G2RIP Ammunition in the news again – but wait, might be worth the read

Oleg Volk recently published an article about G2 Research Ammunition – the so-called “RIP” (Radically Invasive Projectile) round that was the focus of such media hype (and equal amounts of derision).  My initial response to the article, upon sighting the title was a roll of the eyes and a mental, Here we go again. Close-mindedness is not a sterling quality in an editor, however, so I took a closer to look. Then I saw the author was Oleg Volk, who is one of the writers I try to follow. That discovery enjoined me to take a closer look.

The article is an interesting read. I'm not a ballistician, and the more something is hyped the more I struggle to have any interest in it. There have been a number of studies that yielded disappointing results about the G2RIP's performance (something Volk specifically mentions); it's hard not to be cynical, especially when it comes to something your life could depend on.

That said – he broke out the chronograph, Clear Ballistics gel blocks, some .45 G2RIP, some .223 and some of their 300 BLK subsonics to see how they'd do. He did so largely because of his experience with the DDupleks Hexalit slug. The results were interesting, and it might be worth your time to check them out. Is it enough to overcome the bad taste their previous marketing put in my mouth? No, but it's enough to persuade me to take a second look.

Says Volk of the .45,

“Of the four shots fired, three produced full penetration of the 10 inch deep block, and one bullet base was stopped at the edge of the block by the 2×4 used to keep it from falling over. Each bullet produced one large wound track and eight smaller, more shallow tracks reaching about 6 inches in depth. Viewing the secondary tracks head-on, we can see that they take up about 6 inches at the widest point. The theory behind this bullet design is that adequate depth of penetration is only one of several considerations, the other being adequate width of the wound channel(s) to make up for often imperfect placement of defensive shots. In other tests, the base penetrated about 14.5″. It’s retained weight is about that of a 380ACP or a light 9mm Luger bullet, with the rest of the weight distributed between sharp individual segments.”

Regarding the rifle rounds from a short barrel he says,

“…the all-copper 55gr Trident bullet got up to 2200fps, penetrated about 17.5″ but did not expand. It did flip tip over tail about six inches in, causing a substantial permanent cavity. Fired from 12.5″ barrel, it reached 2335fps and expanded to three times its initial diameter with almost identical penetration. Subsonic 300 Blackout Trident load with 200 grain hollow-point bullet performed extremely well even from the diminutive 6 inch barrel of the suppressed carbine. This quiet bullet expanded to the same three times of the original diameter within four inches of impact and penetrated 16″ into the gel. Shooting the same round from a 16″ barrel increased penetration to 19.5″ without altering expansion.”

There's a lot more to his article and he plans on doing more research, but you can check out his initial findings right here. As you can imagine, the comments below the article range from instructive to amusing.

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