I found a new hobby Saturday afternoon. I rearranged some stuff in m'lady's kitchen and found a half dozen or 8 cans of Progresso clam chowder and corn and potato chowder that were SERIOUSLY out of date. Well, I like to shoot, so off into the woods I went. I tried a half dozen different carry rounds that I either carry now or did or might. I wanted to see how well they split a can.
In the past, I've shot various pieces of meat that went bad before I could get to them, to me, everything can become a test.....
I will say that the round I've kind of been in love with the last few years is a 9mm Federal Syntech 138gr segmenting hp in my 3" CCW. They do great on pork (yes, I've opened a few packs of pork over the years that were bad lol) butts I can say without a doubt that they also do great on clam chowder cans. They segment as they should and even the little ~20rg pieces that segment have more than enough energy to pierce the can exiting. I've always wondered just how much oomph those little pieces had.
FWIW - the 124gr Sig VCrown objectively split the can the best. I was at ~8 yards and that was also the only one that covered me in soup..... My money was on the Gold Dot +p, and it might have been so out of a full size. Those VCrowns are really loaded well though.
Tested: Syntech 138gr segmenting hp, HST 147gr jhp, VCrown 124gr jhp, Rem G&W box 115gr jhp, Dold Dot 124gr +p jhp, and a Sig 365 concealed carry 115gr jhp - which is a watered down VCrown and I do not recommend them. There is pretty much zero recoil difference in those and the regular VCrowns. They are just slower (by quite a bit) - I truly think that's the only difference.