You can’t seem to swing a dead cat these days without hitting another scalloped projectile design claimed to promote increased temporary cavitation and tissue disruption.
In rifles, the initial blame might be placed upon CETME engineer Gunther Voss who designed the asymmetric löffelspitz (spoon-point) bullet for use with the 4.6x36mm CETME/HK assault rifle cartridge starting in the mid-1960s.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3357357A
Voss would later play with multiple asymmetric cuts. I believe these were used with CETME’s mid-1970s attempts to make a micro-caliber PDW.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3949677
In handguns, everything points to the late Charles Kelsey of Devel fame. In the early 1990s, he started Leved Cartridge Ltd. to sell his Devel “radially dynamic” projectile.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5116224A
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5133261A
The following is an archived link to “The Gun Zone” with Tom Burczynski’s memories of Kelsey and the Devel bullet.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160520074837/http://www.thegunzone.com:80/people/charlie_kelsey2.html
PolyCase Ammunition/Quantum Ammunnition, LLC “ARX Inceptor”
While the initial patents for the ARX Inceptor were filed in Spain in 2013, Paul Lemke, Juan Carlos Marin, and Steven Eric Johnson did not file their first US patent until 2014.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9841260B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10126105B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20210116220A1
Lehigh Defense, LLC
David B. Fricke is responsible for the initial design filed 2014.
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD748220S1
Black Hills Ammunition’s Jeff Hoffman also lent a hand to Fricke on what is now known as the “Honey Badger.”
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9829293B2
Fricke and Andrew Lorenzo are credited with the armor piercing variant.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10036619B2
Fricke followed up with a “Honey Badger” design variant safe for tubular magazines.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10866075B2
G9 Defense “External Hollowpoint”
Joshua Mahnke is the founder of G9 Defense, and the sole designer of the following patents.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9709368B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD863492S1
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10502536B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10578410B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/USD868199S1
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11041703B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11181351B2
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20210310775A1
Scattered Shots 
So….. do they actually work? They sure look interesting enough.
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Thanks for this!
And to echo BAP45’s question … I like the idea of these, the Lehigh Defense rounds I’ve function-tested seem to feed well, and I live in bear country so a round that can both penetrate well and cause a decent wound cavity is an attractive proposition. But … Do they really work?
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I’ve certainly never seen evidence that they work. Hollow points, on the other hand, have a 40+ year track record in self-defense and police shootings. They work, no question, and the newer ones are really good.
Perhaps there really is a magic bullet and perhaps the screwdriver bits are it. But I’d like to see some real-world performance first.
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