Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel

As I mentioned a couple times before Speer makes a self-defense bullet intended for lower velocity loadings. They call it “Gold Dot® Short Barrel®”. I needed these for handgun students with difficulty handling factory loads. I loaded 301 rounds (I purchased three 100 round boxes and ended up with 301 bullets) over 3.9 grains of Bullseye and delivered 100 rounds to one of my students last Saturday.

Here is what the 180 grain bullets look like in .40 S&W:

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I’m expecting a velocity of about 850 fps at the muzzle with my STI DVC (5 inch barrel). This compares to about 1025 fps with 180 grain Winchester Rangers out of the same gun. The difference in recoil is significant.

I’ll run them over a chronograph and do some water jug testing (only valid for simple expansion testing) the first chance I get.

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5 thoughts on “Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel

  1. I tried some “short barrel” rounds in my Boberg XR9-S. Worked fine. But my impression was that the difference is in the powder — faster burning to have most of the burn take place before the round exits the short barrel. Quite possibly I’m confused, but that’s the impression created by the description on the ammo box.

    • For short barel, a general setup would be:

      -fast burning powder, optimized to minimize excess gas
      -bullets that open up at lower velocity

      This is the load Joe has created.

    • Follow the link to Speer’s webpage about the bullet. It is a bullet expressly made for “short barrels”. That doesn’t mean that the “short barrel” ammo they make doesn’t also utilize a fast burning powder.

      I made “low recoil” ammo using “short barrel” bullets. It’s not going to be as good as Speer’s ammo using the same bullet but it’s going to be something she can shoot comfortably and be a whole lot better than a .22 or other small caliber firearm.

  2. Reminds me of the old reversed-hollow-base wad-cutter loads we used to make u for J-frames.

  3. Pingback: Rounds in the last month | The View From North Central Idaho

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