https://youtu.be/lawJIWrRcL4

I'm actually surprised why he's disappointed. Don't you want Expansion verse Penetration in a home defense situation? I understand that its not an Armor Piercing Cover Killing Round but  it seems like hes being judgement off of poor misconception of what you want in a CQB/home defense situation. I mean what about over penetration. I understand shot placement is key but given the circumstance of a home defense situation doesn't the firearm owner have an ethical and serious consideration to make when utilizing any firearm and what type of ammo is used just like a hunter considering what ammo to used on game/vermint?

That bullet would really make a mess out of whatever part of something it hits.

It did exactly what varmint bullets are supposed to do.  Expand quickly and expand a lot and do lots of damage.

12" is the bare minimum for defense. 14"-16" is ideal. Please read the "best choices for defense" sticky at the top of this forum.

I'd like to see the results at various velocities. I know at 100ish yards a .223 55gr VMAX from a 16" barreled AR will drop a deer where it stands and leave an exit wound.

That's a good point. I'd suspect that at 50m or more, this would meet the 12" minimum. Unfortunately, it's a real pain in the ass to do longer range tests and simulating the distance with low velocity is only slightly less annoying and only possible if you can reload. I don't know anyone with 5.45mm dies and I doubt my friend would be inclined to lend his ROMAK to experimental load testing.

Interesting results...Mrgunsngear had better results in his test.  15" of penetration.  I think he's a great reviewer and I really like his channel, but who know's with these one shot, back yard gel tests, "calibrated" or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAdpJE9Yi3s

I still think this round would be a very good home defense round.

Clear gel typically shows exaggerated penetration results with rifle calibers and some high velocity pistol bullets.

I'm very skeptical of a lot of these "standards" and "tests".
What I can't see is this...
A 9mm that has roughly 350' lbs at muzzle and penetrates 12 inches plus, is better than...
A 5.45 that dumps roughly 1000' lbs into the target and only penetrates about 5-6 inches.

My personal opinion is that, there is a difference between rifle and pistol lethality. That balloon effect from the temporary wound  will hemorrhage and shut down organs.

If human beings were math problems, sheets of paper, or gel blocks, you might have a point, but you're looking at it sideways. The proper way to look at it is that a hole through vital organs is better than no hole through vital organs. The standards exist because exhaustive scientific study of actual shootings determined that projectiles that penetrate less than 12" often fail to reach vital organs and stop the fight in a timely manner.

I shot two deer ( doe and a 7 pt buck) with 60grn VMAX in a 20" AR.  No exit wounds and both were solid lung hits.  The buck jumped and ran less than 20 yds then crumpled up.

I'll keep using this combo....I really like it...