Ballistic gelatin test results : .38 Special 135gr +P Speer Short Barrel Gold Dot

[JE223]

I'm not sure how I let this one elude me - I didn't post it to THR IIRC... so here it is :

Cartridge : Speer 135gr Short Barrel Gold Dot (Load # 23921)

Firearm : .38 Special revolver with 1 7/8" barrel length

Calibration : All depths corrected (From 9.5cm @ 578 ft/sec impact velocity)

Shot 1 : Penetrated to 9.4" and expanded to 0.601"

Shot 2 : Penetrated to 10.2" and expanded to 0.605"

Shot 3 : Penetrated to 10.2" and expanded to 0.593"

Shot 4 : Penetrated to 10.0" and expanded to 0.597"

Shot 5 : Exited the side of the block at 10.0" and was not recovered.

One bullet out of five followed a straight path through the gelatin - all others curved and deviated significantly from their initial path in the block.

[Jim March]

Interesting yet again. Both flavors of Buffalo Bore 158 lead hollowpoint (+P and standard pressure) would seem to beat this by a decent margin.

But it ain't half bad. I know it's controllable, and does tight groups out of both my 38 snub and 357 full size.

One point: I notice the UNcorrected penetration is around 13" average. Stupid question maybe but...is the correction factor going to matter by that much, between any two blocks of gel?

[JE223]

JM - The correction factor relates to the bullet diameter, weight, a 'shape factor' (JHP, wadcutter, FMJ - shape, etc), and the calibration BB penetration. So, they do vary from shot-to-shot (sometimes) and definately from block to block.

Looking at those depths, I believe that the penetrations were a bit conservative relative to other results that I have gotten.

[Jim March]

Yeah, most reports put them down as doing 11" or a hair over. And clothes sometimes delay expansion for enough fraction of a second to add an inch or two.

This is good ammo, no question.

[mesinge2]

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread but instead of posting a new thread well:

I am looking for a good SD for my new Model 36 Smith and I have heard good things about speer's Short barrel ammo. I was just wondering what everyone opinion of this ammo is:

1) Its good, get it
2) pass, I have a better idea
3) or the infamous "other"

[NG VI]

I think it's a great load for a revolver in .38/.357, when I had a revolver I left at the house for unforseen events, back when I was married and had my house and my revolvers, I usually kept my 4" 28-2 loaded with these in case my recoil-hating wife needed it for some reason.

If I'm not mistaken they make a .357 short barrel load with a 135 grain bullet as well, probably not a huge increase in velocity over the .38+P variant of it, but any little bit helps right?

I would say that either this or a very soft 158 LSWCHP would be *the* way to go in a short revolver. I think Federal had plans to make a 125 grain HST in .38, but I don't believe they ever went ahead and did it. In a 4" .357 I generally go with the 125 Gold Dot, because I picked up a good number of them from Georgia Arms and liked them.

Remington Golden Saber should be another superb load if it's around and cheaper than this.

[mesinge2]

I bought 5 boxes of it. It is available on Midway USA right now if anyone wants to buy some.

I was shocked it was not on backorder like everything else!

[snooperman]

My choice too. I used to use the old FBI load but now like the Gold dot.