Tony_the_tiger
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- Jan 3, 2011
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I've had a few chances since my last round of tests to collect data on several factory-level .44 special rounds. The purpose of the following test was to determine how certain rounds were behaving out of a 2.5" S&W 296. For comparison purposes, data was also collected on the same rounds shot out of a 4 5/8" Ruger Flattop Bisley Blackhawk chambered in .44 special.
These data are limited to 200 grain bullets, which is the maximum recommended bullet by S&W in the centennial style aluminum-framed 296 5-shot revolver.
Furthermore, the tests are limited to what I perceive to be the optimal carry choices for a snub .44 special. If your favorite round was excluded, it is not a comment on the appropriateness of that bullet, but rather a reflection on what I have available.
These numbers were collected from a Competition Electronics Prochrono Digital.
Descriptive Statistics:
Entries with no standard deviation are explained by the presence of a single data point for that category.
Categories with N greater than 1 and less than 10 were fired 10 times, but had individual points excluded by the chronograph due to duplicate readings.
You may compare these results to the factory published velocities:
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via a box-plot with whiskers:
Each boxplot is inclusive of the entire range of the data. The shaded and tan area of each box is the interquartile range, and includes 50% of all of the data for each round. The dark lines in the boxes represent the median.
Any circles to the right or left of the plots are potential outliers. In categories with a single data point, that point is represented by a dark line independent of any box.
Please excuse the redundancy, however given the amount of information in the figure above, I thought it best to include a simpler boxplot using data from the snub barrel only:
These bullets are all the same weight (200 Grains... with the exception of that big 255 Keith bullet to the far left) but have very different designs:
Above, from left to right: Buffalo Bore's 255 Grain Keith bullet (not featured in these tests); Buffalo Bore's 200 Grain Anti-Personnel Hard Cast Wadcutter; Corbon DPX 200 Grain TAC-XP; and Underwood's short barrel load for the 200 Grain Gold Dot
Discussion:
Only one shot was fired out of the Blackhawk for the Hard Cast Wadcutter because it is not a round I am using in that firearm. Similarly, the Buffalo-Barnes TAC-XP load is too hot in the 296 in terms of recoil so I only fired one round for comparison purposes.
You might have noticed my pre-occupation with the TAC-XP bullet. They are all the same all-copper hollow-point made by Barnes, but loaded differently by brand.
Barnes has given me permission to re-print their own tests on the performance of the bullet:
It is an impressive design. Corbon designed their DPX load to reach similar velocities and succeeded at that in the 4 5/8" Blackhawk. In the snub, the DPX TAC-XP achieved a mean of 817 ft/s. Previous tests of mine showed that at this decreased velocity, the round penetrated through 3 water jugs one time (recovered in the 4th), and through 2 the second time (recovered in the 3rd) with full expansion and weight retention.
Evan at stoppingpower.net fired the .44 special DPX bullet out of a 2" Taurus snub and achieved 12.5" penetration through ballistic gelatin, but we don't know the velocity. Stephen Camp (may he rest in peace) published a wonderful review of this round available on the web at his hi-powers - - handguns site that is still up and running.
I was extremely disappointed with Doubletap's version of the TAC-XP. The round exhibited the largest range and the lowest velocity - despite optimistic published velocities - and in my opinion it is a sub-optimal loading for this bullet. That is all I am going to say about Doubletap.
Buffalo Bore's TAC-XP is very hot, and reaches the published velocity out of the Blackhawk. I am sure it would be a devastating round in a long barrel. Out of the snub it reaches comparable velocities to what the DPX achieves out of a longer barrel - but the recoil is too much for me to handle in the lightweight 296. In a short barreled steel gun such as the 696 or a S&W short barreled magnum, this might be an excellent choice! In fact if I had a heavy snub, I would probably carry the Buffalo-Barnes version so that the bullet was performing as advertised by barnes in that 900 - 1000 ft/s range.
Out of all the TAC-XP loads, I have to give credit to Corbon for creating a product that is true to Barnes' vision for this bullet out of the Blackhawk's 4 5/8" barrel. Additionally, it reliably exceeded 800 ft/s out of the snub and was easy to control. Nice job, Team Corbon!
Underwood also has a winner with their "bull-dog" version of the Speer Gold Dot. At an average of 1003 out of the Blackhawk and 916 out of the snub, it is an improvement on Speer's own loading of the bullet which is published at 832 ft/s out of a 6" barrel. CCI Blazer loads the Gold Dot at 920 ft/s out of an unspecified barrel length. However, blazer rounds are or were packed in aluminum cases, and Stainz of the High Road had an aluminum blazer case in .44 special rip open. As a result, I believe he uses Georgia Arm's version of the Gold Dot in his 296 when it pleases him to do so.
So I called Speer, and they verified that the bullet is designed to perform between 800 - 1100 ft/s. Others have reported loss of petals and bullet degradation at the 1100 mark. My personal tests showed that when fired from a short barrel, this round penetrated through 3 jugs and was recovered in the 4th. Despite my appreciation of this load from Underwood, based on recoil and accuracy it is not my carry choice in the .44 special 296.
The Buffalo Bore 200 Grain Hard Cast Wadcutter showed remarkable consistency by virtue of its short spread and small standard deviation.
It had less recoil than the Underwood load - but more than the DPX. I would say this round is on the threshold of acceptable recoil for the 296, and I was able to make accurate follow-up shots with it. In my previous jug tests, this HC round penetrated through 4 jugs before the misalignment of the jugs caused it to veer off into the great unknown, and the bullet was not recovered. Penetration is this round's selling point.
The 200 Grain Hard Cast Wadcutter "Anti-Personnel" load by Buffalo Bore is my current carry round for the 296, with Corbon's DPX load as a close second. I am keeping the DPX in the speed-loaders for this gun since I do not like the idea of lead bouncing around too much in my pockets.
However, with the exception of Doubletap's TAC-XP load, I think every round featured in this thread would be an excellent choice for the purpose of self defense in a general context, provided that the load is controllable and accurate in your specific firearm.
The cosmetically challenged 296, featured with a Hogue K, L-Frame Monogrip for Round Butt Revolvers.
Velocity isn't everything - but it is an important part of the picture at these sub-supersonic speeds and with bullets engineered to perform within distinct parameters.
If you want to know what bullet I like best in the Blackhawk, you'll have to wait and see.
Thanks for hearing me out.
-Triple T
These data are limited to 200 grain bullets, which is the maximum recommended bullet by S&W in the centennial style aluminum-framed 296 5-shot revolver.
Furthermore, the tests are limited to what I perceive to be the optimal carry choices for a snub .44 special. If your favorite round was excluded, it is not a comment on the appropriateness of that bullet, but rather a reflection on what I have available.
These numbers were collected from a Competition Electronics Prochrono Digital.
Descriptive Statistics:
Entries with no standard deviation are explained by the presence of a single data point for that category.
Categories with N greater than 1 and less than 10 were fired 10 times, but had individual points excluded by the chronograph due to duplicate readings.
You may compare these results to the factory published velocities:
Buffalo Bore/Buffalo-Barnes 200 Grain Tac-XP: 1070 ft/s out of a 4" barrel and 1017 ft/s out of a 2.5" barrel
Corbon DPX 200 Grain Tac-XP: 950 ft/s out of a 4" barrel
Doubletap DT-Tactical 200 Grain Tac-XP: 1000 ft/s out of a 5.5" barrel and 900 ft/s out of a 2.5" barrel
Underwood "Bull Dog" 200 Grain Gold Dot: 975 ft/s out of an unspecified barrel (we might assume 2.5" as from the eponymous CA Bulldog)
Buffalo Bore Anti-Personnel 200 Grain Hard Cast Wadcutter: 971 ft/s out of a 4" barrel and 913 ft/s out of a 2.5" barrel
We can visualize the spread of the distribution via a box-plot with whiskers:
Each boxplot is inclusive of the entire range of the data. The shaded and tan area of each box is the interquartile range, and includes 50% of all of the data for each round. The dark lines in the boxes represent the median.
Any circles to the right or left of the plots are potential outliers. In categories with a single data point, that point is represented by a dark line independent of any box.
Please excuse the redundancy, however given the amount of information in the figure above, I thought it best to include a simpler boxplot using data from the snub barrel only:
These bullets are all the same weight (200 Grains... with the exception of that big 255 Keith bullet to the far left) but have very different designs:
Above, from left to right: Buffalo Bore's 255 Grain Keith bullet (not featured in these tests); Buffalo Bore's 200 Grain Anti-Personnel Hard Cast Wadcutter; Corbon DPX 200 Grain TAC-XP; and Underwood's short barrel load for the 200 Grain Gold Dot
Discussion:
Only one shot was fired out of the Blackhawk for the Hard Cast Wadcutter because it is not a round I am using in that firearm. Similarly, the Buffalo-Barnes TAC-XP load is too hot in the 296 in terms of recoil so I only fired one round for comparison purposes.
You might have noticed my pre-occupation with the TAC-XP bullet. They are all the same all-copper hollow-point made by Barnes, but loaded differently by brand.
Barnes has given me permission to re-print their own tests on the performance of the bullet:
It is an impressive design. Corbon designed their DPX load to reach similar velocities and succeeded at that in the 4 5/8" Blackhawk. In the snub, the DPX TAC-XP achieved a mean of 817 ft/s. Previous tests of mine showed that at this decreased velocity, the round penetrated through 3 water jugs one time (recovered in the 4th), and through 2 the second time (recovered in the 3rd) with full expansion and weight retention.
Evan at stoppingpower.net fired the .44 special DPX bullet out of a 2" Taurus snub and achieved 12.5" penetration through ballistic gelatin, but we don't know the velocity. Stephen Camp (may he rest in peace) published a wonderful review of this round available on the web at his hi-powers - - handguns site that is still up and running.
I was extremely disappointed with Doubletap's version of the TAC-XP. The round exhibited the largest range and the lowest velocity - despite optimistic published velocities - and in my opinion it is a sub-optimal loading for this bullet. That is all I am going to say about Doubletap.
Buffalo Bore's TAC-XP is very hot, and reaches the published velocity out of the Blackhawk. I am sure it would be a devastating round in a long barrel. Out of the snub it reaches comparable velocities to what the DPX achieves out of a longer barrel - but the recoil is too much for me to handle in the lightweight 296. In a short barreled steel gun such as the 696 or a S&W short barreled magnum, this might be an excellent choice! In fact if I had a heavy snub, I would probably carry the Buffalo-Barnes version so that the bullet was performing as advertised by barnes in that 900 - 1000 ft/s range.
Out of all the TAC-XP loads, I have to give credit to Corbon for creating a product that is true to Barnes' vision for this bullet out of the Blackhawk's 4 5/8" barrel. Additionally, it reliably exceeded 800 ft/s out of the snub and was easy to control. Nice job, Team Corbon!
Underwood also has a winner with their "bull-dog" version of the Speer Gold Dot. At an average of 1003 out of the Blackhawk and 916 out of the snub, it is an improvement on Speer's own loading of the bullet which is published at 832 ft/s out of a 6" barrel. CCI Blazer loads the Gold Dot at 920 ft/s out of an unspecified barrel length. However, blazer rounds are or were packed in aluminum cases, and Stainz of the High Road had an aluminum blazer case in .44 special rip open. As a result, I believe he uses Georgia Arm's version of the Gold Dot in his 296 when it pleases him to do so.
So I called Speer, and they verified that the bullet is designed to perform between 800 - 1100 ft/s. Others have reported loss of petals and bullet degradation at the 1100 mark. My personal tests showed that when fired from a short barrel, this round penetrated through 3 jugs and was recovered in the 4th. Despite my appreciation of this load from Underwood, based on recoil and accuracy it is not my carry choice in the .44 special 296.
The Buffalo Bore 200 Grain Hard Cast Wadcutter showed remarkable consistency by virtue of its short spread and small standard deviation.
It had less recoil than the Underwood load - but more than the DPX. I would say this round is on the threshold of acceptable recoil for the 296, and I was able to make accurate follow-up shots with it. In my previous jug tests, this HC round penetrated through 4 jugs before the misalignment of the jugs caused it to veer off into the great unknown, and the bullet was not recovered. Penetration is this round's selling point.
The 200 Grain Hard Cast Wadcutter "Anti-Personnel" load by Buffalo Bore is my current carry round for the 296, with Corbon's DPX load as a close second. I am keeping the DPX in the speed-loaders for this gun since I do not like the idea of lead bouncing around too much in my pockets.
However, with the exception of Doubletap's TAC-XP load, I think every round featured in this thread would be an excellent choice for the purpose of self defense in a general context, provided that the load is controllable and accurate in your specific firearm.
The cosmetically challenged 296, featured with a Hogue K, L-Frame Monogrip for Round Butt Revolvers.
Velocity isn't everything - but it is an important part of the picture at these sub-supersonic speeds and with bullets engineered to perform within distinct parameters.
If you want to know what bullet I like best in the Blackhawk, you'll have to wait and see.
Thanks for hearing me out.
-Triple T
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