Twenty-Eighth in a series of a quest to find the overall best defensive ammunition for modern 9mm pocket pistols (such as the Sig Sauer P938, Taurus PT709, the Ruger LC9, Kahr CM9, Beretta Nano, Kel-Tec PF9 or S&W Shield or any other popular 9mm micro-pistol using a barrel length of approximately 3").
In this installment, I am testing the 147-grain Winchester "W" Train and Defend jacketed hollowpoint (part #W9MMD). It is rated on the box at 950 fps; my 9-shot average from the shorter 3"-barrel pistol produced an average of 881 fps. Note, that is about 50 fps slower than the recently-tested Winchester Ranger-T 147-grain rounds. Winchester says that they purposely down-loaded the "W" Defend cartridges for lower felt recoil.
I am chronographing the rounds as well as firing multiple rounds per block so that we get a more statistically relevant result, rather than the typical ammo test where only one round is fired. Ammo can behave a bit unpredictably, and the results of any one bullet are not necessarily representative of how the ammunition performs overall.
In this test, I fired five bullets into a bare gel block, and witnessed nearly perfect, ideal performance; all expanded and all penetrated to an average depth of 15.40", which is right in the middle of the desired 12"-18" range. I then fired five more rounds into a block of gel covered with 4 layers of IWBA-spec heavy denim, and witnessed another example of textbook perfect performance, with all five bullets penetrating to an average of 15.95" while expanding properly.
Note: I'm not making any claims for these videos other than that these are the results I achieved, in my own testing, from the stated pistol. I have no intention to make a blanket endorsement or indictment of any product, only to review and report what I found in a given instance. Obviously it is incumbent upon each individual to conduct their own research and make up their own mind about which defensive ammunition is best for their own purposes, in their own firearms. Also keep in mind that individual firearms can be persnickety; my pistol may feed a particular round consistently whereas your pistol might jam on those rounds, so -- please conduct your own testing before trusting any particular ammo.
The purpose of this testing is to find which rounds of ammo perform well enough from a short 3" barrel that they can reliably deliver the penetration (with expansion) that has been documented and proven necessary in order for the bullet to be able to reach the vital organs of an attacker and deliver an incapacitating hit.
We are NOT talking about 12" of penetration through a body! We're talking about 12" of penetration through ballistic gel.
For those who don't understand why the 12" penetration distance is so important, please see my blog entries on the subject:
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Subscribe to the channel here to see the rest of the episodes in this series, as well as other ammo tests and equipment reviews. And check out the blog at www.shootingthebull.net.
