Back in 1946, John Amos Nosler was hunting moose in British Columbia. He became frustrated because the bullets he was using did not penetrate deeply enough to quickly kill the moose he was hunting.
The bullets he was using had a jacket that completely covered the base of the bullet, leaving the lead at the nose exposed. While they created a large wound channel, they did not penetrate very far, sometimes breaking into small pieces. Typically, they fared poorly at moving through bone and muscle, which did not bring the animals down quickly or humanely. Nosler figured that this simply would not do.
It motivated him to develop bullets that would expand at low velocities and yet maintain their integrity at higher velocities. Initially, he produced bullets for his personal use using a lathe that hand-turned the bullet jackets.
Nosler began selling these partition bullets commercially in 1948. His new company was located in Bend, Oregon, and it was family-owned. His company’s motto said a lot then, and still says a lot today: “Quality First.” The rest, as they like to say, is history.
ASP
Nosler’s ASP stands for Assured Stopping Power. They state that the round delivers match-grade accuracy, coupled with a “reliable, effective hollow point bullet.” Aside from coming from their line of match-grade ammunition, which they load very carefully, this line of ammo is designed with duty and/or defensive use in mind.
Of course, Nosler uses the very best materials available when making any of their ammunition.
A few of the details of this ammunition are that Nosler uses a skived bullet jacket engineered to expand over a wide range of velocities. It is also intended to produce sufficient penetration to reliably stop bad people from doing bad things.
The mouth of the hollow point is designed to facilitate reliable feeding through all handguns. And indeed, when I look at the mouth of the cavity, it is not huge, but slopes inward. This certainly does suggest that the edges should not hang up on any feed ramps, and I imagine it will feed through most any handguns that we can dig up.
Nosler uses a pure lead core and encases it in a gilding metal, which consists of 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. This jacket is then deeply skived so that it will reliably open up, even at moderate velocities (as low as 800 feet per second).
Variety
Nosler’s ASP line covers a variety of calibers and bullet weights.
Calibers included are 9mm, .45 ACP, 10mm, and .40 Caliber S&W. Each caliber has at least a few different bullet weights available.
This article is focusing on the 9mm 124-grain offering. However, they also have 115-grain rounds, as well as 147-grain options.
For my carry ammo in 9mm, I normally prefer the 124-grain offerings (the term “grain” refers to the weight of the projectile, by the way). The 124-grain rounds split the difference between 115-grain and 147-grain bullets.
The 147-grain bullets are slower, and speed helps hollow points to expand reliably. Nevertheless, most hollow points in the 147-grain weight class are designed to expand at their given velocities, so this is probably a moot point. The 147-grain projectiles often experience more penetration in bad guys, which can be a good thing. Normally, these are the heaviest 9mm projectiles that we’re likely to find on the shelves at a gun shop.
But the 124-grain rounds seem to have respectable speed and yet good penetration and expansion from the hollow points. They’re a sort of middle-of-the-road option that I just happen to like. And it’s not just me — quite a few other shooters seem to have similar thinking.
Beyond stopping bad guys, some pistols seem to shoot certain bullet weights better than others. Some might shoot the heavier rounds more accurately. Or the lighter rounds might do the trick better. It’s a good idea to try a few different bullet weights in your particular pistols to see what works best. However, at typical handgun defensive shooting distances (normally about three yards), any bullet weight should be okay as far as accuracy is concerned.
Specs
Nosler states that each bullet is inspected, weighed, and polished. They’re checked for correct length, neck size, chamfering, and true, and even the flash holes are checked for proper alignment.
Velocity at the muzzle is listed as 1,150 feet per second, and at 25 yards, it is 1,080 feet per second. It is also made in the United States.
At the muzzle, this load generates 364 foot-pounds of energy, and at 25 yards, it is 321 foot-pounds. Compared to other defensive chamberings, that’s not too shabby. All that said, I take the foot-pound figures with a grain of salt, as I’m not sure that they translate much into stopping power for bad guys.
This ammunition is loaded to standard pressures. These days, defensive ammunition is often loaded to +P pressures, but the resultant velocity comes at a price, which is usually additional recoil/muzzle flip and muzzle blast. Not to mention, extra pressure is harder on firearms. It’s refreshing that Nosler isn’t riding the “+P Wave.”
Stopping Power
A quick word about “Stopping Power.” It’s a term we see thrown around these days quite a bit. I’m not sure it’s accurate, but I guess it’s as good a term as any, hence the reason I’m using it.
During defensive shootings, there may be more factors at play than most people realize. How well will the ammo perform?
Truthfully, the ammo could do its job perfectly and we still might not see the desired results. What results are those? For the bad guy to immediately stop attacking us or doing other nefarious acts. Why?
Because, like us, the bad guy is going to be hopped up on adrenaline (and possibly other chemicals, including controlled substances). People under the influence of adrenaline sometimes don’t realize that they’ve even been shot. Even those who have been mortally wounded often continue fighting long after they physically should have fallen and died. It’s weird, but it happens all the time. We see people absorb an insane amount of damage to their bodies, and yet they fight on.
Physical and mental conditions play a huge role in whether or not our attacker(s) will cooperate and cease the attack. About all we can do is choose the best firearm/bullet combination we can, and focus on good shot placement. That does involve some training on our part.
That adrenaline that I mentioned is going to make our hands and entire body shake, and our hands may feel more like flippers than anything else. I believe the more we’ve trained, the better our performance might be. Thus endeth the lesson.
At The Range
Hornady’s 124-grain ASP loads exhibited about average recoil for this weight of the round. No excessive muzzle flash was noted.
Springfield’s Hellcat and Hellcat Pro were used to test these rounds. Both pistols were 100% reliable.
We fired at steel pepper popper targets at 10 and 20 yards. Normally, my range doesn’t have them available, but they were set up after a competition, so we availed ourselves of their use. Some fast and furious range action showed these rounds to be good to go, and accuracy was more than sufficient for the task at hand.
Although I cannot fire these rounds into 10% ballistic gelatin, I have seen tests where it was used. One tester fired the ASP rounds through auto glass and thick layers of clothing. The ASP rounds penetrated sufficiently and expanded impressively enough that I will feel confident in carrying this ammunition in my magazines for daily carry. As a point of fact, I will be carrying this ammo because it’s that good.
No, we don’t see a lot in the press about this particular ammunition, nor its performance. However, given the extremely high quality of the components, the design, and Nosler’s well-deserved reputation, this is excellent ammunition.
Currently, it sells for $29.99 per box of 20 at GunMag Warehouse.
