A couple years ago I realized I did not have the latest and greatest handgun .. a 9 millimeter .. so named (I think) because .35 Automatic was not as attractive. Anyway I found a good deal on a Star BM and picked it up. Nice all steel gun .. no plastic .. made to last millennia and will not melt if your significant other unknowingly turns on the warming over where you hid your plastic wonder and did not tell anyone.

Anyway ... I was sitting around with nothing to do and got to wondering how the little 35 caliber slugs would perform if I modified them. I had a bunch of Bear Creek Supply's 125 gr. roundnose lead bullets ...

and a bunch of Berrys 124 gr. round nose double plated bullets ..

So I made a tool to modify them.

It removed about 2 gr. from each bullet.

The Bear Creek bullet is a different length and I had to make a spacer so it was in proper position to modify.

This removed about 3 gr. from the lead bullets.

I loaded them with 5.8 gr. of Unique and a CCI Standard Small Pistol primer.

Then I filled a 6 gallon bucket with sand and set it on top of 4" of pine boards just in case. I have shot into sand before and it stops bullets quite rapidly .. but you want to be a little cautious.

I fired each load straight down into the bucket. First I fired unmodified bullets.

Bear Creek Supply not modified - recovered weight 121.1 grains.

Berry's Double Plated not modified - recovered weight 123.9 grains.

Then I fired the modified bullets into the bucket of sand.

Bear Creek modified - recovered weight 121.9 grains.

Berry's Double Plated modified - recovered weight 122.2 grains.

This test does not indicated how the bullets will perform in flesh. I was just wanting to see
how much flattening the nose of the bullet would affect it. If a person wanted to modify these
for hunting or self-defense further tests in a proper medium would be required. I did find it
interesting that neither bullet lost weight, though I don't know that really indicates anything. To obtain really valid data the bullets should be shot in other media and a large number should be fired.

But this was fun!

Yes .. I actually carried the Star 9em em as my CCW gun ... once. Just so I could say I did it.