One in a row....

According to this guy, the ultimate personal defense weapon is a Taurus PT22 loaded with his "special" ammunition. I ran into him at the range last Saturday. The special ammunition appears to be some form of Aguila hollowpoint .22 LR.

Here's what I know:

- He arrived at the range carrying his own targets in a manila folder.
- I did not see the targets before he shot them.
- I did not see him actually shoot the targets (I was coaching at the time)
- He only appeared to be carrying the Taurus .22. I did not search him for other firearms.
- There really were .32 to .38 caliber holes in the targets he shot.
- There were marks on the target backing that looked very similar to the spalling seen on a steel target after it has been hit with high velocity rifle bullets.

He claims to be getting 1750 fps out of the .22 LR bullets in the short barreled (2 inches maybe) PT22. He also verbally claimed that these same bullets were able to penetrate a gallon jug of water and 10 inches of wet phone books. His website reads a little differently on the penetration, but the 10 inch figure does pop up there also.

I have some major issues with this guy. First, he doesn't really understand enough about internal and external ballistics to properly explain the affects of excessive heat on ammunition.

At one point in the class we were told to never leave your weapon or ammo in a vehicle in the Phoenix area due to, the gun can be stolen out of the vehicle and the ammo can build up pressure in the casing and push the projectile enough to cause a hang fire. The instructor went on to say that he has seen it happen. The shooter would be firing and instead of a loud bang the firearm made a small “pop”, and the projectile was stuck protruding at the end of the barrel.

What he has just described is not a hang fire....it's a shell without any powder in it. After reading the rest of his site, I'm of the opinion that most of his "knowledge" is simply repeating what he has heard from others or read on the internet. I live in Phoenix. I leave ammo in my car all the time. Unlike some, I have actually tested hot and cold ammo over a chronograph to see exactly how much difference it makes. The answer (for my guns with my ammo over my chrono) is 'a little, but not much' difference. Ripping through half a dozen 30 round magazines and then leaving a round in the chamber is going to subject that round to more heat than leaving it in a car.

He's also discovered a way to make hollowpoints expand and then get smaller as they penetrate.

That told me that once hitting the harder surface first it squeezed the projectile as
it penetrated.

Perhaps he learned his terminal ballistic theory from reading about the "magic bullet" that killed Kennedy. I'm not quite ready to call total bullshit on this because I've seen some weird shit happen to bullets as they penetrate different mediums....but it does sound rather odd.

I am very interested in finding out exactly how he managed to create a .38 caliber hole in a paper target with a .22. Some theories that were batted around the range on Saturday and the office today included: expansion in flight, excessive velocity causing the bullet to melt in the bore, an oversize bore and very sharp rifling "peeling" the bullet as it exited the barrel.....and outright fraud.

In the interest of science, one of the other RSO's and I are going to set up a series of experiments to try and find out exactly what causes the oversize holes to appear in the targets with this firearm/ammunition combination. I'll post an update after we have some data to work with.

Oh....by the way......does anyone suppose that the BATFE would be interested in knowing that this guy is advertising his intent to do business as a firearms dealer without an FFL?

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