I also didn't want to mix calibers).  The two rounds on the top right side are Winchester Ranger T- Series, the three in the middle on the right side are Winchester Ranger bonded rounds, and the two on the bottom right side are Federal HST rounds.  

Reminds me of my experiences with JHPs when I was a young man.

I still have some examples from that long ago era.  Dinosaurs walked the Earth when they were popular.

I doubt that the next 3 decades will bring the advances that the last 3 have seen.

Wow big difference..

thanks for the pics/info guys

I saw these pictures and wondered if the older designs might have been upgraded with newer engineering since Hydra Shocks manufactured today seem to outperform those made 20 years ago.

Those petal edges on the non-bonded Ranger T look nasty! HST looks purty though.

If you look close at the edges of the petals on the copper jacket of the HST you'll see they appear rough, like micro serrations.  They feel sharp too.