During SHOT Show, Chris covered the ins-and-outs of Winchester’s new WWII Victory Series Ammo. It appears to be historically-accurate enough to appease gun hipsters and shooters nostalgic for the smell of cordite. I, for one, long for the days when nostalgia wasn’t such a big deal. It was just better then; nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Anyway . . .
At Industry Day on the Range I shot Winchester’s other two brand new brands of ammo: Super Suppressed and Hybrid-X.
Super Suppressed is exactly what you’d hope: fully-copper-encapsulated, heavy-for-caliber projectiles loaded subsonic on clean-burning powder and primers. It’s optimized for running through a suppressor with the utmost minimum of noise and dirtiness.
It’ll be available in .22 LR, .22 Magnum, 9mm, .45 ACP, 300 Blackout and .308 Winchester (yes, loaded subsonic). The rimfire ammo is “black copper plated” while the rest is jacketed.
On the range I fired the .22 LR and 9mm. It was super freaking quiet.
Of course, there was unsuppressed gunfire in other bays and I had ear pro on (though I do not believe the sound suppression kicked in). Plus I didn’t shoot other brands of ammo back-to-back with Winchester’s Super Suppressed ammunition. So it’s hard to say anything more at this point.
Rest assured that TTAG will get our hands on some of this stuff and test it for sound, accuracy, and next-to-Godly-ness (i.e. cleanliness).
Winchester’s Hybrid-X (seen in the lead photo) is a consumer/civilian-oriented self-defense round. Its large, polymer tip drives down on impact into a jacketed, fragmenting lead core.
It’s supposed to combine penetration, expansion and fragmentation into a single bullet that’s “blind” to clothing and other soft “barriers” that can plug up hollow points.
Hybrid-X should also feed more reliably in more firearms than hollow points, thanks to its FMJ round nose-like shape.
Meanwhile, it appears (unconfirmed as of yet) to limit penetration through harder barriers such as windows and walls and reduce the risk of ricochet.
Again, it’s aimed at civilian self-defense/personal defense/home defense rather than law enforcement and military use.
One thing to note, based on the gel block they had on display: the round doesn’t begin to fragment until it has penetrated about five inches of gel.
I’m not convinced that a fragmenting bullet is the best design, but the Hybrid-X is definitely far superior to those that fragment immediately.
Keep in mind that it takes three to four inches of ballistics gel penetration to equate to breaking human skin, so the fragments in other bullet designs that end up parked three inches into gel are unlikely to do much of anything on a bad guy.
With the Hybrid-X round seen in the 16-inch-long block above, the lead fragments appear to have stopped between about 9.5″ and 12″ deep. The polymer tip appears to be sitting in the jacket around the 10-ish-inch mark.
I don’t yet envision this replacing my carry load, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be shot with it. I’d consider it much more seriously if I lived in an apartment complex or elsewhere with significant overpenetration concerns.
At this time Hybrid-X is only available in 124 grain 9mm +P. It shoots just like you’d expect.
