These Sig Sauer V-Crown 9mm bullets expanded perfectly after passing through the four-layer FBI test fabric.
While the Sig ammo is a relative newcomer to the market, the people are not. I spent some time talking with Dan Powers, who runs the ammo show, and it’s clear that the folks behind Sig Sauer’s new ammunition division have been there and done that.
Because every caliber, load and brand combination is different, we’re going to be testing a number of different Sig Sauer loads over the coming weeks. We’ll start the handgun family with Sig’s Elite Performance V-Crown 9mm load.
This one is a 124 grain standard pressure round, but as we’ll see, it delivers velocity closer to +P territory. The defensive handgun loads use Sig’s V-Crown bullet. Four years in design, it’s being patented as we speak and it’s all Sig Sauer. At this time, and maybe never, you won’t find it out there under other labels.
The V-Crown is a jacketed design, and from the exterior, looks like many other hollow-point bullets. The cavity appears to be more sharply conical than others, but that’s the only visible difference. The hollow nose is not particularly wide or cavernous and appears to be about the same size as that on a Speer Gold Dot of similar caliber. When you pull a bullet, you’ll see a cannelure groove half way up the shank. It’s present to help the lead core and jacket to remain united as the bullet travels through objects. What you can’t see is the “stacked hollow point” design that is intended to allow quick and reliable expansion – to a point. Rather than cut one in half and theorize, I shot a number of them into FBI fabric-covered gelatin blocks. We’ll talk about that later.
Accuracy and Velocity
As this is a Sig bullet, I felt it appropriate to test accuracy and velocity using a Sig Sauer pistol. The choice of which one was easy. I used the Sig Sauer P226 Elite SAO. This gun is really somewhat of a cross between a standard P226 and match grade model like the Competition X5. It’s got a single-action trigger and is stunningly accurate. Knowing what the pistol is capable of, I figured the ammo would get a fair test. It’s really consistency, after all, that drives accuracy from an ammo standpoint. Consistency of powder load, consistency of case size and wall thickness, and consistency of bullet construction.
I set up a Shooting Chrony Beta Master chronograph 15 feet downrange and got to shooting. Here’s a typical 10-shot string:
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