The objective of this work was to investigate the effects of face grooves and crack length variations of J_Ic and the tearing modulus of HY-130 steel. Compact specimen geometries (1TCT) with crack length ratios of 0.55, 0.65, and 0.8, and face grooves of 12.5 percent and 25 percent total cross section reduction were tested using a computer interactive unloading compliance test technique. Results of these tests showed that for this material, J_Ic was independent of specimen geometry for the range of geometries evaluated. The tearing modulus, however, was higher in nonface grooved specimens, in which crack tunneling occurred, and the tearing modulus was found to increase by a factor of two as crack length ratios increased from 0.55 to 0.8. In face grooved specimens, the tearing modulus was found to be constant for the various crack length ratios tested, at the lower bound of values developed with nonface grooved specimens.