G2 Research [note: their website is erratic. – ed.] certainly has created some buzz with the Radically Invasive Projectile (R.I.P) copper bullet they’ve designed, and the gelatin shots and the water-filled balloon tests are stunning to the naked eye.

It looks great on camera, and I suspect that these bullets will leave nasty wounds to close if they were shot into a living thing. I suspect, though, that a copper bullet that starts out at just 96 grains and sheds roughly half it’s weight due to designed fragmentation will simply not penetrate enough under a wide range of conditions to be reliably effective as a modern hollowpoint.

While using different technology, it seems to be operating on a theory similar to MagSafe and Glaser, that rapid fragmentation and widespread wound channels are preferable to deep penetration and relatively narrow wound channels.

For general use, most law enforcement agencies have traditionally preferred deeper penetrating hollowpoints, but there are specialized situations where rapid fragmentation is preferable.

Modern hollowpoints are more likely to reliably penetrate deep enough to hit major organs and effect a central nervous system or skeletal system hit, while the MagSafe, Glaser, and presumably the R.I.P. will cause substantial blood loss, but less reliable penetration to vital organs.

Far from being the “last round you’ll ever need,” the R.I.P.—which is brain-dead marketing for a self-defense round, by the way—strikes me as a very specialized round best suited for concealed carry in warm climates in densely packed urban areas, or in home-defense situations where the risk of collateral damage is high and the shooter has good reason to believe that over-penetration is more dangerous than under-penetration.

I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t suit my needs for my personal situation.