Tactical Rifleman Compares 9mm and 5.56 in Ballistic Gel

In a short clip from Tactical Rifleman, the channel runs a side-by-side gel test comparing pistol ammo and a 5.56 rifle round fired from a TR1 rifle by Tactical Edge with a 13.7-inch pinned barrel. The pistol block gets shot first with standard 124-grain military ball ammo, then with Federal Premium HST hollow points, showing two very different wound tracks in the same gel.

Key points

• Ball ammo: The 124-grain military ball round "ice picked" straight through the gel block, which the video says is exactly how ball ammo is designed to perform.
• HST performance: The Federal Premium HST hollow point expanded and mushroomed fully, with the host calling it "textbook performance" that stopped inside the block.
• Secondary cavitation: The HST round produced visible secondary cavitation in the gel, and slow-motion footage shows the block jiggling from the energy transfer.
• Rifle setup: The 55-grain 5.56 round is tested out of the host's TR1 rifle, built on a legal 13.7-inch pinned barrel.
• Military rationale: The video explains that ball ammo's reliability and penetration are prioritized militarily partly because wounding an enemy can pull more personnel out of the fight than a kill.

Quick take

This is a straightforward, visual gel comparison rather than a deep technical breakdown, but it does a clean job showing why hollow points and ball ammo behave so differently on impact, with the HST round delivering the dramatic expansion and energy dump the channel highlights.

Watch the full video: Tactical Rifleman