Heh.
OK. On that other BB load, if that 125 was the ONLY one they were shipping, I'd be a lot more enthusiastic, 'cuz it's a damned good load too.
But there's two issues here in comparison to that 158:
1) That original 125grain Gold Dot slug was designed by Speer for those kinds of speeds (950+, meaning normal 38+P from a 4" barrel). The new 135 gold dot slug they're replacing it with has two advantages: it's got a bigger JHP cavity and it expands at lower velocity. The bigger JHP on the 135 means more "clog resistance" than the 125, or at least it should. Most ammo vendors are going to load BOTH the 125 and 135 in complete shells at around 875fps out of a 2" barrel. By adding over 100fps to that, BB hopes to bring the 125 to a whole new level but that might not fully fix the "clogging issue" in some clothing barriers. I suspect the 135 is a better solution to clogging overall than piling more speed on to the 125 - but I could be WAY off on that, OK?
2) The 158 soft lead hollowpoint's "expansion mechanism" is a bit different. Lacking a jacket, it'll go "squish" against a lot more types of barriers. It should work at least fairly well even if pre-clobbered by an intervening hard barrier that seriously "squishes" it, and "squish" even if partially clogged. Again, it's about the lack of jacket.
Mind you, the 158 probably won't go quite as "fat" as the JHPs (either size) when they work just right. But I think at that speed (1,000fps+ as BB loads it), you're more likely to get at least moderate expansion under weird conditions.
In comparison to the 135, I suspect the 135 round will have some issues with hard barrier penetration just like many other JHPs but it's giant square-sided, thin-walled, big-mouthed and deep JHP cavity
should take resistance to clothes-clogging to a whole new level in this caliber. And that's why it gets my attention even when loaded 100 - 150fps slower than BB is loading the older 125 slug.
With THAT said: when loaded just below 900fps, the 125 Gold Dot as loaded by Speer, Black Hills, Proload and Georgia Arms was a damned good load and only failed to expand (sometimes) on four-layer denim tests from 2" barrels. Which in my opinion is a bit extreme a test (FOUR layers?). With BB adding 100 or more feet per second to that puppy, results should be nice except that that's not a guaranteed solution to the occasional "clothes clog problems" we know that round faces. See also:
http://www.ammolab.com/38spcl_-1.htm
About those results: what I see is the following:
This is a "worst case" four-layer denim clog scenario. Of the three Gold Dot 125s (items 5, 6 and 13 same slug) two *almost* expanded and one (Proload's) did moderately well. The 158 Remington LSWC-HP started to expand, but just wasn't quite fast enough. While it looks bad, it's got real potential even with this test if you add another 100+ feet per second. (I'm writing this paragraph after looking at the ammolabs test linked above...and hmmm...I can see why BB thought that piling speed on the 125 would be a good idea. Damn. They *almost* worked, no?)
Everything else basically sucked. The wadcutters look kinda neat but they're as fat as they'll ever go even with 200fps or more added. The Hornady, Remington and Cor-Bon JHPs didn't even start to expand, except a hair's worth on the Cor-Bon - the other two could be reloaded and shot again
. The "Safe-stop" failed to flake off one of the two "nose petals" and tumble as advertized. That Magtech whatever-it-is isn't impressive either, it flaked off a few petals and dropped back to the orginal caliber...pointless, because even with more speed it'd look the same.
It's therefore my
theory that any improvement to the gold dots (either the new 135 slug or more speed) would be useful, as would more speed to a 158 as it's "almost there" with that 850ish fps slug pictured. These improvements would make these rounds work in this worst-case 4-layer-denim snubby test.
NOTE: a lot of this is still theory because we don't have enough test data. Within a few months we'll see Ammolabs.com and others post "gell photos" and chrony data on the new loads which will help. Of all of these, we have more hard data on the BB 158, because we know how the Remington/Winchester versions of the same soft-lead casting (minus gas check, but that doesn't matter) work in 4" - 6" barrels. They rock
. Accuracy and consistent expansion are damned good. BB has just basically transferred those results down to 2" barrels by doing a funky powder charge tuned properly for 2" barrels and God bless him for it. So we *know* a lot about how those will behave, moreso than any of the other new 38+P wondersnubbie rounds: the 135GD and the 100grain Cor-Bon Pow'R'Ball.
Until we GET more test data, well, we know how 158 LSWC-HP+Ps work from 4" - 6" barrels. So if you want to load something you KNOW will work.............................
