.44 Special Hollow-Point Testing: Speer Gold Dots the clear winner

There's a big problem with carry handguns with fixed sights. If you can't adjust the sights, you have to find an ammo combination that fits the sights.

It helps if you know what the manufacturer had in mind when the fixed sights were set up at the factory and in the case of common cartridge/pistol combinations, it's easy. For instance, Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolvers, particularly the older ones like the Model 10, are set up at the factory for 158-grain lead roundnose bullets.

I had that point illustrated quite well at a recent N.C. Concealed Handgun Permit class. One of my students was using a S&W 10 .38 Special, the original Military & Police model, and when he started firing the first set at 3 yards, I told the students to aim for a head shot, right between the bad-guy-target's hairy eyeballs.

I figure if they can't make a head shot at 3 yards, there's not much point in asking them to do it at the increasing distances for the qualification firing, 5, 7 and 10 yards.

So this guy starts firing away at the target and I hear this loud clanging noise and sparks start flying. We stop the shooting and take a look and his rounds are hitting the target clamp a few inches above the BG's head.

Thank God the clamp was heavy duty at the local National Guard Armory range because no damage was done.

But I dug into my range bag and came up with a box of .38 Special 158-grain LRNs to give the guy and immediately he started drilling holes right between the BG's hairy eyeballs.

In the first outing with my new-to-me Charter 2000 Bulldog Pug .44 Special snubby, (top photo and at top in 2nd photo) I discovered the good folks at Charter set up the iron sights for full-house-load 240-grain bullets.

I had a box of Cowboy Load 240-gr. ammo which is certainly no wimp at 760 FPS, classic numbers for .45 ACP .230-gr. FMJs.

But the Charter's iron sights placed the Cowboy Loads about 2-3" low on the target. Then I tried some full-house-load 240 gr. SWCs and they were exactly what the iron sights liked, right on the bull.

So the next step in using the Bulldog for a carry pistol is to find a jacketed hollowpoint load that will line up with the iron sights.

I never did find a JHP load that lined up with the iron sights of my Charter Patriot .327 Magnum (bottom pistol in 2nd photo), so I had to get a set of Crimson Trace Laser Grips to enable it to hit where I'm aiming.

I suspected that might be the case with JHPs for the Bulldog Pug. I had four JHP loads to test. Top left on the target board, standing two-handed at 25 feet, are some 200-grain Georgia Arms Gold-Dot JHPs. Printing low and with a lot of muzzle blast and recoil. Not pleasant. The three clustered at 6 o'clock about 3" low are mine, the other holes are by the sergeant at the Armory, whose rounds drifted even lower and to the left. All the rest of the holes in the other targets are mine. Three of the GA Gold Dots were all the sergeant wanted to try. Can't imagine why.

Top right target are some CCI steel-case JHPs, probably 200-grain but they were some loose rounds we had at the gun shop with no box, so that's just a guess. Even hotter and more unpleasant to shoot than the GA Gold Dots and though still low, closer to the bull by a bit.

Then bottom left are five holes with Winchester Silvertip 200-gr. JHPs, much more pleasant to shoot and getting pretty close to the bull.

Finally, bottom right is the clear winner, five rounds with Speer Gold Dot 200-gr. JHPs, right on the money and also fairly pleasant to shoot. I am delighted to find a carry load so easily and not to have to add CT Lasergrips for the Bulldog. I may still add some grips later, but not right now when I've got other pistols to buy hopefully in my near future.

.38 Special vs. .44 Special vs. .327 Magnum: Look at the numbers

Decided to see what .44 Special , .38 Special, .45 ACP, .327 Magnum and .357 Magnum numbers compare in terms of ballistics. From the Federal and Speer ammo pages, here's a comparison.

Caliber	Grains	Type	Mfg.	FPS Muzzle	Ft.Lbs. Muzzle
.44 Special	200	SWCHP	Federal Champion	870	336
.38 Special	110	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	980	235
.38 Special +P	129	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	950	258
.327 Magnum	100	JSP	American Eagle	1500	500
.327 Magnum	85	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	1400	370
.327 Magnum	115	JHP	Speer Gold Dot	1380	486
.357 Magnum	125	JHP	Speer Gold Dot	1450	584
.45 ACP	230	JHP	Federal Hydra-Shok	900	414

Any questions? After testing all three of the available .327 Magnum loads I settled on Speer Gold Dot for my carry load in the Charter Patriot revolver, which is very close to Speer .357 Magnum in both fps and ft./lbs. of energy delivered on target.

And comparing Federal Hydra-Shok .45 ACP to Federal Champion .44 Special Semi-Wadcutter Hollow Points also shows speed and energy delivered in the same ballpark ballistically.

And of course, neither .38 Special or +P is anywhere near any of the others in energy on target.

When it comes to carrying a revolver, for backup or sole carry, I feel a lot more comfortable with my .327 Magnum or .44 Special Charter pair than with any .38 Special or +P. With the Bulldog .44, it's like having a .45 and with the Patriot .327 Magnum, it's like having a .357 Magnum.

I've always been a strong believer in more is better. And .44 is definitely more better than .38.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, here's a couple of graphs on ballistics of pistol ammo.

The first is a comparison by Winchester of their Ranger JHP ammo, which is IMHO the class of the industry. I carry Winchester Ranger or their new PDX Bonded, the replacement for Ranger, in 9mm, .45 ACP and .357 Sig with total confidence that it's quite simply the best.

But the interesting thing about their graph is how similar all the loads are, with the exception of .380 ACP, which just ain't got enough zip to get the job done. That's why I don't carry .380.

And last is a handgun gel penetration and expansion chart, which shows that as long as you pick a serious caliber, you'll get serious results, assuming you can hit what you shoot at. And that's a very big assumption. In pistol shooting, the most important three things are the same three things that any realtor will tell you is the key to success in real estate: Location, location, location.

Testing JHPs for .357 Sig and 9mm carry pistols

Fun at the range for me is taking my pistols, setting up targets and blasting away, shooting fast or slow, drawing and firing, shooting with either hand, a pistol in each hand, or two-hand strong-hand and weak-hand alternately, et c.

I do almost all of the above every time I go, but yesterday was work. I had a fairly wide selection of jacketed hollow points to test in .357 Sig and 9mm, which means bench-rest shooting.

The carry pistols I used for testing are, from left, S&W M&P .357 Sig, CZ 75 PO7 Duty 9mm, S&W M&P Compact .357 Sig and Sig P229 .357 Sig.

Hollow points tested included four loads in .357 Sig, all 125 grain, Speer Gold Dots, Winchester Ranger, Winchester white box JHPs and Hornady JHPs. And eight loads in 9mm, Gold Dot +P 124 gr., Gold Dot 115 gr., Hornady FTX and XTP, both 115 gr., Cor Bon +P 115 gr., Remington Golden Saber 147 gr. and two Winchester loads, Silver Tip 115 gr. and WWB 147 gr. JHP.

I was shooting groups of three because I'm cheap. At a buck a shot, I do the bare minimum of testing JHPs. And I was shooting at 7 yards from bench rest, to take as much human error out as possible, of which I have an abundance. So take a wild guess what were the best groups of three I shot in both .357 Sig and 9mm?

Would you believe Winchester white box in both cases, which you probably know is the cheap stuff? A box of 50 WWB JHPs is about the same cost as a box of 20 or 25 of the premium loads.

Anyway, the P229 delivered the tightest three in .357 Sig, those two holes in the orange corner of the 8" bull, where three shots went. I know you think I'm lying, but there was no other hole anywhere nearby, so those two holes show a group of 3 .357 Sigs.

And in 9mm, again the WWB 147 gr. delivered the best group of three, with the next closeup group shown, three holes touching each other. Go figure.

Of course the dominant factor in this shooting is not the ammo or the pistols. It's me and my fuzzy eyes.

When I'm shooting standing, with both arms extended, I can see the sights clearly enough with my prescription glasses to shoot fairly well. And if I want to cheat, I put my 2.5X reading glasses on and I can see the sights sharply in focus. But I usually shoot with the prescription glasses as that's what I wear all the time. Gotta practice for reality because I can't walk around wearing my reading glasses all the time. I only put those on when I've really gotta see what I'm doing.

And sitting down at a bench with the front of the pistol on a rest and both elbows on the bench is pretty steady, but it doesn't allow me to extend my arms. So even with my reading glasses on, the sights were still fuzzy. So I just did the best I could.

Last photo shows my improvised target when I got tired of using orange 8" bulls. As you can see, they're all pretty similar groups. With the Speer 9mm +P 124 gr. I pulled one shot down to the next cross, where I circled it. Otherwise, they're as good as I can shoot with fuzzy sights.

Results of the testing: load up any of the premium loads or the cheap WWB, it don't matter. They all fed with no errors and when push comes to shove, they will all deliver as good or better accuracy than I can shoot. And I have confidence they all will expand and do their job if I put them on target.

The new Hornady Critical Defense will likely be my carry load for the P07, just as they have been for my Kel-Tec PF-9 backup pistol and for my Steyr M9-A1, just because I believe their advertising about being "guaranteed to expand" even in the most adverse conditions.

But there's also no reason not to trust any of the other premium loads or the WWB cheap JHPs. With yesterday's testing, the P07 is ready to join my carry rotation, along with the three .357 Sig pistols, M9-A1, PF-9, Glock 29 10mm and Charter Patriot .327 Fed. Magnum.