Speer Gold Dot or the Federal HydraShok

which ammo

It's almost impossible to help you decide without more onfo-what caliber,cartridge,gun fired from,etc. Some ammo will vary in efficency due to caliber,barrel length,gun fired from,and wether it's designed for shorter barrels with faster burning powder for more velocity/energy and less muzzleflash.

 

I can't really say about Speer....I got a hold of a nice quanity of .45acp Fed.Hydrashok at a Gunshow a few years back and it performs well in my .45's.
I've used the non-scientific test on the phone book, no Jello at the time and it mushroomed fine....

 

Defence ammo

Yeah, What he said, I use Golden Saber's.

 

Ammo

GOLD DOT! This is the only bullet that can guarantee 100% weight retention. Speer and Federal are owned by the same company now. If the Gold Dot could be improved, there would be a Hydra-shock/Gold Dot hybrid. The center post in the Hydra-shock exists to overcome the jacket and allow expansion. The Gold Dot does not need the post as the "jacket" is plated on and the thickness is easily manipulated to allow the optimum amount.

I would never trust a Golden Sabre. I have seen numerous failures on intermediate targets (windshields). The jacket will very likely peel off the core and lose mass.

I have seen hundreds of bullets recovered from real living (and often recently deceased) people. The Gold Dot does not fail, ever. The Hyra-shock is good, real good. The ranger SXT/Black talon is iffy. The golden sabre is unreliable. IMHO Remington has not had a good ammo idea in 30 years.

 

which bullet?

After a few years of loading and testing different loads/bullets in different calibers-mostly .44 and .45,I like the barnes xpb bullet. It'll expand great AND retain 100% of weight. EXCELLENT terminal ballistics!

 

Gold dot vs golden sabre????

Spent the better half of a day pumping Golden Sabre's and Gold Dots into every medium I could get my hands on, the end result was you were right, way right, a much better bullet, thanks for the heads up!!!

 

Which bullet?

Robocop-have you ever tested the barnes xpb? When barnes first came out with their rifle bullets,you couldn't give them to me,But the "new" crop of handgun bullets perform exceptionally well. Just a note,several blackpowder sabot rounds and taurus .45 acp ammo is loaded with these bullets. I like to load the 185 gr xpb .45 acp (.451) at appox 1100 fps for my defense load and even at that velocity,they still perform great!

 

#1 choice of law enforcement is gold dot. 9mm/40/45acp it just works !

 

I like the Hydrashocks in 230 gr. .45 ACP flavor.

 

Barnes XPB

Barnes makes some fine bullets. I do not know of any factory loads with the Barnes XPB. You can handload them BUT, and that is one really big but, you should NEVER use handloads for self defense. You will be CRUCIFIED by prosecutors and personal injury scum bag lawyers. They will make an issue of you supercharging ammo to cause massive damage and pain. They WILL make this the major issue.

Speer uses flash retarded powders in the Gold Dot. Such powders are not available by the pound. If you have never shot one of your handloads at night, try it some time. Compare the muzzle flash to that of a Gold Dot. The Gold Dot barely has a glow at the muzzle.

 

If you are talking about handgun loads, Corbon DPX, Taurus Gold, and I believe one more are all commercial rounds available with the Barnes X.

-Bidah

 

Hi guys,

Speer does use flash retardent power in most of their rounds, however, I recently discovered after a trip to the range, that their LE 115gr +P+ Gold Dots DO NOT use flash retardent powder.
This round produces a serious flash that surprised even me, not to mention a hefty kick.

 

Would you please cite your source for this. I'd like to check it out. Thanks.

 

Glaser is the best for soft target! Check out:
www.goldenloki.com

click on Gelatin Test
then hit .32acp

 

Unless your soft target is sitting / standing behind a hard windshield, car door, or sheetrock. ​

 

Federal is all I shoot in my 9 or 40

 

I have a strong preference for Hydra-Shoks.

 

What ammo is best for SD

See if this story helps you decide in which ammo that they say is a manstopper etc go to this site LAWOFFICER.COM THE PETER SOULIS INCIDENT story about this LEO and then try to decide what ammo that they advertise is the best. intreasting reading enjoy

 

I love the Taurus Copper bullets for my 45 auto but in my 9mm I use Federal HST and I'm concidering trying them in my 45. I was using hyrdashocks until I shot all of them into some wet phone books...I was amazed how much better the barnes copper bullet and the HST did over the hydrashock. I also tried my 357 mag with hydras and some hornady's I had. I was disappointed in both, ended up with a .357 wadcutter, everything else was peeled off.