Will It Expand? Hornady Critical Defense vs. Flour

By Tom McHale

Will It Expand? Hornady Critical Defense vs. Flour
Will It Expand? Hornady Critical Defense vs. Flour

USA –-(Ammoland.com)- In this episode, we test Hornady Critical Defense ammunition against what is arguably the “cloggiest” stuff known to hollowpoints – flour.

Neat picture of flour exploding

Stick with us, you never know when you might run into a real-world shootout in a bakery.

Or something.

Being that we expected flour to be a tough customer, we elected to test both velocity and weight. Critical Defense .357 Sig to meet the velocity threshold and .40 S&W to meet the weight.

We thought this was a great idea that had potential not only for real-world application but entertainment value as well. And we weren’t disappointed. When you hit a bag of flour with expanding ammunition you get a gratifying ‘fleur de flour.’

Oh, in addition to a neat picture of a bag of flour exploding, we also have expansion test results. Just for fun, we tested two loads in each caliber: the Hornady Critical Defense rounds and Speer Gold Dot projectiles.

Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig
 

OK, so we went a little trigger happy with the Speer Gold Dot loads and shot nine of them into the flour. What can we say? It made for great explosions! Out of the nine we shot, five expanded fully, two clogged up and didn’t expand at all, and two expanded just a little – although in a very non-photogenic way.

Hornady Critical Defense .40 S&W
We shot four rounds of the Critical Defense .40 S&W loads into the flour and all four expanded adequately. As the photo shows, one was exceptionally photogenic and the remaining three were less attractive, although plenty effective.
Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W
Cloggy, cloggy, cloggy. Of the three rounds of .40 S&W Gold Dots, we recovered, none of them expanded properly. One had no sign of expansion at all, one had a weak attempt, and the third must have hit a flour-based black hole. Either that or it nudged another projectile already in our high-tech bullet catcher.

So what have we learned? Before carrying into a bakery, be sure to test your carry ammo in appropriate conditions.


About Tom McHale:

Tom McHale describes himself as a conservative gun-totin’ bible-clingin’ literary assault dude who enjoys finding humor in just about anything. His web blog My Gun Culture is an irreverent, twisted look at gun news bordering on the ridiculous. It covers shootin’ stuff, loud noises, defending your own, the occasional mall ninja, and about 200 years of the American way. “These are the (partially) true stories of… My Gun Culture” says Tom. Visit: www.mygunculture.com

Tom McHale