40S&W 165gr Speer Gold Dot

• Jun 24, 2012

• #1

S

shoots_5

Handloader

May 15, 2009

811

12

Picked up a new S&W M&P 40 compact the other day and got a chance to get out and put it through it's paces. In the process of doing so I wanted to test my carry ammo out of it's short barrel for expansion and penetration. Set up 4 milk jugs with water at 7 yards. Bullet penetrated the first 2 completely and there was a nice bullet imprint and dent in the back of the 3rd jug where I found the bullet in the bottom.



Bullet expanded to .62" in diameter



And retained weight was 155.1 grains for 94% weight retention









Any guesses as to how they got the name gold dot?



Pretty much picture perfect performance by my book....if you're looking for a very high quality carry round you would be hard pressed to find a better bullet than the gold dot's in my opinion.

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• #2

6

6mm Remington

Ammo Smith

Feb 27, 2006

5,240

522

That looks pretty impressive and with the 165 you get a bit more velocity than the 180's do and I feel that or the 150-155's are a better defensive round. That's a perfect mushroom and penetration.
David

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• #3

S

SJB358

Ballistician

Dec 24, 2006

32,380

2,997

Very nice! Hard to beat them Gold Dot's in the pistol rounds! Great test!

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• #4

Guy Miner

Master Loader

Apr 6, 2006

17,745

5,809

Great photos!

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• #5

JD338

Range Officer

Staff member

Nov 4, 2004

25,152

8,397

Nice catch. Perfect mushroom.
That would ruin a bad guys day for sure.

JD338

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• #6

DrMike

Ballistician

Nov 8, 2006

37,310

5,970

Some fine photography there. Great performance on the bullet as well.

 

• Jun 24, 2012

• Thread starter
• #7

S

shoots_5

Handloader

May 15, 2009

811

12

Thanks guys. I've always been impressed with this round. To date have only run one through a jack rabbit at about 25 yards....and after seeing what it did to that, I sure wouldn't want to run into one! David, I agree...too much penetration with the 180's and not as violent expansion, both of which are problems with a self defense round for me.

Thanks for the compliments on the photos....I actually have a photography business on the side, but usually don't bother dragging out the big camera for stuff like this, but this one was pretty enough I decided it should get the full treatment!

On a side note, my dad is a retired state trooper, and when they switched to this ammo as their duty ammo we ran them through all kinds of materials and barriers prior to the jugs and never had one fail to expand or separate. Obviously, amount of expansion varied depending on what it went through, but after watching those tests, I was sold on this round.

 

• Jul 2, 2012

• #8

C

CatskillCrawler

Handloader

Jul 30, 2011

1,205

4

Very nice catch here. I will never espouse a PD handgun bullet more than the Gold Dots. I carry them in 9mm, 357SIG, 38Spcl and 45ACP and have never seen one that doesn't look like yours.

Grats on the new pistol too! Those M&Ps are very nice. I shied away from one as I didn't care for the S&W Sigmas much and found out I missed out on a good deal.

 

• Jul 2, 2012

• #9

FOTIS

Range Officer

Staff member

Oct 30, 2004

24,261

2,967

1350 fps from my 10mm witness

 

• Aug 19, 2012

• #10

S

SCRUBS

Beginner

Aug 26, 2011

87

0

Thanks for this test shoots_5! Those are great pictures. We were going to do a test on this exact round out of my G23, but now we don`t have to.

 

• Aug 19, 2012

• #11

JD338

Range Officer

Staff member

Nov 4, 2004

25,152

8,397

Fotis,

That is a fine looking 10mm.

JD338