Gel Test .32 Underwood Cavitator vs Gold Dot vs FMJ

[alc95c]

On Aug 9 2016, Jeremy S. posted his gel testing of .32 ACP Underwood 50 gr Cavitator (Standard Pressure) vs 60 gr Gold Dot vs unnamed 73 gr FMJ on Youtube. He never mentioned the brand of the FMJ but it appears to be S&B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf-IF1emoJI

Test Protocol
- 2 layers of tee-shirt barrier, 10% organic gel. (No mention of test BB penetration calibration.)
- Beretta Tomcat 2.4" barrel. He called it a "brand new" gun and mentioned it needs more break-in.

Penetration Summary
- Underwood Cavitator: 4 rounds penetrated 13.8" - 14.5" Very consistent. Wound track 1.25"-1.5"and slightly larger than Gold Dot. He didn't quantify the length of the large wound track, but it appears to be ~7" before it gets small.
- Gold Dot: 2 rounds penetrated 8.25", 8.75" both expanded fully. Wound track slightly smaller than Cavitator.
- 73 gr FMJ: 18", 19.5" The usual tiny wound track.

Reliability Summary
- Underwood Cavitator: 2 stoppages in 40 rounds. He expressed optimism that with additional break-in of his Beretta, it would run reliably.
- Gold Dot: 0 failures in 20 rounds
- FMJ: 0 failures in 40 rounds

Comments
I'm somewhat skeptical of the absolute accuracy of his penetration numbers. I've collected the results of several other .32 ACP FMJ gel tests. None of them exceed 16" and most are with the slightly longer 2.7" barrel Keltec P32. He was trying to maintain calibration by keeping the gel at the proper temperature, but there was no mention of measuring penetration of a test BB.

Regardless of that, the comparison of the Underwood Cavitator to the Gold Dot in the same gel block is very useful information.

No chrono data was presented. Based on several tests of other ammo, the Guardian's 2.2" barrel will likely generate only about 1-2% less velocity than the Beretta's 2.4" barrel and give essentially the same results.

Seecamp's 2.06" barrel will generate about 8% less than the Beretta.  Over on the Seecamp forum, MRC recorded the following velocity results from his Seecamp for three brands of ammo with the Lehigh Cavitator bullet.
- Lehigh Xtreme Cavitator - average 943 fps, - standard deviation 29, -KE 99 ft-lbs
- Underwood Xtreme Cavitator Standard Pressure - average 998 fps, - standard deviation 30, -KE 111 ft-lbs
- Underwood Xtreme Cavitator +P - average 1062 fps, -standard deviation 25, -KE 125 ft-lbs
http://www.seecamp.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1467677415

It appears Underwood's loadings of the Lehigh Cavitator bullet truly offer a very significant increase in terminal ballistics performance for P32s, Seecamps, Beretta Tomcats, NAA Guardians and others. They generate wound channels wider than and longer than JHP's and then continue to penetrate almost as much as FMJ's.

Please post any other gel test results for the .32 ACP Cavitator bullet you become aware of.

[alc95c]

This is the first independent gel test I've seen of the Lehigh .32 ACP Cavitator bullet.  It generally confirms Lehigh's claims for both wide wound channel and deep penetration, which seemed almost too good to be true for any ammo in this caliber. 

This test was conducted with Underwood's standard pressure ammo, which is spec'd at 1,000 fps or 5.4% hotter than Lehigh's 925 fps.  Independent tests with a Seecamp (see original post) resulted in an almost exactly 5.8% faster velocity for the Underwood standard pressure.  The Underwood +P was recorded at ~5% faster than their standard pressure and 10.5% faster than the Lehigh ammo.  So, if you want deeper penetration go up to the +P. 

Lehigh's bare gel penetration photo appears below = 13.5".  Quite similar to this test result.  Their penetration claims for other tests also appears below.  This info and more gel test photos appear on Lehigh's website at http://www.lehighdefense.com/products/32-acp-50gr-xtreme-cavitator-ammunition?va&variant=13337135428

[alc95c]

Jeremy posted some additional information about his experience with the .32 ACP Underwood Cavitator ammo on The Truth About Guns (TTAG).

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/08/jeremy-s/ammo-review-lehigh-underwood-m ake-32-acp-great/