CorBon DPX Ammo

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Last Memorial Day weekend, I drove over to Pittsburgh to do a one day Tactical Treatment Of Gunshot Wounds course taught by John Farnam of DTI (Defense Trainig International) and DocGunn (One of John's principal assistant instructors, and an emergency room physician of some 20 years experience).

The day before, while I was in transit, they ran one of DTI's Instructor classes. During this, they did some extensive testing of a new deep penetrating round from CorBon called the DPX. It uses a lightweight, all copper bullet from Barnes.

I missed the actual tests, but heard all about them the next day. (The story of my life! I even had Mike Shovel, the CorBon rep, as my shooting partner for TTofGW)

The results were astonishing. Here's what John later wrote about it:

At an Instructor's Course we conducted in PA last weekend, Friend Mike Shovel from Cor-Bon was on hand to show us a ballistic gelatin penetration test. We fired various pistol rounds through two layers of sixteen-gauge steel, then through four layers of denim, and finally into gelatin. Our interest was in penetration of common barriers, most notably, car doors.

Most hollowpoint pistol rounds, even hardball, in 9mm, 40S&W, and 45ACP bounced off the first layer of steel, leaving a dimple, but never penetrating even one layer.

45ACP DPX, fired out of my little Detonics (3.5” barrel,) penetrated both
layers of steel, the denim, and nine inches of gelatin. I was astonished!

The same round, again fired from my Detonics, into the denim and gelatin but without having to first penetrate the double-steel barrier, penetrated thirteen inches of gelatin and expanded perfectly, retaining all its weight.

DPX 223 from a standard AR-15 zips through the double-steel barrier and
subsequently penetrates ten inches of gelatin, with the entire bullet remaining intact. 223 hardball, by contrast, breaks up on the double-steel barrier and doesn't penetrate the gelatin at all.

We all came to the same conclusion: I really like Powerball and conventional hollow-point pistol rounds, but DPX performs wonderfully well on soft tissue and, as an added bonus, goes through car doors. I'm carrying it at this moment in my Detonics, which I'm going to use at the NTI.

Up until now, most pistol rounds and 223 rifle rounds were notoriously poor at penetration, particularly of car doors. DPX changes all that. I can now reliably punch through a car door with my pistol and my 223 rifle and get at the criminals on the other side. As a driver or passenger of a car, I can also shoot through the door from the inside and hit a car-jacking suspect standing on the outside.

As a premium carry round, DPX is something we all need to look at. It has a lot going for it!

/John

From DocGunn I got the following supplemental report:

Friend Mike Shovel of CorBon brought some ballistic gelatin and the requisite four layers of denim to be shot-
1/. directly,
2/. through wallboard and
3/. through two layers of 16 gauge steel (which is thicker than the
industry-standard 20 gauge layers.)

Results:

.45 ACP

185 grain .45ACP CorBon DPX shot from a 3.5" Detonics 1911 penetrated 14" of ballistic gelatin after passing through the 4 layers of denim material. Its 6 petals folded back perfectly. The same round successfully penetrated two layers of 16 gauge steel, collapsing inward and still penetrated 6-9" of the denim/gelatin.

230 grain .45ACP Gold Dot fired from a 4" G21 bounced off the first layer of steel, as did 230 grain FMJ fired from the 3.5" 1911.


.40 S&W

150 grain .40 S&W CorBon JHP shot from a G23 penetrated 14" of ballistic
gelatin and denim, mushrooming perfectly.

140 grain .40 S&W CorBon DPX shot from a G23 penetrated 13" of ballistic gelatin and denim, its 6 petals folding back perfectly. The same round also easily penetrated the two layers of 16 gauge steel, then 6-9" into the denim and gelatin after its cavity also caved inward.


9mm

115 grain 9mm CorBon DPX performed as did its counterpart in .40 and .45 in both denim-covered gelatin and after penetrating two layers of steel.

My impressions are as follows:

The DPX round gives both excellent expansion and penetration in ballistic
gelatin and also has a remarkable ability to penetrate obstacles that defeat other bullet styles such as bonded bullets (Gold Dot) and even FMJ Hardball.

The performance of the .45ACP DPX when shot from the short 3.5"barreled Detonics 1911 was nothing short of astonishing. This round has become my new carry round in this caliber.

DPX would also make an excellent carry round in .40 S&W and 9mm as well, although I am not in as much a rush to replace my CorBon 150 JHP .40 S&W just yet.

Given the penetration performance of DPX through layers of steel and the fact that Gold Dot and Hardball bounced off the first layer during the same test, we may have to reconsider our views to include a brainshot (skull) with this ammunition as penetration to the cranial vault is a distinct possibility.

I looked for some DPX right after this, but none of our distributors had any available at the time. I just did a followup check last weekend, and I see it is now in stock at our distributor and I am going to order a few boxes in to play with.

Let me add a disclaimer: I do NOT believe in "Magic Bullets" (or for that matter, "Magic Calibers"). Nothing obviates the need for good marksmanship, proper bullet placement, and good tactics. But some calibers are clearly better than others, and bullet design is a constantly changing art. I'm more than happy to move on to something better, once it can be demonstrated to me that it IS, in fact, better.

Anyway, thought I'd share this info with you here.

Regards
John

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

BTW, their Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds course was excellent.

I get both conventional first aid training, and CPR, from the state agency at which I'm employed. This was an order of magnitude past that - use of the Israeli Battle Dressing, Naseo-Pharyngial Airway, and treatment of Tension Pneumothorax.

Regards
John