Ruger LCR & GoldDot 135+p Short Barrel

[marb4]

Recently, for various reasons, I've decided to make the Ruger LCR 357 my primary CCW. In the hunt for the best round for carry, I've settled on the Speer GoldDot 135 grain +p 38 Special Short Barrel. I've read a lot of good reports regarding this round but wanted to see for myself what it would do from my LCR.

Shooting from 10 feet through 2 layers of t-shirt material I used a "Fackler Box" as my test setup. I've done several tests in other calibers with this setup and find that the expansion and penetration numbers I get correlate pretty closely with 10% ballistic gel. This is by no means a perfect setup but its close enough for my purposes. Anyway, here are the results:

PENETRATION:
30 inches water - Converted to 16.5 inches gel

EXPANSION:
0.61 inches

I'm very impressed with the performance of this setup. It has made a great ccw package for me and I think I'll be sticking with it.

 

[horsemen61]

I also carry an LCR in 357 yes the gold dots are hard to beat that's for sure

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I carry the 135gr Gold Dots in my S&W M442 and I agree, they are hard to beat.

Speer did a very good thing when they developed their short barrel bullets to expand reliably at the lower velocities associated with a short barrel handgun.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Looks good, water will generally cause a hollow point to expand more so than in ballistics gelatin. Regardless, this round is tops for a snub nose 2" bbl or less .38 special revolver.

I carry it in my S&W 642 daily, and use it for home defense in a 4" bbl K-frame Model 64. The NYPD still issues this same short barrel Gold Dot for the few officers who carry 4" service revolvers on duty. It works very well snub bbls and also service revolver bbls.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I often carry an SP101 loaded with this round. I also keep a S&W 686+ loaded with them in the table next to my chair.

Good stuff.

 

[BLU]

marb4: Thanks for the testing and your post. Think I'll give them a try.

Midway USA shows them for $23.49 for 20 rounds.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/27...-38-special-p-135-grain-jacketed-hollow-point

 

[moxie]

They are nice but I prefer the Golden Saber 125+P in my LCR. More accurate & controllable for followups.