Tony_the_tiger
Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2011
- Messages
- 905
The purpose of this post is to report on the performance of Speer's Gold Dot Short Barrel 135 Grain .38 + P round out of a S&W 442. Velocity was measured by a Competition Electronics Prochrono Digital.
10 shots were fired at approximately 10' from the chronograph. The temperature was exceptionally hot Florida summer weather! Here are the results:
String: 817, 825, 838, 823, 843, 862, 834, 823, 828, 891
Descriptive Statistics:
Speer advertises this load as traveling at 860 ft/s at the muzzle out of a 2" test barrel. Today's test used a 1.875" barrel.
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via boxplot:
The shaded area is the interquartile range, which is inclusive of 50% of the shots fired. The dark line in the shaded area is the median. The median is lower than the mean (not shown) due to an uncharacteristic outlying shot that registered at 891 ft/s, skewing the average.
This round was also shot through a Ruger SP101 and a GP100. A full 10-shot string was compiled for the SP101, however only a single data point was recorded for the GP100.
These rounds were remarkably consistent, given the change in barrel length for each string!
Using the 442, a single shot was fired into a row of one gallon water jugs. No denim or other material was used. The round penetrated completely through 2 jugs and was recovered in the third jug of water. The bullet was recovered and appears to have retained the entirety of its weight while expanding quite nicely.
I make no effort to extrapolate the results of the water jug test to other media.
However, Brassfetcher recorded the same projectile at 858 ft/s impacting 20% ballistic gelatin and achieved 8.8" of penetration.
tnoutdoors9 recorded the same projectile at 825.3 ft/s and achieved 12.38" in SIM-TEST ballistic media with a retained weight of 134.8.
I have been practicing a bit with the J frame 442 and I have found this round to be reasonably accurate based on comparison with other bullets and my skill level. These shots were fired at 10' and are the same ones that were used for data collection with the chronograph.
I have been carrying this 442 no-lock in a Mika's Pocket Holster. Currently it is sporting Altamont grips courtesy of S&W. I have previously carried it with Crimson Trace 405 grips however I prefer the Altamonts at this time since I can get more of my hand around them and stabilize the gun more to my liking.
Today I was using Hatch KSG500 Shooting Gloves to mitigate recoil from range sessons with scandium/aluminum lightweight guns. They worked rather well and I'll incorporate them into my training as needed.
Summary: Much has been said about the 135 grain gold dot in .38. You can research the history of its design, which is beyond the scope of this presentation. I like it, and based on these tests and others it is my current selection for the J frame. Kudos to Speer on this one!
Thanks,
-Triple T
10 shots were fired at approximately 10' from the chronograph. The temperature was exceptionally hot Florida summer weather! Here are the results:
String: 817, 825, 838, 823, 843, 862, 834, 823, 828, 891
Descriptive Statistics:
Speer advertises this load as traveling at 860 ft/s at the muzzle out of a 2" test barrel. Today's test used a 1.875" barrel.
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via boxplot:
The shaded area is the interquartile range, which is inclusive of 50% of the shots fired. The dark line in the shaded area is the median. The median is lower than the mean (not shown) due to an uncharacteristic outlying shot that registered at 891 ft/s, skewing the average.
This round was also shot through a Ruger SP101 and a GP100. A full 10-shot string was compiled for the SP101, however only a single data point was recorded for the GP100.
These rounds were remarkably consistent, given the change in barrel length for each string!
Using the 442, a single shot was fired into a row of one gallon water jugs. No denim or other material was used. The round penetrated completely through 2 jugs and was recovered in the third jug of water. The bullet was recovered and appears to have retained the entirety of its weight while expanding quite nicely.
I make no effort to extrapolate the results of the water jug test to other media.
However, Brassfetcher recorded the same projectile at 858 ft/s impacting 20% ballistic gelatin and achieved 8.8" of penetration.
tnoutdoors9 recorded the same projectile at 825.3 ft/s and achieved 12.38" in SIM-TEST ballistic media with a retained weight of 134.8.
I have been practicing a bit with the J frame 442 and I have found this round to be reasonably accurate based on comparison with other bullets and my skill level. These shots were fired at 10' and are the same ones that were used for data collection with the chronograph.
I have been carrying this 442 no-lock in a Mika's Pocket Holster. Currently it is sporting Altamont grips courtesy of S&W. I have previously carried it with Crimson Trace 405 grips however I prefer the Altamonts at this time since I can get more of my hand around them and stabilize the gun more to my liking.
Today I was using Hatch KSG500 Shooting Gloves to mitigate recoil from range sessons with scandium/aluminum lightweight guns. They worked rather well and I'll incorporate them into my training as needed.
Summary: Much has been said about the 135 grain gold dot in .38. You can research the history of its design, which is beyond the scope of this presentation. I like it, and based on these tests and others it is my current selection for the J frame. Kudos to Speer on this one!
Thanks,
-Triple T
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