SIG SAUER - Sig Ammo

SPECIAL REPORT
Sig Sauer Elite Performance Ammo
SUMMARY
The Sig Sauer Elite Performance
Ammo is available in the five most
popular police calibers. The VCrown JHP is pre-cut to expand
at lower velocities and the slightly
lighter bullet weights are driven to
slightly higher velocities. The ammo
cycles flawlessly and passes the FBI
gelatin test protocol.
SIG SAUER
ELITE
AMMO
PERFORMANCE
THE V-CROWN JHP
DEFINITELY WORKS.
By Ed Sanow
46 LAW and ORDER I January 2015
MORE INFORMATION
www.sigsauer.com
During the development
of Sig Sauer Elite
Performance ammo,
tens of thousands of
rounds were fired by
instructors at the Sig
Sauer Academy.
I
n mid-2014, Sig Sauer® introduced their line of
premium centerfire pistol ammo, Elite Performance Ammunition. Company documents indicate this jacketed hollowpoint ammo is “designed specifically for personal defense.”
Yet our testing shows Elite Performance to perform very
well in the entire FBI gelatin test protocol. That means it
should be considered for police duty use.
The Elite Performance ammo is available in five duty and offduty calibers: 380 Auto 90-grain V-Crown JHP at 980 fps; 9 mm
124-grain V-Crown JHP at 1189 fps; 357 SIG 125-grain V-Crown
JHP at 1356 fps; 40 S&W 165-grain V-Crown JHP at 1090 fps; and
45 Auto 200-grain V-Crown JHP at 918 fps. These are the introductory calibers and bullet weights, i.e., the most ideal weights
in the most popular police and off-duty calibers right from the
beginning. Other bullet weights, other handgun calibers and rifle
ammo are in the works.
Elite Performance ammo is made in the USA to Sig Sauer designs and specification. It is loaded by L-Tech Enterprises in Kentucky. They have been loading custom ammo for 20 years. During
the development process of Elite Performance ammo, instructors
at the Sig Sauer Academy fired tens of thousands of rounds of
ammo. While new to the market, it has already been fired in countless officer-involved and off-duty shooting scenarios.
The Sig Sauer Elite Performance ammo uses a pre-stressed, lead
core, jacketed hollowpoint. In one sense, it is a traditional JHP bullet. It won’t raise any eyebrows or draw any unwanted attention
for being specialty, exotic or out of the ordinary. That’s good. In
many regards, it is just as well that some people consider “a bullet
is a bullet, they are all alike.”
V-Crown JHP
he ultimate measure of a police bullet is the
T
ability to defeat barriers like wallboard (shown),
plywood, car bodies and auto glass and still
expand reliably and penetrate to the correct
depth. The V-Crown JHP in Elite Performance
ammo does exactly that.
Sig Sauer Elite Performance ammo is available in
380 Auto, 9mm, 357 SIG, 40 S&W and 45 ACP. The
ammo has slightly more velocity and energy than
the typical bullet weights in each caliber.
In another sense, however, the V-Crown™ JHP loaded in the Elite
Performance ammo is very special. With most hollowpoints, the
solid lead core is placed in a copper jacket, and a V, Y or U-shaped
tool is punched into the lead core to form the hollowpoint cavity.
The V-Crown JHP has been pre-stressed,
Not so with the V-Crown JHP. An extra step is
pre-weakened along six well-defined lines.
added. A special tool slices the leading edge
As a result, the hollowpoint bullet expands
of the lead core into six sections. Then the
right where these internal cuts were made.
lead core is pressed back together to look
like an ordinary JHP.
Since the bullet has been pre-cut, prestressed in six areas, it will easily expand along these six lines.
The lead core does not have to tear open from a solid piece of lead
during expansion, like most JHPs. Instead, the lead core simply
peels back along the areas where it has been pre-weakened. This
allows the bullet to expand easier to larger recovered diameters.
he 357 SIG is an excellent police caliber. The Elite
T
Performance 357 SIG 125-grain V-Crown JHP is as
close as it gets to the 357 Magnum. The most
energy. The most ability to get inside a car.
www.lawandordermag.com 47
SPECIAL REPORT Sig Sauer Elite Performance Ammo
It also makes a spot for the bullet to stop expanding for the maximum retained weight.
This same pre-stressed, pre-weakened process is used by the
CCI-Speer Gold Dot, and the Eldorado Starfire. It is brilliant. It
works. One look at the expanded bullet and you can tell. If the
lead core has a pattern or ridges, it was pre-stressed in some way
or another. If the lead core is smooth and even, it was not.
The jacket of the V-Crown JHP is also cut, scored, skived, or
nicked at the bullet mouth. This, too, gives the bullet a definite
place to start the expansion, to a place for expansion forces to focus
as the jacket begins to peel back.
Optimal Hollowpoint Cavity
ig Sauer has introduced an entire line of police
S
ammo in all the right police calibers. The ammo
really does have “elite performance.” It cycles in
everything and produces ideal ballistics.
he Elite Performance V-Crown JHP from the 40 S&W
T
is shown recovered from bare gelatin (left) and in
gelatin after auto glass (right). The expansion is
different, of course, but most hollowpoints are
mangled beyond recognition after glass. This
V-Crown delivered excellent after-glass performance.
he Elite Performance JHP has a smallish
T
hollowpoint cavity to keep it from being plugged by
debris such as heavy clothes. However, the cavity is
designed to aggressively expand in targets or for a
controlled crushed after glass (shown).
48 LAW and ORDER I January 2015
The internal design of the V-Crown JHP allows it to have a slightly
smaller hollowpoint cavity. That means three things. First, the hollowpoint cavity is less likely to get plugged with heavy clothes,
wallboard and plywood. The second cavity walls are thicker and
stronger and less likely to be mangled by auto glass and car bodies. Third, a smaller cavity allows a more rounded bullet profile for
more reliable feeding. At the same time, the front of the lead core
and the entire hollowpoint cavity is just pressed together, not a solid
core. It expands to larger diameters with less expansion force.
The V-Crown JHP bullet has a toothed cannelure or knurled
ridge halfway up the bullet. A cannelure on most bullets is used
as a place to roll the case mouth into the bullet to hold the bullet
in the case. Not so with the V-Crown JHP. This cannelure is used
to lock the jacket to the lead core. The jacket must remain with the
lead core, even after penetrating harsh barriers like auto glass, for
the bullet to expand and penetrate properly.
Locking the jacket to the core increases weight retention two
ways. First, the jacket stays with the bullet core. Second, the jacket
limits how much the bullet can expand; it prevents big sections of
the pre-stressed bullet from over-expanding and shearing off. The
expansion is controlled and uniform, but it also results in a larger
recovered diameter than most JHP designs.
Velocity and Energy
Another edge the Sig Sauer Elite Performance ammo has is
muzzle velocity and muzzle energy. The bullets are 10 to 15
percent lighter than the bullets commonly used by law enforcement in each caliber. In 9 mm, 124 grains instead of 147 grains;
in 40 S&W 165 grains instead of 180 grains; and in 45 Auto, 200
grains instead of 230 grains.
These slightly lighter bullets have slightly higher velocities
and energies. Velocity is the ability to expand under a wide variety of police scenarios. Energy is the ability to do work, like penetrate and disrupt tissue. Yet these bullet weights are still very
mainstream when it comes to reliably cycling a police-oriented
auto pistol. The bullets are lighter than what the heaviest pistols
are designed for and heavier than the lightest bullets designed
to cycle an auto pistol. We shot 100 rounds of every Elite Performance load from a variety of duty pistols. Every cartridge fed,
ejected and fully cycled.
Gelatin Testing
The Sig Sauer ammo has undergone the entire FBI protocol
gelatin testing: Bare Gelatin, Heavy Clothes, Sheetrock, Plywood, Auto Glass, Car Bodies. That means it is more than
personal defense ammo—it is police-duty ammo. As a double
check, we fired some of the Elite Performance ammo into bare
gelatin, heavily clothed gelatin and, the harshest test, into gelatin
after glass.
In bare gelatin, the V-Crown JHPs expanded to more than 150
percent. For example, the 40 S&W 165-grain bullet had a recovered diameter of 0.62-inch, a perfect mushroom penetrating 13.5
inches. The 45 Auto grain bullet perfectly expanded to 0.74-inch
and penetrated 13.0 inches. We almost could not tell which bullet hit bare gelatin and which one penetrated heavy clothes first.
Heavy clothes had almost no effect on expansion or penetration.
Auto glass, of course, is very hard on all bullets. That said, the
beat-up V-Crown JHP did better than most JHP bullets after glass.
It expanded a little less but had 85-percent weight retention. It
penetrated a little deeper, but deeper is better than shallower. It
passed the Auto Glass test.
The “stacked” hollowpoint ends up with a shallow, V-sharp
main cavity on top of a deep but narrow I-shape cavity.
Accuracy Testing
The 357 SIG is one of my favorite calibers. When I started in
law enforcement, the duty gun was a 357 Magnum revolver. To
this day, the 357 Magnum has the best stopping power record in
actual officer-involved shootings. The 357 SIG 125-grain JHP at
1350 fps is as close as it gets to the 357 Magnum 125-grain JHP
at 1425 fps.
Today, I have traded the 4-inch 357 Magnum revolver for a
4-inch 357 SIG pistol. The most energy of any common police caliber. The most ability to get inside a car of any common police caliber. With a bit of felt recoil and a definite muzzle blast, the 357 SIG
is not for everyone… only those who really miss the 357 Magnum.
So it was the 357 SIG ammo that was used for serious accuracy
testing. It was conducted at the nostalgic distance of 50 yards…a
range only “police marksmen” shoot any longer. We were not
looking for “rapid fire, combat accuracy.” Instead, we wanted to
carefully compare the Elite Performance V-Crown JHP to other
common JHP ammo.
We did a mix of strong-side barricade and rollover prone
with 124- or 125-grain JHPs from Remington, Winchester, Federal and Hornady. With 8-inch average groups from 50 yards,
the Sig Sauer ammo delivered 9-ring, B-27 silhouette accuracy. It was in a three-way tie for second place. The Elite Performance ammo was not the most accurate from this particular
4-inch duty pistol, but it was as accurate as the biggest names
in ammunition.
Bottom line? Elite Performance ammo cycles flawlessly in police duty pistols. It expands reliably and penetrates adequately
against common police obstacles like heavy clothes and auto glass.
It is as accurate as any full-power, police-oriented hollowpoint.
Sig Sauer Elite Performance ammo is worth a hard look as an approved duty load.
Lt. Ed Sanow is the Editorial Director of LAW and ORDER, Police Fleet Manager
and Tactical Response. He can be reached at [email protected].
LaO
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www.lawandordermag.com 49