I for some reason have been oblivious to speers short barrel line of ammunition. Which for example is tested/created for a 3.5" barrel in 40 s&w or any barrel that is short where velocity can in fact suffer a small amount for this reason. They have it for 9mm, 38, 44 etc and I believe designed for greater expansion with these shorter barrel guns. Very cool great for snub nose guys and or 26/27 carries and such so I thought I should put something out there. I guess this line came out in 2004 designed to expand more quickly. Designed "for the backup gun" and to be less snappy with the smaller gun for better follow up shots. Anyone out there have any experience with these short barrel rounds?
Just Google it and there is some stuff out there. That's what I'm doing at the moment. I was actually looking at some ballistic charts and came across it and then downloaded spreer's catalog to see what they had to say. I just searched "speer short barrel gold dot" or something to that effect
Yea, I have some of the .22 mag stuff for my NAA Mini didn't shoot it yet but it looks good! Heard some mix reviews on it though.
Yeah I'm seeing some mixed reviews also. Their reasoning behind it makes sense but I'd like to see something backing it up. Secondly if a moderator can fix this thread title by placing another "m" in amo making it ammo that would be fantastic! Driving me crazy but I can't change it now that I've started it! Haha if not oh well what can you do
1. As a reloader, I have in fact witnessed a slight but measurable decrease in muzzle velocity out of shorter barreled handguns. I have a G26 and a G30, and find I need to add more powder (even over the "do not exceed" loads in published load charts) to attain the velocities in published load tables, which is why a chrony is so important. While I have no experience with factory "short barrel" ammo, I have experienced boht 9mm and .45ACP JHP rounds that did not expand or expanded very little when shot into gallon water jugs with newspaper and water in them. 2. Fixed your title for ya! Cheers!
I would hope they're using a different powder for the short barrel ammo as well. I know that for short barrel I usually use a faster burning powder, but have to be more careful around max loads so I don't over-pressure the case and have it expand or split and get stuck in the chamber, so it gets me closer to the velocities I want, while the longer barrel can take a slower powder and push the bullet faster. Given the same load, a shorter barrel will inevitably be slower, and going over max loads just to try and push a bullet to rated speeds can be dangerous. Most rated speeds are going to be out of a 5" test barrel, which is a closed breech system used by ammo manufacturers, they are not real world velocities.
