April 2025 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

New Jersey State Police Museum

By Joe Berk

Here’s something different: A visit to the New Jersey State Police Museum in West Trenton, New Jersey.

A statue of a New Jersey State Trooper on the Museum grounds.

I’d seen references to the NJSP Museum on Facebook and elsewhere, and being back in New Jersey a short while ago, Susie and I found ourselves casting about for things to do. Ordinarily, our visits to the Garden State include the same stops: Lunch at the Shrimp Box in Point Pleasant (awesome seafood), every once in a while a visit to Bahr’s in the Highlands (another spot for awesome food), maybe a trip to Asbury Park (think Bruce Springsteen and Danny Devito), a few of the Soprano’s filming locations, the Rutgers University campus, the Old Mill in Deans, New Hope (just across the Delaware River), and a few of our other standard stops. This time we wanted to explore a bit more, and I put the New Jersey State Police Museum on the list. I knew that it had a couple of vintage motorcycles, and I figured it would probably have a few firearms on display. Guns and motorcycles fit the ExhaustNotes theme.

The New Jersey State Police is a paramilitary, well-disciplined, and impressive organization. I’d call it a STRAC outfit (in Army slang, STRAC is an acronym derived from skilled, tough, and ready around the clock). One thing I’ve never seen is an out-of-shape NJ State Trooper.

A statue of Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf near the NJSP Museum entrance.

New Jersey State Troopers are the Marines and Green Berets of the police world. That didn’t happen accidentally: The guy who formed the NJ State Police a century ago was none other than Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Not the guy who led US troops during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 (that H. Normal Schwarzkopf was his son), but the original. Colonel Schwarzkopf was a US Military Academy graduate, and when he formed the NJ State Police, his vision was a military organization with the same look as that instilled at West Point. I’d say he succeeded.

Trooper Ralph Dowgin gracing The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles.

I touched on the NJ State Police when I wrote The Complete Book of Police and Military Motorcycles. The cover photo shows Captain Ralph Dowgin on a 1934 Harley-Davidson. Captain Dowgin went on to command Troop D, the NJSP branch that patrolled the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. We also wrote about Jerry Dowgin, Captain Dowgin’s son and a friend of mine who owned a 1966 Honda 305 Scrambler (a bike featured here and in a Motorcycle Classics magazine story).

Getting to the NJSP Museum was relatively easy, although the location was tucked away on the NJSP Headquarters grounds. We just plugged the name into Waze, and after meandering through a bunch of small streets in West Trenton, we were at a manned gate. The location is essentially a military compound. The nice young lady at the gate called ahead to confirm the Museum was open (it was), and then she raised the gate. We followed her instructions and the map she gave to us, and we were there. We were the only visitors, so we had the place to ourselves.

The NJ State Police guns story is an interesting one.

When the New Jersey State Police organization started in 1921, their first duty weapon was the Colt double-action revolver (a six shooter) chambered in .38 Special. This very handgun you see here was issued to Colonel Schwarzkopf.

Four cylinders full of .38 Special ammo, for a total load of 30 rounds carried by each Trooper. Reloads had to have been painstakingly slow back in the day. I remember seeing these ammo carriers on State Troopers when I was a kid. With their Glock sidearms today, the gun itself and one additional magazine exceeds all the rounds seen above.

Another .38 Special Colt revolver on display. Troopers have been assigned sequential badge numbers from the very beginning, with Trooper No. 1 being H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Back in the day, the NJ State Police also issued the .38 Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece to their Troopers, which was a 6-shot revolver with adjustable sights. This one has a 6-inch barrel. I’ve owned a few of the Smith and Wesson revolvers; they are good guns.

The Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece. These are beautiful revolvers.

Colt released a commemorative version of the NJSP revolver, cased and finished in high polish blue. — Colt released a commemorative NJSP revolver, with high polish blue and the NJSP emblem. Commemorative guns, for the most part, don’t appreciate at the same rate the basic (i.e., non-commemorative) guns. I’ve owned a few commemorative guns, but not this model.

More information on the Colt NJSP 75th Anniversary commemorative revolver. We previously visited the Colt Custom Shop; you can read about that here.

In those early days, the NJ State Police also used 1903A1 Springfield rifles. I have a 1903A1 in near perfect condition and I’ve written about shooting cast and jacketed bullets in it, and the rifle’s complex rear sight. They are nice rifles and they are collectible. Truth be told, though, I can shoot tighter groups with my 91/30 Mosin Nagant.

A NJSP 1903A1 Springfield. The 1903A1 has the 1903’s more complex right sight and the so-called “scant” stock. I was surprised to see this. You don’t encounter to many 1903A1 rifles.

Later in their history, the NJ State Police used Ruger .357 Magnum double-action, stainless steel revolvers.

Ruger revolvers used by the NJ State Police, in both 4-inch and 6-inch barreled versions.

During the 1980s, many police departments made the switch from revolvers to 9mm semi-automatic handguns. Not all choices worked well for the NJ State Police. One firearm, the H&K 9mm squeeze cocker, was particularly troublesome. The NJSP experienced numerous accidental discharges. Sometime after that, the NJSP went to SIG handguns. That didn’t work out, either. When the NJ State Police made the switch to SIGs, the handguns had reliability issues, and when SIG couldn’t fix the problems, the NJ State Police sued SIG. It seemed like the NJSP couldn’t catch a break in their quest to adopt a 9mm handgun. Ultimately, the NJSP went with Glock 9mm handguns. That worked out well.

A Glock up top, and several SIG handguns. The SIG at the bottom of this photo is chambered in .45 ACP.

Another SIG handgun in the NJ State Police Museum.

Good intentions, but bad results. It’s unfortunate. I believe that SIG makes the finest 9mm handgun in the world. But I don’t carry one for a living (like the New Jersey State Troopers do).

The 9mm Glock currently carried by New Jersey State Troopers.

The firearms exhibits also displayed other long guns used by the New Jersey State Police.

A .45 ACP Thompson submachine gun the NJSP used decades ago, and an M16. A submachine gun can fire in the fully automatic mode (like a machine gun). The “submachine gun” designation typically means the gun uses a pistol cartridge.

An exhibit displaying a sampling of confiscated weapons. New Jersey police agencies typically confiscate between 7,000 and 10,000 guns annually. All are delivered to the NJSP Ballistics Unit for destruction.

The New Jersey State Police also have a rich tradition using motorcycles, although they no longer use motorcycles for patrol duties. The NJSP has a few modern Harleys, but these are used for ceremonial functions only. In the early days, the NJSP used motorcycles year round, and in New Jersey, the winters can get cold, wet, snowy, and icy. Back in the day, the NJSP used tire chains when it snowed. That’s hard to imagine.

Mittens used for cold weather riding. Those guys were tough. Unless they are electrically-heated, mittens like these don’t keep your hands warm for long.

New Jersey State Trooper Justin Dintino, a motor officer who went on to become the 10th leader of the New Jersey State Troopers. Colonel Dintino graduated from the NJSP Academy two years after I was born.

Trooper E. Paul Sjostrom with his Harley-Davidson police motorcycle in 1925. Back then, the NJSP had 40 Harleys, 40 horses, 20 cars, and a single truck to patrol the entire state of New Jersey.

A more recent Harley police motorcycle. As mentioned above, the NJSP no longer uses motorcycles for patrol duties.

A macro shot of the tank and engine on the NJSP Harley.

Distinctive colors and a distinctive emblem.

A 1948 Harley Panhead used by the NJ State Police. It had a hand shift and a foot clutch.

The tombstone taillight Harleys used in 1948.

The Harley siren used back in the 1940s and 1950s was activated by pivoting the entire siren such that it was friction driven by the rear tire. I used to have a similar siren on my Schwinn bicycle, which drove our neighbors nuts.

Harleys rode with the NJSP from the very beginning. This is a 1921 NJSP Harley.

A closer photo of the 1921 Harley’s V-Twin engine.

One of the NJSP Museum’s exhibits was a wanted poster for a particular person. That wanted poster is for Joanne Chesimard, who is a fugitive being sheltered by Cuba. Chesimard participated in the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in May 1973. The murder occurred very near where my family lived. Another NJ State Trooper had pulled over a car driven by Clark Squire (Chesimard was also in the car). Foerster arrived in a backup patrol car. A gun battle ensued, Foerster was murdered, and Squire escaped into the woods just to the east of our home.

Squire remained at large, hiding in the woods, for several days. We thought he had escaped from the area, but police officers continued the search. Squire finally surrendered to a local police officer. We believed that if the NJ State Police had found him, Squire would not have been brought in alive (and that would have been okay with everyone I knew).

Squire, Chesimard, and a third person were convicted of murdering Foerster and sentenced to life in prison. Chesimard subsequently escaped and found her way to Cuba, where she lives in freedom to this day (sheltered by a Cuban government that refuses to extradite her to the United States). Incredibly, when Barack Obama wanted to recognize the Castro regime and lift sanctions on Cuba, returning Chesimard to serve out her sentence was not part of the deal. She remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted List to this day.

In yet another disappointment related to this Foerster murder, Squire was recently released on parole (50 years into what should have been a life sentence). I know. It’s not right.

To get back to the main topic of this blog, if you ever find yourself in New Jersey you might want to spend a few hours visiting the New Jersey State Police Museum in West Trenton. It’s free, it’s a great museum, and it’s an opportunity to learn a lot about one of the most elite police organizations in America. We enjoyed it. You will, too.

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25 and 50 Yard ARX .45 ACP Results

By Joe Berk

I am giving the .45 ACP ARX 118-grain bullets a thorough evaluation in my Springfield 1911. I’ve been using my Winchester 231 load (7.0 grains, to be precise), and I continue to be impressed with just how accurate these bullets are.

One day recently when I was on the range with the 1911 and my ARX reloads, it was very windy. I shot at 25 yards, had a decent group, and then two things happened:

- - I moved the target out to 50 yards, and
  - The wind picked up significantly.

You might call someone who evaluates a load for accuracy under high wind conditions not very bright. Hey, guilty as charged. That’s exactly what I was doing.

Under those extremely windy conditions, I was surprised. The bullets impacted the 50-yard target a foot to the right. I kept cranking in windage adjustments on the 1911’s rear sight and I still couldn’t get the bullets back on target.

A cold and foggy morning on the West End Gun Club range. The left arrow points to my 25-yard target, which I subsequently moved out to 50 yards. The right arrow points to a target on the 100-yard line (I brought the Garand along; it’s not addressed in this blog). I had to wait for the fog to clear a bit; I could barely see the target.

Realizing there had to be more to the story, I went out to test the load again at 25 and 50 yards a few days later when the wind had died down. It was cold and foggy, but there was no wind.

Five rounds with ARX bullets at 25 yards. All five went into the 10-ring.

I put the target at 25 yards and fired 5 rounds with my ARX load. Nice, I thought, as I looked through my spotting scope. All five shots were in the 10-ring, and 3 of those were in the X-ring.

I then moved the same target out to 50 yards and fired another five rounds. Wow, was I ever pleased. The 50-yard group was right on top of the 25-yard group, with a couple that went a little high (but they were still in the black).

Five more rounds on the same target as above (a regulation 25-yard pistol target), this time at 50 yards. Beware of old guys; some of us are still pretty good shots.

The above results and my experience the preceding week convinced me of three things:

- - The ARX bullets are probably more affected by wind than conventional bullets at longer ranges (not surprising, as they are half the weight of normal 230-grain hardball bullets),
  - The ARX bullets are exceptionally accurate, and
  - The ARX load is a relatively flat-shooting load (I didn’t have to make any sight adjustments when going from 25 to 50 yards).

I like these ARX bullets, and I like this load.

Next up? I’ll be evaluating this .45 ACP ARX load in a couple of my revolvers. That’s going to be interesting. I promise.

Prior ExNotes ARX bullet evaluations are here:

Winchester 231 and Alliant Power Pistol .45 ACP ARX Results
Dialing In A .45 ACP ARX Load
9mm and .45 ACP ARX Load Testing
ARX Bullets In Two 9mm Pistols

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Winchester 231 and Alliant Power Pistol .45 ACP ARX Results

By Joe Berk

When you’re a retired engineer who likes to play with guns…well, read on.

After my great results with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol under the 118-grain ARX bullet in the .45 ACP, I learned that Power Pistol is no longer available. That was good news and bad news. The bad news is I that I can no longer get that powder. The good news is that I already have something like 850 loaded rounds with Power Pistol (those will last me for a while). More good news is that I have an excuse (not that I needed one) to find another load for my .45 with the ARX bullets.

.45 ACP cartridges reloaded with ARX 118-grain poly/copper composite bullet.

Winchester’s 231 worked great in the 9mm and I had some on hand, so that’s what I thought I would try next. Inceptor lists two load ranges; I stuck to the standard (i.e., non +P) range. With the 118-grain .45 ARX bullets, Inceptor showed the Winchester 231 propellant range to be 6.3 to 7.0 grains. I loaded at 6.8 and 7.0 grains. I test fired at 10 yards, just as I had done before with the Power Pistol loads.

In the full-sized Springfield Armory 1911, both 6.8 and 7.0 grains of 231 functioned reliably. The 7.0 grain group was noticeably tighter than the 6.8 grain load. The two targets on top were with 6.8 grains of 231; the two on the bottom were with 7.0 grains. The two 7.0-grain groups were right on top of each other if you look at both targets. There was one flyer in the first group, and that’s due to me. The second group was one ragged hole. This is a good load in the 5-inch Springfield 1911.

The top two targets were shot with 6.8 grains of Winchester 231; the bottom two were with 7.0 grains of 231. There are five shots on the bottom right target; they cut one ragged hole.

From a velocity and velocity variation perspective, the Springfield 6.8-grain load was tighter, but I’m sticking with the 7.0-grain load (it grouped better). If there was a difference in felt recoil between the two loads, I couldn’t detect it. Here’s the chrono readout for the Springfield and the 6.8-grain load:

Here’s the chrono result for the Springfield and the 7.0-grain load:

The 7.0-grain chrono results. The extra 0.2 grains of propellant bumped the average velocity 57 fps.

As a point of reference, the average velocity with the 8.8-grain Power Pistol load was 1299 fps, so this is only a little bit slower (16 fps, to be exact). The bottom line is that the 7.0-grain 231 load is a suitable substitute for the 8.8-grain Power Pistol load in the full-sized 1911.

I next turned to the Rock Island Armory Compact. It’s one my good buddy TJ of TJ’s Custom Guns worked over for me and it is superbly accurate and reliable with conventional cast and jacketed bullets. The Compact has a 3 1/2-inch barrel. The ARX bullets did not perform well with either powder (Winchester 231 or Power Pistol) in the Compact 1911. They tumbled in flight and they were not accurate. The 7.0-grain 231 load functioned the pistol reliably, ejected all cartridge cases, and held the slide open after the last round. The 6.8-grain 231 load worked the slide and it stayed open after the last round, but on the last round the cartridge case remained in the chamber. These factors (along with the poor accuracy and the tumbling in flight) showed the ARX bullets and 231 are not good in my Compact 1911.

I tried the ARX bullets with my prior 8.8-grain Power Pistol load in the Compact 1911 Everything on the gun functioned the way it should (I had reliable ejection and the slide stayed back on the last round), but the accuracy was poor and the bullets tumbled in flight just as they had with the 231 loads. The shorter 3 1/2-inch barrel just doesn’t give the bullets enough velocity to stabilize.

Here’s what the targets looked like with the Compact 1911. The left top is the 6.8-grain 231 load, the top right is the 7.0-grain W31 load, and the bottom two are with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol. Accuracy was terrible with all, and like I mentioned above, all loads exhibited tumbling. This is why we test loads. Some work, some work wonderfully well, and some don’t work at all.

Whoa! Things went to hell in a handbasket with the ARX bullets in my Compact 1911.

Here’s a closeup of the tumbling. It’s obvious what’s going on here.

The bullets tumbled in flight when fired in the Compact Rock. The lower left shot was flying sideways as it passed through the target.

These bullets need a minimum velocity to stabilize, and the Compact 1911’s shorter barrel isn’t delivering it. Here are the chrono results for the 6.8-grain 231 load (the chrono didn’t pick up a couple of the shots):

Lower velocity = less stability. Things fell apart with the Compact’s shorter barrel.

Here are the results for the 7.0-grain 231 load:

The chrono picked up a round fired by someone else. It didn’t matter; the results were not good at these lower velocities.

I didn’t bother chronographing the Power Pistol load in the Compact when I saw that those were tumbling, too.

It appears that the .45 bullets need something above approximately 1200 fps to stabilize. I’ll probably next test the 7.0-grain 231 load at 25 yards and 50 yards in the Springfield 1911 to see if the bullets are stable at those longer ranges. I don’t know how much velocity they’ll give up as a function of range and I’m not willing to stand downrange with the chrono to catch them as they fly by.

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India 2025: Jain Temples, Crowds, and More Culture Shock

By Mike Huber

India 2025: Part VI

Waking up the next day was a little bit easier. This was due to the fact there were only three switches on the wall. Much easier than the usual 100+ switches in the previous hotels. In those I wasn’t sure if I was turning on a fan, light, or launching an Apollo mission. I was even able to find the switch for the water heater to have a nice hot shower. After a short walk to obtain some much-needed caffeine and having the Royal Enfield Himalayans loaded, we were ready to head out and kick the day off.

Today was going to be about 250 kilometers of riding to the small town of Bhilwara. Along the way we would visit one of the very few Jain temples in India. Upon arrival, we instantly noticed the amount of detail on everything. The temple was more than one can comprehend in just a short visit.

We enjoyed soaking in the culture both from the temple and the locals taking more selfies of us. After a bit, it was time to start moving as we had one more temple to visit and a 2-hour ride to where we planned to stay for the evening.

The next temple was only about 10 minutes away but Google routed us through a local bazaar. Thankfully we didn’t attempt anything like this on Day 1 in India, as it would have been more than overwhelming. I figured this would start getting interesting as soon as the streets began to narrow and the crowds filled in. I cannot find a comparison other than to imagine driving through the 2004 Red Sox World Series Celebration at Government Center in Boston. Packed doesn’t even begin to describe it. Normally I would have thought motos weren’t supposed to be driving through here but with seeing one or two other motorcycles (other than us) I figured we weren’t doing anything too bad.

The ride was tight. We slowly made our way through the crowd with a constant honking and a light nudge of a pedestrian or three until we finally arrived at the temple. We weren’t quite swarmed by people looking for selfies but there were crowds everywhere around us. As always, they were super friendly so we took our time with each group and chatted with them on where we were from and where we were going.

Once we took a short tour of the temple and were asked for a bunch more selfies, it was time to head back on the road and the path to that road, you guessed it, it was through the same bazaar we squeezed through on the way in. By this time we were familiar with how to negotiate through the crowd and we did so.

As we approached Bhilwara we were more than ready to get off the bikes and get some dinner. Well, India had different plans for us. It turns out Bhilwara (as with other small towns we would learn) requires the hotels to file paperwork with local authorities for foreigners. Normally this isn’t too big a deal, but in this case none of the hotels in this town had the proper paperwork, nor did they seem too motivated to obtain it. This forced us to drive another hour until we were in a more populated area where we could finally rest for the evening. We were cutting it close with time as the bright red sun was just beginning to set as we pulled into the hotel. This was a fine way to wrap up another day motorcycling through India.

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Dialing In A .45 ACP ARX Load

By Joe Berk

This is what happens when you’re retired, it’s raining, and you have access to an indoor handgun range. In the last blog, I wrote about much I liked the ARX 118-grain .45 ACP Inceptor composite bullets. I also mentioned that I felt the 9.1-grain Power Pistol load was a bit hot for my tastes. So I continued the .45 ACP ARX bullet load development effort. I loaded 10 rounds each with the 118-grain bullets at 9.1 grains of Power Pistol (same as before), and then I loaded 10 rounds with 8.8 grains, 8.5 grains, 8.1 grains, and 7.7 grains of Power Pistol. I chronographed everything and fired at the same 10-yard distance as I had in the last blog, using the same two hand hold with no pistol rest. Just like before.

Here’s the data:

In my Springfield 1911 Target Model, all loads functioned perfectly. The loads were 100% reliable (at least with my 10 round sample size) for feed, function, and holding the slide open on the last shot.

As I had for the initial tests, I used the Alco target with four silhouettes on each sheet.

Here’s the target for the 9.1 grains and 8.8 grains of Power Pistol. The two top targets are with 9.1 grains, the two bottom targets are with 8.8 grains.

The top two targets are with 8.5 grains of Power Pistol; the bottom two are with 8.1 grains of Power Pistol.

These two targets are with 7.7 grains. I didn’t use the bottom two targets.

Three points are noted:

- As the loads get lighter, the bullets print higher on the target. That’s because the bullets are in the barrel longer as the gun is in recoil.
- The 8.8-grain load groups appear to be the most accurate. I had a flyer or two on each target, but I had several rounds make one ragged hole on each target.
- Recoil was a little bit less with the 8.8-grain load compared to the 9.1-grain load. I gave up about 45 fps in average velocity (from the 9.1-grain load), but hey, it’s a .45. Who cares? The target will never feel the difference.

Just to see if I still could rustle up my Excel skills, I put together three x-y plots showing the chrono data.

Average velocity appears to linearly correlate with powder charge (that bit of info and three bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks). That’s not always the case, especially as you approach maximum powder charges.

Extreme spread was minimized at 8.5 grains of propellant. It was still low at 8.8 grains.

In line with the extreme spread findings (see above), the standard deviations were similarly low at 8.5 and 8.8 grains of propellant.

Based on the above, I decided that 8.8 grains of Power Pistol is the l load I am going with for the ARX .45 ACP bullets. You might wonder why I didn’t select 8.5 grains, as that loading provided the lowest extreme spread and standard deviation. The simple answer is that lower extreme spreads and standard deviations do not always correlate with the tightest groups. If they did, I could simply take the suggested accuracy loads in the Lyman manual and run with them (Lyman bases their accuracy load selection based on standard deviation and extreme spread), but I’ve found that my accuracy loads are often not what the reloading manuals claim to be the most accurate. Another reason is that my Lyman manuals don’t include data for the ARX composite bullets. Results on paper are what count. For this bullet in my 1911, that appears to be 8.8 grains of Power Pistol. Yeah, it could just be me getting lucky with my handheld accuracy tests, but it’s me doing the shooting, and it’s me making the selection.

Both extreme spread and standard deviation are measures of velocity variation. Of the two, I prefer standard deviation as the more meaningful. The standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter σ) is a statistics parameter representing spread around the average. What it means is that approximately 99.7% of the velocities for all shots fired will lie within the range of the average velocity minus 3σ to the average velocity plus 3σ. The average velocity for the 8.8-grain load is 1299.6fps, so our ±3σ range is 1257.9fps to 1340.7fps. If you’ve ever heard people talk about Six Sigma quality programs, they are referring to minimizing variability to ±3σ (±3σ represents a total of 6σ). It’s a fancy way of saying the odds of being outside a ±3σ range are about 1 in 1000 (it’s actually about 3 in 1000 based on that 99.7% value mentioned above; calling it 1 in 1000 is an approximation). If you understand this, you already understand more than most people who toss around 6σ terminology. I’ve spent a lot of my career in manufacturing, engineering, and quality assurance, and I can guarantee you that most people who say 6σ have no idea what they are talking about.

To get back to the main topic, I am impressed with the ARX bullets. I ordered another 2000 as I was wrapping up this blog (and by the time you read this, I will already have them). If you haven’t tried the ARX bullets, you might think about doing so.

Our first look at the ARX bullets (in 9mm and .45 ACP) is here.

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India 2025: Alawar to Jaipur, Step Wells, and Forts

By Mike Huber

India: Part V

As I woke up in my dark hotel room it took me a few moments to realize where I was. What took longer was figuring out how to turn on the lights via the Rubik’s cube, but mashing all the light switches on the main panel helped me regain my focus and vision in this now dimly lit room. The bigger issue was finding the correct switch for the hot water. So after a short and cold shower (I didn’t find the switch) it was time to meet everyone downstairs and get our plan for the day together over some much needed coffee.

Once downstairs I looked at each of my friends, then myself in the mirror. It wasn’t difficult to tell who consumed the 8% Kingfisher beers the previous evening. I also learned that one of them went back to the store for another beer after I went to sleep but the store was closed. That didn’t stop my highly motivated friend from discovering that there was a guy next to the store selling Kingfishers at a mildly elevated price from a ditch next to the store.

With a few coffees in us we loaded the motorcycles and we were ready for another day of adventure. Today would be our first full day of riding from Alawar to Jaipur, which was only around 160km. There would be plenty of sights to see along the way as we traveled through some pretty remote backroads and Google Maps even had us go through a field trail for a few kilometers. We took turns leading although my cell service was still unreliable, so we would only have me lead when we were on one road for a solid length of time.

After an hour or so we decided to take a break in a small village and get a few bananas and some water. It only took a couple minutes before most the village came out to meet us all. Even a school bus stopped and let the kids off to check out the bikes and talk with us. It reminded me of my first experience in India 20 years prior. This would become a familiar sight for us with crowds coming up to us to chat and take selfies. They all were the friendliest people. We enjoyed these stops and opportunities to engage with the locals in these little villages that were so far off the maps.

Our next stop was to check out a step well. One of the guys had this thing for step wells, and by the end of the trip I hoped I would never see another step well again. I think he had to have like a Global map for them. Step wells are really just a deep brick hole in the ground with several steps from all angles going down into the hole to fetch water with buckets and bring it back up. Some of them went over 60 feet down.

Once we arrived in Jaipur it was early afternoon, and the traffic was really starting to become congested. This made it a challenge for me to stay within line of sight of the guys (again). There is a huge fort in Jaipur called Nahargarh Fort. It was the first of many forts we would be visiting. The fort was stunning to walk around and the views from that high ground were spectacular. We could view the entire city from this fort.

As we wrapped up the tour of the fort and returned to lower ground the traffic had become beyond insane. The streets were narrow and filled with tuk tuks, motorcycles, cows, cars and just overall chaos. It seemed every inch that was gained to stay in a tight group was a fight. The others driving wasn’t so much as aggressive as it was just cramped and tight. My bike got scuffed up by a bus at one turn, but I had to keep on riding to keep up with the others.

By the time we reached our hotel we all were more than ready for a Kingfisher and we each hoped they were the 8% ones. We survived another day motorcycling through this fabulous, but intense country and were eagerly looking forward to what the following day would bring.

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9mm and .45 ACP ARX Load Testing

By Joe Berk

I recently received my order of Inceptor ARX 118-grain .45 ACP bullets. I had previously loaded 9mm ammo with ARX 65-grain bullets and I was pleased with them, so I wanted to try the ARX bullets in the .45, too.

I compared how two 1911s performed on my local indoor pistol range, firing with a two-hand hold (but without a rest) at 10 yards. I used nearly identical 1911 Springfield target pistols, one in 9mm and the other in .45. The .45 1911 is as it came from the factory; this gun has had no custom work done to it other than installing a one-piece guide rod. The 9mm 1911 had the same one-piece guide rod, along with other custom touches by good buddy TJ at TJ’s Custom Gunworks. The 9mm 1911 has a much crisper and lighter trigger, it is an absolute delight to shoot, and it is my favorite handgun.

The two Springfield 1911s used in this test., shown here with cast bullet loads. The testing described herein used ARX composite bullets, as shown in the photo at the top of this blog.

The ARX bullets are different than anything I’ve used before. They are a mix of copper particles suspended in a polymer matrix. The ARX bullets are much lighter than cast or jacketed bullets, with consequently dramatically higher muzzle velocities. They are not marketed as frangible bullets. They are intended to produce a larger wound cavity and I suppose because of that they could be considered a better defense round. I’m not interested in any of that. I’ll never hunt with either a 9mm or a .45, and although I sometimes carry a 1911 chambered in .45 ACP or my 9mm S&W Shield, when I do so it is always with factory ammunition. Nope, my interested was a result of my buddy Robby gave me a few 9mm ARX bullets and I fell in love with them. The ARX bullets are less expensive than cast or jacketed bullets and they are accurate. For a range rat like me, that’s a good deal.

I reloaded all ammo used in this test series with my Lee turret press, a great setup that consistently produces superior ammo. This photo shows a completed ARX .45 ACP round. Here’s our earlier review of the Lee gear.

9mm 1911 ARX Results

I wrote about my initial impressions with the 65-grain 9mm ARX bullets previously (they were all good), so for this first portion of the comparison there’s not too much that’s new other than this load’s attaining 100% reliability in holding the slide back after the last round.

9mm ammo loaded with the ARX 65-grain polymer composite bullet. After my first trial with these bullets, I ordered a bunch.

9mm ARX bullets loaded in my 1911’s magazine.

My 9mm load uses 5.2 grains of Winchester’s 231 propellant, with the bullets seated to an overall cartridge length of 1.135 inches. I used CCI 500 primers and mixed brass for the loads you see here (I am lazy and I didn’t want to sort the 9mm brass). I loaded these on my Lee turret press using Lee dies (including the factory crimp die). I took the load data directly from Inceptor’s website. This load is a max load in their standard load listings (i.e., it is below the +P loads the Inceptor data also lists).

I shot at the Alco four-silhouette target (it has four quarter-sized silhouettes on each sheet), and I sent either 12 or 13 rounds downrange on each silhouette. That made for a total of 50 rounds on each target.

The Alco Targets 4-silhouette target. I shot 12 rounds at the top left target ,13 rounds at the top right target, 12 rounds at the bottom left target, and 13 rounds at the bottom right target. That top right target is pretty sweet.

The 9mm ARX load functioned perfectly in my 1911. There were no failures to feed or eject and the pistol stayed open after the last shot fired. This is an accurate load. The flyers are due to yours truly, not the gun or the load. Maybe if I had sorted the brass they would be a little better, but these are good enough for my purposes.

These 9mm bullets only weigh 65 grains. They step out sharply, but the recoil is low (perceptibly lower than what I would feel with a 115 or 124-grain cast or jacketed bullet). Velocities are high for a 9mm (which are typically in the 1100 fps range with cast or jacketed bullets). The Inceptor data for my load showed that they achieved 1433fps with 5.2 grains of HP38 propellant (which is the same powder as Winchester 231). Their results were with a 4-inch barrel. My 1911 has a 5-inch barrel; I achieved an average velocity of 1626fps, or nearly 200fps faster than what Inceptor achieved in their testing. To add a little more context to these findings, I previously tested this load in my S&W Shield (which has a 3.1-inch barrrel). In the Shield, this load averaged 1364fps. The bottom line? My results are consistent with the Inceptor load data.

Take a look at the Garmin chrono data for this load in the 1911.

Yikes! These are smoking hot 9mm rounds!

In my prior test of this load in the Springfield 1911 and the S&W Shield, I found that the 1911 would not hold the slide back after the last shot (the Shield didn’t have that problem). In that earlier initial test, I used a two-hand hold and I rested my arms on the bench. I think that might have caused the 1911’s problem with holding the slide open after the last shot. In the range session yesterday, I used a two-hand hold, but I did not rest my arms on the bench (and the gun functioned perfectly, holding the slide open after the last shot on every 5-shot string). The 5.2-grain Winchester 231 load is a good one for the 9mm. It’s accurate, the recoil is light, and reliability is superb.

.45 ACP ARX Bullet Testing

I next moved on to test the 118-grain ARX bullets in my .45 ACP Springfield 1911.

A cartridge that looks like a drill bit! ARX bullets in the .45 ACP make for an interesting and handsome round.

The .45 ACP load used the ARX 118-grain bullet with 9.1 grains of Power Pistol, a Winchester large pistol primer, and Winchester brass, all loaded on the Lee turret press with a Lee crimp die. The .45 ACP load data also came from the Inceptor site. The site lists three powders; the only one I had on hand was Power Pistol. The 9.1 grains of Power Pistol is at the top of their non+P range. It is not a +P load. Ordinarily I would not start testing at the top of the listed propellant weight range, and I probably shouldn’t have done so here (more on that a paragraph or two down).

.45 ACP ARX bullets loaded in my 1911’s mag. Everything works. They look cool.

The Inceptor load recommended a cartridge overall length of 1.26 inches. I loaded with a cartridge overall length of 1.250 inches, which is what I have used in all my other .45 ACP loads. That length fits well in the magazine. I don’t think the additional 1/100 of an inch Inceptor specified would cause interference between the ammo and the forward inside magazine edge, but it’s close and in any event, I wanted to stick with the cartridge length that has always worked for me in the past.

The .45 loads felt hot to me. I think that’s primarily because I have been shooting my 9mm handguns lately. A few of the cartridge cases showed a little (very little) primer flattening. I’m not sure if that was due to firing the round or if it was due to me putting extra effort into primer seating during the reloading process. The .45 ACP is a powerful cartridge, and when I haven’t shot one in a while, it can seem even more powerful.

Same target, different cartridge. That top left target has 12 rounds through it and it is what I’d like to do all the time. When it happens, it’s its own reward.

Accuracy was about the same as with the 9mm. I thought both were good. There were occasional flyers, but that was undoubtedly me and not the gun or the load. Again, I shot offhand for all of these groups, so I wasn’t expecting one-hole results.

1346fps from a .45 Auto! The chrono tells the story!

Velocities were very much higher than what I’ve seen with other bullets in any .45 ACP. I had previously loaded .45 ACP with all kinds of cast and jacketed bullets ranging from 185-grain wadcutters to 230-grain full metal jacket projectiles. They would typically see velocities of 700fps to maybe 900fps. Some folks load the .45 a little hotter than that with cast or jacketed bullets. I’ve never felt a need to. But those ARX 118-grain bullets! Wow! The Inceptor load data said I would see 1,317fps with 9.1 grains of Power Pistol propellant (and for their .45 ACP testing, Inceptor used a 5-inch barrel); my ammo averaged 1346fps. Extreme spread and standard deviation were low; both extreme spread and standard deviation were similar to what my 9mm ARX loads achieved.

Feed and ejection were flawless in my Springfield 1911. That said, I am going to drop the load down to 8.7 and 8.5 grains of Power Pistol and try that for the next load. If I get good groups and reliable function, that’s where I’ll load in the future.

The Bottom Line

These are good bullets, and I think they represent a huge step forward. They are the first really new thing to come along in the reloading game in a long time.

Surprisingly, both the 9mm and the .45 put the bullets where I wanted them, with no sight adjustments from my previous lead or jacketed bullet loads. I expected both the 9mm and .45 ACP ARX loads to shoot low, but they did not. The sights were right on the money.

I didn’t see any copper fouling from the bits of copper mixed in the ARX bullets’ copper/polymer matrix. There’s a tiny bit of blue/purple fouling from the bullet polymer, but it’s very minimal and it’s only in the grooves. I had not cleaned either the 9mm or the .45 1911 after earlier range sessions with cast and plated bullets and the bores were dirty when I started shooting the ARX bullets. Both guns were cleaner after shooting the ARX bullets than they are after shooting cast or jacketed bullets. Bore cleanliness is a big plus here.

Price is another advantage; the 9mm bullets are $57/1000 and the .45 ACP bullets are $65/500 (I think the .45 bullet price at $65/100 is an increase from what I paid a couple of weeks ago). I’ve ordered ARX bullets three times now; on all three orders, they did not charge sales tax. I guess the sales tax is included in the retail price already. Whatever. I’m an anti-tax guy. Whether it’s real or imagined, not paying sales tax is plus in my book.

I’m not going to hunt with either my 9mm or my 1911, but here in California, these bullets should meet our lead-free bullet criteria. Similarly, the bullets are not hollow points. Some places (San Francisco and all of New Jersey come to mind) have outlawed hollow point bullets. These bullets should be okay in places where hollow points are outlawed.

As mentioned near the start of this blog, the drill-bit-like bullet profile creates a much larger wound channel. The idea is that bullet spin allows the bullet to grab onto tissue and propel it outward. There are some YouTube videos that purport to show this in ballistic gelatin. I suppose if you were defending yourself against a bad guy made of ballistic gelatin (think Steve McQueen and the 1958 classic, The Blob) these would be the preferred bullet. None of that matters to me, and from a defense perspective it’s probably moot (especially with the .45). Dead is dead, and with a .45, I’m guessing a larger wound channel won’t make a bad guy any deader. My interest is in how well the ARX bullets shoot on paper, and they do that extremely well.

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