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.......Hot performance: Speer Gold Dot 125-grain .357 Sig ammunition.........
Developed to duplicate the performance of the fabled 125-grain .357 Magnum hollow point revolver load but from a semiautomatic pistol, the .357 Sig cartridge is standard issue for numerous police agencies, as well as the US Secret Service and Air Marshals.
The most popular duty load involved in the most line-of-duty shootings with the .357 Sig is the Speer Gold Dot, a 125-grain bonded core, hollow point bullet.
Speer specifies 1,350 feet per second velocity, generating 506 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. However, over a Chrony, we found the Speer load averaged slightly over 1,400 fps fired from the 4.5", polygon-rifled Glock 31 barrel.
The .357 Sig has proven itself an accurate caliber in general and it's true of the Speer Gold Dot load in particular. When I tested this ammo in a box-stock Sig P226 pistol for the Gun Digest Book of Sig-Sauer, five shots at 25 yards delivered a 1" group.
A product called the Bullet Test Tube has made testing of ammunition much easier than the difficult and expensive ballistic gelatin. The manufacturer, Ballistic Technologies, has worked hard to correlate how their wax relates to calibrated ballistic gelatin. The wax, as the product name implies, is contained in a tube, which is then sectioned to examine matter displacement. Prior to sectioning, the company recommends the cavity made by the bullet be filled with water, which can then be measured to give a good idea of how large a cavity the bullet created.
Test Results
One round of Speer 125-grain Gold Dot .357 Sig was fired from a few feet away into a Bullet Test Tube. It took approximately 3.7 ounces of water to fill the cavity made by the bullet, slightly more than double the displacement of a 230-grain .45 ACP hollow point fired into an identical test tube on the same day. The recovered Gold Dot bullet measured approximately 1/2" wide and had expanded symmetrically. It weighed 124.3 grains, weighed on a digital scale by Frankford Arsenal.
The bullet came to rest nose forward, fully mushroomed, 9" into the wax. Using the manufacturer's formula of multiplying penetration depth by 1.34 to equal its penetration in calibrated FBI ballistic gelatin, this factored out to 12.6" equivalent penetration. The width of the wound track at its widest point, well into the bullet track, was more than 1". It should be noted early gel tests of the 125-grain Gold Dot .357 Sig showed penetration of about 16", while more recent tests with the latest production indicate a more suitable 13" to 14". With the conversion formula, the Bullet Test Tube did indeed closely replicate known gelatin testing of the same load.
This Gold Dot load has been the choice of more departments than any other brand. It has been issued to the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, Virginia state troopers, and the Richmond, Virginia PD among others. All three departments report outstanding results in what add up collectively to dozens of shootings. A VSP supervisor told me they were particularly impressed with how many offenders dropped to a single hit in supposedly "less vital" areas such as the abdomen.
There are many reports of "junkyard dogs" going down with one or two solid body hits, when before, police had shot them many, many times to stop them with 147-grain subsonic 9mm JHPs. An RPD instructor reported after well over a dozen shootings of human offenders, the Gold Dot bullets were generally found embedded in the other side of the offender's body, in his clothing on that side or on the ground behind him, spent, within a few feet.
No one can say the Speer Gold Dot 125-grain .357 Sig has not earned its place as the "most street-proven load" in its caliber, for law enforcement and private citizen self-defense needs...........so what does this all mean get out there people and go shooting have fun be safe .....and the 357 sig may just safe you or your family's
life......... DAVE OF DAVE'S SIMPLE SPOT
.......Hot performance: Speer Gold Dot 125-grain .357 Sig ammunition.........
Developed to duplicate the performance of the fabled 125-grain .357 Magnum hollow point revolver load but from a semiautomatic pistol, the .357 Sig cartridge is standard issue for numerous police agencies, as well as the US Secret Service and Air Marshals.
The most popular duty load involved in the most line-of-duty shootings with the .357 Sig is the Speer Gold Dot, a 125-grain bonded core, hollow point bullet.
Speer specifies 1,350 feet per second velocity, generating 506 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. However, over a Chrony, we found the Speer load averaged slightly over 1,400 fps fired from the 4.5", polygon-rifled Glock 31 barrel.
The .357 Sig has proven itself an accurate caliber in general and it's true of the Speer Gold Dot load in particular. When I tested this ammo in a box-stock Sig P226 pistol for the Gun Digest Book of Sig-Sauer, five shots at 25 yards delivered a 1" group.
A product called the Bullet Test Tube has made testing of ammunition much easier than the difficult and expensive ballistic gelatin. The manufacturer, Ballistic Technologies, has worked hard to correlate how their wax relates to calibrated ballistic gelatin. The wax, as the product name implies, is contained in a tube, which is then sectioned to examine matter displacement. Prior to sectioning, the company recommends the cavity made by the bullet be filled with water, which can then be measured to give a good idea of how large a cavity the bullet created.
Test Results
One round of Speer 125-grain Gold Dot .357 Sig was fired from a few feet away into a Bullet Test Tube. It took approximately 3.7 ounces of water to fill the cavity made by the bullet, slightly more than double the displacement of a 230-grain .45 ACP hollow point fired into an identical test tube on the same day. The recovered Gold Dot bullet measured approximately 1/2" wide and had expanded symmetrically. It weighed 124.3 grains, weighed on a digital scale by Frankford Arsenal.
The bullet came to rest nose forward, fully mushroomed, 9" into the wax. Using the manufacturer's formula of multiplying penetration depth by 1.34 to equal its penetration in calibrated FBI ballistic gelatin, this factored out to 12.6" equivalent penetration. The width of the wound track at its widest point, well into the bullet track, was more than 1". It should be noted early gel tests of the 125-grain Gold Dot .357 Sig showed penetration of about 16", while more recent tests with the latest production indicate a more suitable 13" to 14". With the conversion formula, the Bullet Test Tube did indeed closely replicate known gelatin testing of the same load.
This Gold Dot load has been the choice of more departments than any other brand. It has been issued to the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, Virginia state troopers, and the Richmond, Virginia PD among others. All three departments report outstanding results in what add up collectively to dozens of shootings. A VSP supervisor told me they were particularly impressed with how many offenders dropped to a single hit in supposedly "less vital" areas such as the abdomen.
There are many reports of "junkyard dogs" going down with one or two solid body hits, when before, police had shot them many, many times to stop them with 147-grain subsonic 9mm JHPs. An RPD instructor reported after well over a dozen shootings of human offenders, the Gold Dot bullets were generally found embedded in the other side of the offender's body, in his clothing on that side or on the ground behind him, spent, within a few feet.
No one can say the Speer Gold Dot 125-grain .357 Sig has not earned its place as the "most street-proven load" in its caliber, for law enforcement and private citizen self-defense needs...........so what does this all mean get out there people and go shooting have fun be safe .....and the 357 sig may just safe you or your family's
life......... DAVE OF DAVE'S SIMPLE SPOT
