Background

This is a six part series of which this is PART 5.  (you can find links to the rest of the parts at the end of this article).

Thomas Gomez and I were approached about doing a test shoot of four different defense rounds:

• 9 millimeter Radically Invasive Projectile, R.I.P from G2 Research.
• 9 millimeter Xtreme Penetrator from Lehigh Defense.
• 9 millimeter Inceptor ARX from Polycase
• 9 millimeter Civil Defense from Liberty Ammunition.

The company that made the request, strangely, was not a manufacturer–it was Clark Armory.  They were interested in having TFB perform an independent review (though pseudo-scientific as we will explain later) of some of the defense rounds that they sell.   Of course we accepted.

Disclosure: They did not pay for this review though they did send us two boxes of each of the four rounds, two ballistic gels from Clear Ballistics (and the necessary stuff to reset the gels for reuse).  All of the other materials we provided along with nine range trips, and the countless hours Thomas Gomez spent melting and resetting the gels.

Session 7, Lehigh Defense and Inceptor, Drywall

While we had discussed staging the test in my house, ultimately we decided that my wife would not approve (even though it could have been good segway into removing a wall for that “open room” concept that seems to be the rage today).  And with the penetration performance of the Lehigh, definitely not worth it to annoy the neighbors.  You all know we are kidding, right?  🙂

So what we REALLY did was create a small section of wall, 2”x4”s spaced on 16 inches, with some waste drywall we were able to recover from Home Depot (this was mentioned in the first part of this article).  We built two frames and the sections were large enough we could shoot twice on each.

Observations

When shot through two pieces of drywall, the Xtreme Penetrator from Lehigh Defense completely penetrated 16 inches of ballistic gel. Starting at 3.5 inches and ending at 11 inches there was a slightly larger wound channel.

When shot through two pieces of drywall, the  Polycase Inceptor round slightly deflected changing its trajectory.  Despite this, it still penetrated 11.2 inches though it exited the ballistic gel. This round probably would have penetrated more than 12 inches of ballistic gel had it maintained a flat trajectory.

Session 8, R.I.P. and Liberty, Drywall

Finally.  We have arrived at the last test!  It was definitely fun, but it was pretty time intensive since we were only working with two gels.

We learned from the last session with drywall that we needed some more height on the gel, otherwise we were too low to the bottom of the wall section.  This time we put an individual gel block on a box which gave it enough height.  We measured the center and midpoint of the gel against the wall and got to work.

Observations

When shot through two pieces of drywall, the R.I.P round, from G2 Research, penetrated completely through the ballistic gel. The hollow cavity appeared to fill with drywall medium and act as a penetrator type round. After penetrating 5 inches, the round tumbled creating a larger than normal wound cavity. At 10.5 inches the round resumed normal penetration and exited the gel. This round would pass the F.B.I test.

When shot through two pieces of drywall, Civil defense round from Liberty ammunition, penetrated 0.5 inches and fragmented. The round split into dozens of pieces, with one small piece penetrating 8 inches. This round would not pass the F.B.I test.

Articles in Series

Note:  The below links are not immediately live.  Each part will be released a day apart (by Dec 7th all should be available).

Introduction
Session 1 – Bare Gel
Session 2 – Heavy Clothing
Session 3 – Automotive Glass
Session 4 – Drywall
Observations and Conclusion