200 Grain Speer Gold Dot 10mm

So, this has been out for a few months now and I’m curious to see if it has been tested.

https://www.speer-ammo.com/en/ammuni...gr-gold-dot-hp

Notice that it is being advertised as a personal protection option with velocities in the 1100 FPS range. A few years ago, Speer had a limited run of 200 grain .40 caliber GDHP projectiles. Andrew Wiggen (The ChoppingBlock on YouTube) reloaded one to 1060 FPS and got similar penetration and expansion performance to the 180 gain 40SW projectiles traveling at 900-1000 FPS; 12” of penetration and average expansion ~.75”:

https://youtu.be/Tlw7A2pFR4I

I’m curious if this is the same projectile as that limited run that Mr. Wiggen tested. I’ve been wishing for a bonded 10mm option in that weight/velocity range. However, I’m looking for significantly deeper penetration than 12” even if it expands a little less - say 16-22” with .55-.65 diameter with 95+% weight retention after common intermediate barriers. This would be my general purpose field gun; something that will do well against 4 and 2-legged critters.

Try this....might be what you are looking for....https://underwoodammo.com/product/ha...-hollow-point/

I’ve used the Hornady factory loading of the 10mm 200 grain XTP. However, I avoid boutique ammunition manufacturers such as Underwood and Double Tap that use someone else’s projectile at velocities well outside of their intended performance envelope.

In the early oughties I was able to run some 200 grain XTPs through properly calibrated gel blocks that were left over from another project. The factory loading at 1075fps or so drove them to about 20" inches with expansion about .55" to just under .6" if memory serves.

The Underwood loading is driving the bullet to velocities above what is recommended in Hornady's reloading manual. Hobbyist gel tests show the bullet not penetraing any better than a good .40 load, and sometimes less.

I emailed Speer about the new Gold Dot load and the rep said to expect penetration in the 16" range.

This is a different bullet than the pulls that were being sold a while back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lester Polfus

In the early oughties I was able to run some 200 grain XTPs through properly calibrated gel blocks that were left over from another project. The factory loading at 1075fps or so drove them to about 20" inches with expansion about .55" to just under .6" if memory serves.

The Underwood loading is driving the bullet to velocities above what is recommended in Hornady's reloading manual. Hobbyist gel tests show the bullet not penetraing any better than a good .40 load, and sometimes less.

I emailed Speer about the new Gold Dot load and the rep said to expect penetration in the 16" range.

This is a different bullet than the pulls that were being sold a while back.

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HAH! I am seriously going to start using this term to describe things that happened when I was a young man from 2000-2005, and from 06-09, it will be "in the late oughties". The best!

That said, bullets do not like being driven faster than their envelope. They over-expand, and you get either fragmentation, or a smaller frontal area, depending on velocities involved and the caliber. Further, at under 16-1800fps, you are not going to have TSC generating any wounding potential, so you are giving up ACTUAL wounding potential (expanded projectile diameter) for "sexy ripples in gel blocks".

This is why I think the 10mm is best relegated to penetrating things, such as boar, bear, etc. instead of people and dogs. It's just no better than other cheaper and easier to use options unless you load it with heavy, hard bullets, to bore through things using sectional density and energy.