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Old May 26, 2007, 10:48 PM   #2
Unclenick
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Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 21,013
I suggest you search the forum on the topic. It has been rehashed many times. Hollow points generally are of less benefit in handgun rounds than a flat meplat bullet like the truncated cone design, except in the big magnums. I forget who said "a hollow point may or may not expand, but a .45 won't shrink?" Expansion can be unreliable in handguns and the size of the temporary cavity in all but the heavy magnums will not reliably reach the elastic limits of the tissue they penetrate. Forensic pathologists frequently comment that, unlike the much higher energy high power rifle rounds, at autopsy they cannot distinguish a handgun wound made by a hollow point from one made by a solid. There is, however, general agreement that flat meplats do more damage than round noses and stop game better.

Sierra has truncated cone shape target bullets in both 185 and 200 grains. Hornady's 230 grain Flat Point Enclosed bullet is almost a truncated cone. Cast TC designs are widely available. The lighter bullets offer some decrease in penetration which is a safety concern in apartments and some other environments, but is generally not beneficial to stopping power, hard as that is to define.

Powder speed is does not have quite as simple a relationship to the bullet performance as you may think. Unique will get you past military hardball ballistics. The even faster Bullseye, at 5.0 grains under a round nose 230 grain ball mimics military ballistics exactly. In a short tube, you usually must go to an extra heavy bullet to offer enough acceleration resistance to develop pressure soon enough for a slow powder to burn effectively, unless you go well into +P or even +P+ pressure territory as the shooters with integral ramp or other supported barrel designs sometimes do. Your Unique will actually achieve higher velocities with the lighter bullets than slower powders usually can.
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