Hello....and Yes...I am this borderline Spectrum nerdy....
I've been wanting an 856 Defender for awhile, love 3" wheelies which have in .357...paid more attention to .357 ballistics than .38 to an extent, and I am also looking at .357 Charter Professional 3" .357 so wanted to get more 3" specific data (though yes gun manufacturer-Rugers shoot fastest that I know off outside of not knowing Manurhin or Korth data and gun to gun can have different speed barrels but still hard to compile 3" data).
Anyways, I got data out of my friend Gun Sam's testing with his steel framed 856 Defender External Ballistics ie Velocity chrono averages & thought some may like real world numbers from one compiled @jetfire . Given the lots of interest in the old 856 thread, and some attention in my own Defender/Executive 3" thread.......I thought some other people may want this data to figure out carry loads or to see some differences vs 2" and 4" barrels.
I know some only worry about penetration and not expansion and will stick with 148 WC or 158 SWCHP's with velocity too low and lead too hard they won't expand even from a 3" barrel. However, for carry I want something that actually expands and know a lot of people do as well.
Oh I know how bad people want to shut down the data, but as I have shown, his very particular 4 layer Denim Testing protocol WHILE adding a 1/4" Medium Density Fiber board 3" in has compared very closely to the Official REAL Gel 4 layer Testing in ALL Pistol Calibers from Vista and Hornady...with similar enough penetration and expansion numbers to give very close Tissue Crush Value Numbers....that seems to equate within decent enough % difference than one would get from different barrel lengths or lot to lot differences. Not official enough for you? Well OK then, but given loads we don't have data on, and especially in .38 (especially in 3") where there is very little data, I think that it is useful information to make educated guesses to real world performance.
I have given Hornady's Official 4 layer Real Gel and Vista's Speer/Federal Official Real Gel 4 layer data before which is comparable.