Gel Test: Remington High Terminal Performance 9mm JHP

By GunSpot

Shooting stuff out on the range is fun. Shooting through lumber, blasting cinder blocks and even shooting the office printer that finally bit the dust is always enjoyable. Safely, of course! But every now and then, the stars align and we are able to shoot stuff and test things out, without just breaking things for the heck of it. Conducting our backyard ammo tests is always a real treat, and it’s become a topic of which I am now quite fond.

Test Parameters

We were excited to get to test a Remington round, the High Terminal Performance (HTP) 9mm 115-gr. jacketed hollow point (JHP). For this test, we created our own DIY ballistic gelatin with at-home ingredients and a mold of a 16”x6”x6” FBI-pattern gel block. We shot a five-round group first on paper at 7 yards, just to show that the ammo is consistent and can group well from a quality pistol like the 3.7”-barreled Hellcat Pro.

We shot the ammo into the bare block to look at the expansion of the bullet and the cavity it created. Then, much like other tests we have done, we ended up shooting it through jeans to simulate denser clothing like denim pants or a jacket. Then, we shot it through dimensional lumber, which is present in the walls of most structures, like homes. All of the shots taken at the gel were from 10′ away, just as the FBI does.

For our five-shot group, we set-up at 7 yards, which is the distance that here in Missouri at which we take our concealed carry classes. With our five-shot group at 7 yards, we were able to get a great group in the first five rounds. There were two flyers, which was purely a human error in the trigger pull. But three of the five ended up almost touching, creating a group of around 1” and proving this ammo is capable of good groups.

Gel Results

For our gel test, we set the block on a table and fired into it from 10′ away, just as the FBI test does. Now, it should be known that we do make our own gel, so our block could be a little denser than a store-bought one. So, keep that in mind as you look at the penetration results.

The HTP round performed very well, creating about 12″ of penetration. The real thing we are looking at is how the petals expanded on the HTP round. The round had beautiful expansion, creating an amazing visual spiral in the gel. The round ended up, once it was stopped in the gel, being flat as a pancake, with the pedals peeled all the way back.

Denim Test

For the next test, we draped one layer of denim over the gel block and set it up to shoot. The layer of denim is supposed to represent clothing. Obviously, the bullet will go through the jeans — that is not the factor being tested here. Instead, we were attempting to see if the material would plug the hollow point in the projectile and, in a sense, create a full metal jacket round. The wound channel would then end up smaller in nature because the pedals would not expand as much — or at all.

The Remington HTP round passed through the jeans, hit the block and still expanded the same as the first round, making a big wound channel with the full expansion of the pedals. The projectile did rip through the jeans and carried the material with it as it penetrated into the block.

Wood Test

For this test, we placed a 2×6 board in front of the gel block and proceeded to fire through it from 10′ away with the Remington HTP round. The results were astonishing. The projectile cleared the lumber easily, just as it should. What happened next was the real test. The projectile passed all the way through the block, so it appeared the hollow point became filled with the wood.

But the amazing thing was that the round clearly still expanded as it should. The wound channel was quite large on the third shot. This was likely due to the expansion of the round and, I’m sure, also in part to bits of wood being carried by it and slicing through the gel. The wound channel was littered with wood bits inside its large cavity, and the round itself penetrated a full 16” and kept on trucking through and out of the gel. Considering the barrier, these were still quite good results.

Conclusion

The Remington HTP 115-gr. JHP round is no doubt a fantastic round for everyday carry. Some might opt to carry a heavier-grain cartridge, and that’s okay. But, as we have seen in our tests, this round will provide fantastic results on a target. We also tested it with a shorter-barreled gun, and the round still proved to have impressive velocity and performance. I would have complete confidence carrying this round in my Hellcat Pro, and I see no reason for anyone else not to, either.

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