Question:compare 125gr vs. 135gr GD

[Bob79]

I have been carrying/shooting the Speer GD 135 grain +P's in my S&W 342PD, and they are managable, but are pushing my limits for follow-up shots/controlability (and pain w/ more than 25-30 rounds). The round has got good reviews, so I'm confident in its performance.

My question is: are the 125 grain GD +P's going to have recoil that is reduced enough to even notice? Would I be wasting my time even trying them because they are so close? I know Speer GD is good stuff, but were the "older" 125 grainers considered a good round?

Thanks for the input, I hope this isn't a silly question. Oh-yeah, what about Winchester & Remington's +P .38 rounds?

 

[rWt]

I am far from the expert here. What I have "heard" is that the 135 grainers are designed for guns with a barrel length of 2" or less, whereas the 125 grain bullet is designed for longer barreled guns. Suspect it may have to do with powder burn rates and/or bullet expansion characteristics.

 

[P95Carry]

I don't think perceived recoil feels very different between bullet weights IMO .... as Dick knows, I tend to favor the 115's thru the R9 ... but have 124's in there right now. To be honest I really think in the end it can be down to something as simple as POI ... ''tuning'' the gun to get best ballistics re accuracy. The bullets expand pretty much all same.

I have an AMMO DATA SHEET on one server - giving a few comparisons ... thru the R9 of 115's and 124's ... no 135's I am afraid ... you may be interested to compare some figures. There are links at top to ammo test write-ups. Hope this may help just a bit.

 

[WT]

I have absolutely no confidence in the new Speer round.

I have not heard any feedback of one single shooting. Sure, it cuts a hole in lime flavored Jell-O but how does it actually work in the real world? Nobody knows .......

 

[Preacherman]

The 135gr. Speer load was designed within the past two years, in response to a specific request from a major LE agency. It was designed to reliably expand out of a 2" snubby barrel, yet also give deep enough penetration to meet the FBI specification.

There have been some shootings with it, but I suspect circulation of reports is limited to the LE community, as I've seen nothing in published sources available to the general public. Since I work for a Federal LE agency (as a chaplain) I'm able to get hold of some reports "not for publication", and first reports of the 135gr. round indicate that it's performing at a level at least equal to, if not slightly better than, the time-honored 158gr. LSWCHP "FBI Load".

The 125gr. bullet is an older design, and whilst it will usually expand OK out of a snubby, is not really the optimum bullet for that purpose. Also, if it expands as intended, its penetration suffers somewhat. The 135gr. was designed to overcome these problems.

I've chosen the 135gr. Gold Dot JHP as my standard carry load in snubbies, and am comfortable relying on it to save my life. My second choice would be the FBI load. Third choice would be one of the 125gr. offerings, including (but not limited to) the Speer load.

 

[dawei]

What about the Federal® Personal Defense 110grJHSHP? They were all the rage 2-3 years ago. Does anyone have experience or viable data & how these perform?