[mikein1]

I got out to the range Saturday morning and tested 5 reloads and 2 factory cartridges in the 45ACP pistol. 4 of the 5 reloads were 185 grain Speer Gold Dots; one was a 200 grain Speer Gold Dot. The factory fodder was Hornady's Zombie in 185 grains, and Federal's Guard Dog in 165 grains. Penetration on all tested ammo, in wet newspaper at 7 yards, averaged 8 1/2 inches. Expansion went from .751 inches out to .814 inches. My favorite self defense load is the 185 grain Speer GD and Bullseye powder which gave me 1 inch groups, 8 inches of penetration and expansion to .776. If I had to use factory ammo, I'd pick the Hornady 185 grain Zombies since they were more accurate and expanded a bit more.

[Ranger-6]

Nice expansion...Did you run a chronograph test?

[mikein1]

Ranger-6, that will be my next range session. I had my chrony with me on this trip to the range, and had intended to graph each load, but it was so hot, and getting hotter by the hour, that I was ready to pack it all in and grab myself a nice iced tea in an air conditioned room once I'd collected all the bullets and logged the results in! I also weighed each recovered bullet and was quite pleased to discover that none of them lost even a half grain of weight! If it ever cools off again (they're predicting 100+ every day this week), I'll get out and 'graph the group and let everyone know. The predictions from my ballistic software suggest that the 185 grainers would clock near 1,000fps; the 200 grainer in the mid-900's. Hornady predicts 1,000fps for their Zombie rounds; Federal makes no published estimate on the box.

[mikein1]

Got out this morning at the crack of dawn (it was already 82!) and did my chronograph work. 5 shot strings; chrony set at 10 feet from muzzle.
The four 185 grain reloads clocked at: 980fps, 988fps, 978fps and 990fps.
The one 200 grain reload gave 941fps
The Hornady Zombies delivered 998fps
The Federal Guard Dogs clocked at 929fps
The numbers are of some interest to me, but since I'm interested more in the bullets' performance, both expansion and penetration wise, I graph them primarily to test how close to my reloading guides estimates they come, and to verify that I'm not loading too hot. In this case, they were all pretty darned close, and none showed any sign of overpressure. I used two different powders : Unique and Bullseye, and CCI Large Pistol Primers. All brass was Federal head stamp.