Gold Dot vs Unicore vs Fusion?

[.455_Hunter]

Greetings,

Looking at ATK's three different factory 158 gr JHP .357 magnum loads, what is the terminal performance difference between Gold Dot (Speer), Fusion (Federal) and Unicore (Blazer Brass)? They all seem to have the electroplated bonded jacket and launch at the same velocity, so how does the different cavity types play into effectiveness?

Thanks,

Hunter

 

[moxie]

Gold Dots are Speer's premium top of the line self defense bullet. Really good stuff.

Uni-cor is part of the Gold Dot bonding process.

Fusion are Federal handgun hunting bullets.

 

[Krator]

@moxie Gold Dots may be premium but if you take a look at tests, they frequently fail to expand, unless fired from a rifle. 158gr gold dot has v. high penetration and limited expansion, 180gr most likely won't expand at all when fired from a revolver - but I'm not sure cause I can't look at the tests

EDIT: damn my memory, it was XTP that failed to expand. Gold dot expanded, but the expansion was limited.
It was .38 Special +P gold dot that failed to expand.

 

[SDGlock23]

Speer has started to call some of their loose Gold Dot bullets "deep curl" bullets as well

 

[moxie]

Well, check these tests:

Looks like they work well to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpA3Gb1EoZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAMQ6JbOUio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUV5M-BlQaE