Fiocchi CovertX Bullet: JHP with Nickel-Plated Brass

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Fiocchi has been manufacturing ammunition for almost 150 years, but it wasn’t until 2025 that the company released its first defensive handgun bullet. This groundbreaking projectile will only be available in Fiocchi’s new CovertX line of handgun ammunition.

The success or failure of a personal defense bullet boils down to construction. A well-designed bullet penetrates effectively but does not overpenetrate, expands reliably and is effectively “barrier blind” so it will perform well on FBI protocol tests. But building a bullet that does all this and is accurate, affordable and easy to manufacture at scale is no mean feat.

Fiocchi began with a premium copper jacket and added a lead core—a pretty common recipe for a jacketed hollowpoint bullet design. However, there are some notable differences between CovertX bullets and other defensive bullets.

The Fiocchi bullet is not bonded, but bonding is not always necessary for premium performance. However, premium construction and reliable expansion and penetration are important. To accomplish this, Fiocchi designed its bullet with a lead core with pre-cut serrations and wrapped it in a thick copper jacket.

Construction

The jacket holds together as the bullet impacts the target, and the pre-cut lead core is designed to expand reliably at impact velocities. In addition to the pre-cut lead core, CovertX bullets also feature skiving in the nose to further regulate expansion and create the classic mushroom profile.

I spoke with Fiocchi product manager Travis Franklin about the bullet’s design, and he pointed out that across the range of loads—which includes .380 ACP, 9mm, .38 Special, .357 Magnum and .45 ACP offerings—each bullet profile was designed for optimum performance for that cartridge at standard impact velocities.

The .45 ACP load travels at just 875 fps while the .357 Magnum has a muzzle velocity of 1,425 fps, yet both these rounds are expected to perform well when compared side by side. Franklin told me this requires attention to jacket thickness, lead core geometry and bullet profile. Hence the new CovertX bullet is not really one bullet but rather five unique bullets that share similar design and manufacturing processes.

Bullet design is critical to the performance of a personal defense load, but it isn’t the only consideration. Reliability is essential, and to ensure reliable feeding Fiocchi nickel plates all its cases for consistent performance. Nickel plating lowers the friction coefficient, the drag between metal surfaces that can cause a malfunction—especially in a dirty gun. Franklin said the company also spent time evaluating propellants and charges to find just the right powder loads to provide consistent performance.

Accuracy Results

The results speak for themselves. I tested three semiauto defense pistols with CovertX ammunition, and the results are listed in the table below. The barrel lengths in my test were between 4.9 and five inches, and all the velocities I got exceeded factory specs. In a separate test you’ll read about in a second, a 3.4-inch barrel turned in a muzzle velocity average below the 1,115 fps spec for the 9mm.

Extreme velocity spreads for 10 shots ranged from 32 to 42 fps, and all three loads tested had a standard deviation for 10 shots that ranged from 11 to 12. That’s good evidence that loading and manufacturing consistency is superb, which translates to consistent, reliable, predictable performance at the range and in real-life situations.

There were no malfunctions during testing with any of three test pistols. The bullet profile and nickel-plated cases cycled fluidly through a variety of pistols. Fouling levels were nothing out of the ordinary, and accuracy good. For example, I managed groups of 2.4 inches for five shots at 25 yards with a Girsan .380 ACP test pistol.

Recoil seems on par with other defensive ammo, although the .380 ACP load proved to be pretty snappy, and in fact it was the fastest of the five different .380 loads I was testing as part of a gun review. It ran about 100 fps or so faster than other comparable loads, and while that did increase recoil, the speed also gives it an edge in terms of kinetic energy.

More Testing

In a separate evaluation, Handguns editor Scott Rupp fired both 9mm and .357 Magnum CovertX loads through the same types of synthetic gel blocks that Fiocchi used for testing the CovertX. The 9mm load, which averaged 1,047 fps out of a Taurus GX2 with 3.4-inch barrel, penetrated 14.5 inches on average. The .357 Magnum load, fired from a Taurus 650 with three-inch barrel and hitting 1,176 fps, averaged 12.5 inches of penetration.

The mushrooms were, in a word, gorgeous—with only one petal on one .357 bullet out of place. With the 9mm, the petals folded back to right at the base of the bullet. With the .357, which is moving considerably faster, the petals were pushed back to the point they wrapped around the bullet base. The 9mm measured 0.60 inch across the mushroom—66 percent expansion—while the .357 expanded to 0.65 inch, an 82 percent increase in frontal diameter.

CovertX ammunition is loaded with bullets that are comparable in weight to other defensive loads. The .380 fires a 95-grain projectile and the 9mm uses a 124-grain bullet. Both the .38 Special and .357 Magnum fire 125-grain bullets, and the big .45 ACP uses a 230-grain bullet.

CovertX may be Fiocchi’s freshman effort in bullet design, but this company has been loading ammunition long enough that it is hardly new to the game, and that’s obvious when you closely examine its new bullet. It’s clear that the company didn’t jump to market with this projectile. Instead, its makers spent time in the lab testing, designing and redesigning their bullet until they finally settled on a finished product. And that finished product is truly excellent.

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