Okay, after a failed range trip, bad weather, and work getting in the way finally got to the range with the Magtech .45ACP 230gr Bonded JHP as was able to do some shooting and very nonscientific testing.
First, some pictures of the round next to other rounds I had available to photograph with it.
Left to right, 230gr Remington UMC JHP that I had laying around, 230gr Speer Gold Dot, 230gr Magtech Bonded JHP 230gr, 230gr Winchester Ranger-T, and a 230gr Ball round.
Same rounds from top down. You will notice that while I thought the round was initially similar to the Speer Gold Dot, the Magtech’s hollow point was slight larger.
Shooting impressions, completely subjective mind you, fired out of my TRP, were that of the three rounds shot today, the Ranger-T was the stoutest of the three. No Surprise there really since I have found Ranger T to be a bit hotter in the standard pressure loading then most ball rounds. And yes, the Ranger T was a standard pressure loading not the +P. The middle of the three was the Federal 230gr Ball fired. And the softest recoiling of the three was the Magtech Bonded 230gr JHP. The recoil, or lack there of, from the Magtech was surprising. Now, I don’t currently have a chronograph so I can’t speak to how fast everything was running but I feel that the Magtech might be running a little lighter than the other two going by the below results.
Now at the range I only tested the Ranger T and the Magtech round and used the 230gr Ball round as a control. Was firing into phone books at 10 yards off hand and did initially run into some issues, mainly that my calculations of the number of books needed to stop a .45acp round was rather underestimated. The ball loading punched through and through without issue and the Ranger-T loading did the same, though the exit hole was much worse for wear and it would appear that it did achieve expansion going through the books. Of the initial test the only round that was captured was the Magtech round, making it about 3/4 of the way through the phone books. The round is shown below. It appeared to have clogged up while entering the target and achieved only minimal expansion. After added several more layers of cardboard that was pillaged from the trash bin I did manage to capture a 230gr Ball round and a Winchester Ranger T. The ball round didn’t expand(No surprise there), and the Ranger-T did achieve expansion, though far from uniform, though that has been my generally experience firing into phone books. After pulling the Ranger T and ball from the books I did fire a couple more rounds of Ranger T and Magtech into the books, but with the pages pretty well shredded and running out of time I didn’t capture any more rounds.
Picture of recovered rounds below.
Left to right, 230gr Federal Ball, 230gr Magtech Bonded JHP, and 230gr Winchester Ranger T.
Conclusion: Well again, not scientific at all, just base observations to see what could be expected from the round and compare it to a round that is proven. Firstly, the Magtech round with it’s wider cavity did clot up and not nicely it took a good bit of effort to remove the paper that was trapped in the cavity. I should have taken a picture before I started screwing with it, but I had expected to be able to recover more rounds and have a better than sample of one, and lord did I work to get that sample of one today. Will, next time, take a considerable thicker stack of books or perhaps by then will have a place where I can get away with water jugs or something. A chronograph would be helpful as well, and that is on the list for the upcoming year so… That said, at the moment I am still going to stick with more proven rounds like the Ranger T that I have currently in my inventory. Again, not bashing the Magtech round, and not writing it off as of yet since I would still like to do some more testing and see others do some testing as well as compare it to other rounds like the Speer Gold Dot shown.
Final thoughts. One last point/thought that I would like to add. Again not picking on Magtech or the round even, but the box that the Magtech round came in is one of the worst I’ve dealt with. It is rather flimsy and I did end up playing 50 round pick up twice before making it to the range because the ends will open up and let the cartridge holder slide out if you are not paying attention. Just a final thought.
