Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 124gr Penetrator – Formidable Deep Driving Load

Description

The Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 124gr Penetrator is the load for when you want the bullet to keep going. A 124 grain flat nose full metal jacket at 1300 fps produces roughly 465 ft-lbs, and unlike a hollow point it is not designed to expand at all. Buffalo Bore aims it at two jobs: shooting through barriers, and woods carry where depth is what counts. Twenty rounds per box, item 24F/20.

• Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 124gr Penetrator Overview
• 9mm Flat Nose FMJ Ammo Ballistics
• Why The 124 Grain Full Metal Jacket Bullet Goes Through
• Specifications
• Where This Deep Penetrating 9mm Woods Load Belongs

Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 124gr Penetrator Overview

The bullet is a full metal jacket with a flat nose rather than the usual round profile. That flat meplat is the whole design. A round nose bullet tends to glance and tumble when it hits bone or a hard barrier, while a flat nose keeps its point forward and drives in a straight line.

Because the jacket fully encloses the core and there is no cavity, there is nothing to open and nothing to shed. What leaves the muzzle arrives at the far side essentially intact, which is exactly the opposite of what a defensive hollow point is trying to do.

Buffalo Bore loads the Buffalo Bore 9mm +P+ 124gr Penetrator above the SAAMI +P ceiling and uses a flash suppressed powder, as they do across their 9mm line. The extra pressure buys the velocity that turns a heavy flat nose bullet into a genuine penetrator.

9mm Flat Nose FMJ Ammo Ballistics

The published real gun figures are tight. A Browning Hi Power MK III gives 1317 fps and a Glock 19 gives 1298, against a nominal 1300. Those are roughly 477 and 464 ft-lbs.

Energy is the least interesting number here though. A 9mm flat nose FMJ ammo load uses its energy for depth rather than for opening up, so the useful comparison is not against a hollow point of similar energy but against other things that go straight through.

Against a car door, an interior wall or a windscreen, a flat nose full metal jacket will typically keep its course where an expanding bullet deforms on the barrier and veers or stops. That is the case for barrier penetration 9mm ammunition, and it is why this style of load exists at all.

Why The 124 Grain Full Metal Jacket Bullet Goes Through

Every defensive bullet sits somewhere on a line between rapid expansion and deep penetration, and almost all of them are built near the expansion end because that is what serves the common case. This one is built at the far opposite end on purpose.

The flat nose is what separates it from ordinary ball ammunition. A round nose full metal jacket will often tumble or deflect once it meets resistance, which wastes the penetration its construction should give it. A 124 grain full metal jacket bullet with a flat meplat stays nose forward and cuts a full calibre hole the whole way.

For woods carry that behaviour is the point. If you carry a 9mm in country with bears or hogs, an expanding bullet is very unlikely to reach anything that matters on a large animal. A deep penetrating 9mm woods load at least gives the bullet a chance to get through heavy muscle and bone.

Be clear eyed about that, though. A 9mm is a marginal choice for large dangerous game whatever you load it with, and a deep penetrating 9mm woods load is the best 9mm answer rather than a good answer in absolute terms. If bear defence is the actual requirement, a 10mm or a big bore revolver is a serious step up.

Specifications

Where This Deep Penetrating 9mm Woods Load Belongs

This is not a house load. A non expanding bullet at 1300 fps will pass through a person and keep going, and it will pass through interior walls after that. In a home or an apartment with neighbours, a hollow point is the responsible choice and there is no real argument about it.

Where it earns its place is outdoors, in the woods, or in a vehicle context where you may have to shoot through something. Those are the situations Buffalo Bore designed it for and the ones where the trade makes sense.

Understand what +P+ means. There is no SAAMI specification for it, and Buffalo Bore declines to rule on which pistols are suitable. That judgement is yours: a sound modern service pistol in good order, not a worn gun or one with a poorly supported chamber.

Confirm function with a box. A 124 grain full metal jacket bullet with a flat nose feeds differently from round nose ball and from hollow points, and a feed ramp that likes one profile does not automatically like another. This is worth verifying rather than assuming.

Barrier Penetration 9mm Ammunition Availability

This barrier penetration 9mm ammunition is in stock and ready to ship from MAG5 Firearms, a family owned FFL dealer in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Ammunition orders ship to most states, and local customers are welcome to pick up in the shop. If you need case quantities or a hollow point for house use instead, call us and we will check what our distributors have on hand.

Manufacturer details are on the Buffalo Bore site. For an expanding bullet in the same calibre see the 9mm +P+ 147gr JHP. If penetration is the real requirement, step up to the 10mm 155gr Barnes TAC-XP, or browse our full ammunition selection.