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Ammo Test: Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 155 Grain Self-Defense Ammunition

June 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

One thing I’ve found testing thousands of rounds of ammunition through a wide variety of traditional, and sometimes non-traditional, targets is that you can’t generalize. Broad generalizations just don’t hold up. I mean, there’s the obvious exception of Justin Bieber – ALL of his songs are roughly comparable to pre-gelatinized narwhal poop, but in most other things, you need to evaluate each and every unique circumstance independently.

It’s the same with ammunition. You can just say Brand X is a good performer in each caliber and each specific loading within a caliber. So the 9mm ++P+++ 124 grain load of Fire-Breathing Death Harpoon Ammo expands every single time, but does the .380 90 grain load of that same brand perform as it should? Not necessarily. You need to test your desired carry load, in your specific gun to know how it performs.

So, even though I’ve had great success with all of the Speer Gold Dot loads tested to date, I’m gradually working my way through the product line to try them all.

Speer Gold Dot 40 SW 155 grain self-defense ammo

Expansion performance of the Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 155 grain load was excellent and velocity was just as expected.

Recently I spent some quality time with the Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 155 grain load. At the lighter end of the .40 caliber spectrum, I expected to get some serious velocity out of this one. And with expanding hollow point ammo, velocity is king when it comes to consistent expansion performance.

Standout features of the Speer Gold Dots include a bonded-core construction and a two-stage hollow point cavity construction. Bonded-core construction “melds” the copper jacket and lead core so they are not two separate layers. This allows the projectiles to stay together regardless of barriers encountered. Penetration is boringly consistent as almost all projectile weight is retained. The two-stage hollow point core construction process allows the gurus at Speer to control both diameter and rate of expansion. Basically, they can match projectile performance to caliber and expected real-world velocity.

Speer Gold Dot 40 SW 155 grain

That black stuff in the hollow point core is leather. So the projectile got completely clogged, yet still expanded perfectly.

I shot a bunch of this out of a Beretta PX4 Storm. The PX4 Storm full-size model features a 4.0″ barrel, so I expected measured velocity to approach, but not quite meet the factory specs.

First I checked actual velocity out of the Beretta PX4 Storm. Using a Shooting Chrony Beta Master Chronograph placed 15 feet downrange, I clocked the Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 155 grain load at an average of 1,169 feet per second, or just over 30 feet per second below the factory spec of 1,200 feet per second. This works out just about right assuming the factory tests velocity using a standard 5″ test barrel. That extra inch should easily account for 30 feet per second velocity improvement. So, doing a little serious math, the actual energy of this load, out of my Beretta PX4, works out to 470 foot-pounds actual measured energy. This compared to 496 on the Speer Gold Dot website.

I also wanted to get an indication of expansion performance when projectiles were shot through common and expected barriers for self-defense situations. I set up two layers of leather and 4 layers of light canvas in front of a pile-o-wetpack – a fancy word for soaking wet newspaper. I snapped photos of a few representative samples, but every single projectile demonstrated excellent expansion performance. This has been a consistent observation with the Speer Gold Dot line. The bonded projectiles don’t seem to suffer from heavy material barriers. The three projectiles in the photo measured .583, .685 and .652 inches in diameter after expansion. Not too shabby.

Like the other Speer Gold Dot loads we’ve tested so far, this is excellent self-defense ammunition.

You can get it at Brownells

Cci/Speer Cci/Speer Gold Dot Handgun Ammunition
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Ammo Test: Winchester PDX1 Defender .38 Special +P 130 Grain

May 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

When I lug my ammunition testing setup to the range, I get more strange looks than Michael Bloomberg lactating at a Mayors Against Legal Governing (MALG) press conference.

That’s because I bring a couple of now-perforated trash cans full of soaking wet newspaper, some old boots and a bunch of discarded clothing. Shooting into water or plain ballistic gelatin doesn’t tell too much about bullet performance after it has passed through real-world barriers. So I assemble a suitable range wardrobe.

Recently, I brought 1/2 of a fully stocked thrift store to the range to test the Winchester PDX1 Defender .38 Special +P 130 grain self-defense load.

Winchester's PDX1 Defender .38 Special +P self-defense load.

Winchester’s PDX1 Defender .38 Special +P self-defense load.

This load is solid for .38 Special handguns, but also makes a good option for .357 revolvers. Some folks like to shoot .38 Special loads out of sturdier .357 revolvers for less recoil and wear and tear on the gun. Of course, the option is always there to load 357 Magnum cartridges whenever you like.

Velocity

Considering that this load uses 130 grain projectiles, velocity was appropriate. I tested it from a Ruger LCR .357 Magnum revolver, which features a 1.875 inch barrel. That’s shorter than NY Governor Cuomo’s debate on the SAFE Act! Using a Shooting Chrony Beta Master Chronograph, I measured a bunch of shots with the chrony placed 15 feet down range. The average of the Winchester PDX1 Defender 130 grain load worked out to 903 feet per second. Not too shabby, and enough for pretty reliable expansion.

Winchester PDX1 Defender .38 Special +P Expansion Performance

I shot another pile of these bullets into a pretty tough target to get an indication of expansion performance. While anything will expand if you shoot it into ballistic gelatin, things start to get crazy when you shoot through real-life barriers like leather and fabric clothing. To put it to the test, I shot through two layers of leather and 4 layers of light canvas. Not counting anything hard that might get in the way, this starts to approach a worst case heavy clothing scenario.

Winchester PDX1 38 Special +P

Expansion was good overall. Throughout testing over 75% of projectiles expanded properly.

I shot everything through the leather and canvas barrier into a deep container of wet pack. That’s a fancy word for soaking-wet newspaper. As you can see by the photo, most projectiles displayed good expansion. About 1/4 of the time, one would slip through with minimal or no expansion. That’s not a big surprise given .38 Special velocities out of a short-barrel revolver.

Closing Arguments

This was a good load. After testing thousands of self-defense rounds, in virtually all pistol calibers, I’ve become a big fan of bonded bullet designs. I’ve yet to encounter a quality bonded bullet that came apart while passing through a tough target. Like jacketed designs, expansion is always measured in probability, not certainty, but overall, bonded bullets have proven to be solid performers.

Check out other My Gun Culture product reviews here!

You can find Winchester PDX1 Defender Self Defense Ammunition at Brownells

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Ammo Review: Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 Grain Hollow Point

February 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 Grain Hollow Point Ammunition

It’s a good thing these Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 grain self-defense rounds don’t have dystychiphobia. That’s fear of accidents.

Speer Gold Dot 40 S&W 180 grain ammunition

Speer Gold Dot 40 S&W 180 grain ammunition

I say this because in our testing we had a high-speed wreck. One of our projectiles crashed right into the back of another during the expansion testing phase. We’re going to attribute this to our truly amazing shooting skills, and not just random chance.

No worries though. No animals were harmed in this crash testing and the crash test dummy can probably be salvaged.

Just the facts

All Speer Gold Dot ammunition features a bonded core projectile design – more on that later.

What’s interesting about Speer Gold Dot design is that projectiles are optimized for caliber and anticipated velocity. The idea is to make the projectile “soft” enough to expand properly, but no so “soft” that it over expands and comes apart or suffers in terms of penetration performance. This is evident in the Speer Short Barrel product line, where projectiles are designed to expand at lower velocity, but it also becomes apparent with more subtle projectile differences – as in the 180 grain versus 155 grain .40 S&W loads. We’ll be publishing some results on the 155 grain loading in the near future.

Cases are nickel-plated for high visibility and corrosion resistance. You’ll notice the shiny silver case is easier to see when checking chamber status – especially in lower indoor lighting conditions.

Speer Gold Dots use CCI primers that are non-corrosive and non-mercuric. No worries about barrel corrosion or cleaning with Windex.

No dieting zone

One of the biggest benefits of the Speer Gold Dot design is the Uni-Cor bonding technology used to literally fuse the lead core with the outer jacket. This is done to prevent the jacket from separating upon impact. If the jacket separates, weight is shed from the projectile and penetration can suffer.

The rounds we tested for expansion had a fairly rough time of things – passing through 4 layers of light canvas and two layers of fabric. After that, they entered a big pile of wet BS. To be more specific, we took a bunch of old New York Times newspapers and thoroughly soaked them for an expansion testing medium. As indicated by the photos, all of the tested rounds expanded as expected. We’ve come to expect this from Speer Gold Dots. But even we were surprised at the expansion performance demonstrated by the heavier weight, and lower velocity, 180 grain loads. All of the loads tested exceeded 150% expansion with final diameters measuring over .65″ in each example.

Just to check the real performance of the bonded projectile design, we weighed several of the expanded projectiles to see how much they lost from the original 18 grains:

178.3 grains

177.3 grains

179.7 grains

179.9 grains

And the one that slammed into the back of another bullet at 1,000 feet per second? Its post-collision weight was 179.4 grains.

Velocity

Speer Gold Dot 40 SW 180gr crashed

This one crashed right into the back of another bullet – and still didn’t come apart.

The Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 grain load is factory rated to achieve 1,025 feet per second, measured at the muzzle. We tested this load with a Beretta PX4 Storm .40 S&W. This particular gun features a 4″ barrel, so one would expect actual velocity to be a tad less than stated on the box. Assuming the manufacturer obtains rated velocity from a full length test barrel.

We went to the range and measured velocity 15 feet from the muzzle using a Shooting Chrony Beta Master chronograph. Taking the average of a bunch of shots, all from the Beretta PX4, we observed an average actual  velocity downrange of 1,018 feet per second. Not bad at all considering the slightly shorter barrel and the fact that our chronograph was 15 feet from the muzzle.

Our Rating

4 Nuns Four Nuns! Even for Speer Gold Dots, we were a little surprised at the consistent expansion performance with this load. When velocities start to get near 1,000 feet per second or lower, we’ve seen a lot of hollow point rounds get a little inconsistent with expansion performance. But not this one.
Available Here Speer Gold Dot .40 S&W 180 Grain Ammunition

 

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Ammo Review: Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 Grain Bonded Hollow Point Ammunition

January 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 Grain Bonded Hollow Point Ammunition

Speer Gold Dot 357 Sig ammo Glock 32

A great carry combination: Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig and a Glock 32

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the .357 Sig cartridge around here. We’ve had a lot of fun and learned a few things while checking out the Glock 31 Gen 4 and Glock 32 Gen 3. So we jumped on the opportunity to do some testing with Speer’s Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 grain bonded hollow point ammunition.

We like the .357 Sig cartridge for a lot of reasons, one of which is the dramatic bullet expansion performance. In our tinkering and testing, we’ve observed that even a 100 foot per second velocity increase is a big deal when it comes to reliable bullet expansion – assuming all other factors are equal. And with the .357 Sig cartridge, it’s fairly easy to get an extra 100 feet per second, or more, over a roughly equivalent 9mm load.

Truth be told, it’s also fun to plink at 100 yard targets with barely, if any, holdover. While one may need to knock off the caffeine for a day or so to eliminate the shakes, plinking at 100 yards with the .357 Sig is surprisingly easy as you don’t have to account for “lob effect.”

If you’re a law enforcement or security professional, you might appreciate the penetration performance of the .357 Sig through things like auto glass, car bodies, etc. With a proper bullet design, expansion will still be reliable post-barrier.

Let’s take a look at what we found with this load:

The Speer Gold Dot features Uni-Cor jacket bonding technology. This means that the lead core is electro-magically melded together with the outer jacket material. Without going into serious engineering topics, it’s the same bonding process that keeps the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the nearest television microphone nearly inseparable. Got it?

From a Glock 31, with its 4.48″ long barrel, we measured average velocity of 1,405.7 feet per second. That was here in the deep south, on an 80 degree day. We measured velocity 15 feet from the muzzle using a Shooting Chrony Beta Master setup, which has only been shot a few times – and none of those were our fault! But it still works just fine thank you. As a side note, it was a really good design move on Shooting Chrony’s part to put the expensive “brains parts” of the chronograph at the end of a long extension cord – far away from where the bullets fly. Just saying.

Back to the Gold Dot testing.

Speer Gold Dot 357 Sig expansion

Expansion performance was excellent – and almost boringly consistent.

To check out expansion performance, we went all bumpkin and used four layers of light canvas, two layers of cotton material and a bodaciously big bucket of wet pack since we’re too cheap to invest in proper ballistic gel. For those who don’t know, wet pack simply refers to newsprint that has been thoroughly soaked into eternal sogginess. Sort of like Al Gore’s handshake. And yes, just in case you’re wondering, it feel really gross to dig bullets out of wet pack. In fairness, wet pack has proven to be a half decent standby, although admittedly less consistent, for ballistic gel since it was invented by Gutenberg just after he finished his work with that printing press thing.

As you can see by the included photographs, expansion was boringly consistent with this load. Every single projectile we launched through the six total layers of fabric and into last week’s water-logged New York Times expanded perfectly. We’ve seen this result from the same load shot from a 4 inch barreled Glock 32 also. It just works.

In addition to consistent bullet expansion performance, the bonded design of the Gold Dot means that the projectile stays together, regardless of barrier encountered. While you might see an expanded petal break off once in a while, these bullets almost always stay intact, which leads to more consistent penetration performance.

The Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig has proven to be a great load and it’s our standard carry choice in both the Glock 31 and Glock 32.

Highly recommended!

Available Here Speer Gold Dot .357 Sig 125 grain Personal Protection Ammunition
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Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .45 ACP Ammunition

November 19, 2012 By 1 Comment
Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 45 ACP Ammo box

You can spot Winchester Elite PDX1 Supreme .45 ACP expanded bullets from Google Earth.

When it comes to modern personal defense ammo, there’s good news and bad news.

Good News: There are, at last count, 2,367,912 varieties of quality personal defense ammo on the market.

Bad News: There are, at last count, 2,367,912 varieties of quality personal defense ammo on the market.

Good News: Most of them are good.

Bad News: You can’t shop by brand only. Each caliber and brand should be evaluated separately depending on the gun and barrel length you choose. A load that expands reliably when shot from a 5″ barrel pistol may not when fired from a compact model with a 3″ barrel. Velocity matters after all, and each inch of barrel length can change velocity by 20 to 50 feet per second.

Good News: We’re freaks and love doing all this testing and verification work on your behalf. Of course you always need to make sure your ammo of choice functions properly in your specific gun.

Bad News: Justin Bieber is still a celebrity.

Good News: For you young bucks out there, Selena Gomez is back on the market.

Bad News: There are only 2,367,843 different loads of defense ammo left for us to test now that this one is done.

With all that said, we recently tested out the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .45 ACP 230 grain personal defense ammunition.

With all the comings and goings of test guns, we ended up testing out the Winchester PDX1 ammo in a full size 1911. In this case, a Springfield Armory TRP Armory Kote. This model features a 5″ long barrel, so consider that we were getting maximum velocity for this particular load.

The Winchester PDX1 Defender ammunition is a bonded design. This simply means that, well, the outer jacket is chemically bonded to the inner lead core. I know, the terminology is pretty complex. There’s a really good reason for bonded bullet design. If projectiles pass through barriers like glass, wood, steel, clothing, or bone, then bonded ones tend to stay in one piece. Staying in one piece means they retain more weight while traveling into and through their intended target. Going back to high school physics, if more weight is retained, then penetration depth in increased. It’s mathematically sound. Do some multiplication, carry the one, then divide by the cost per box of twenty. Easy!

Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 45 ACP Ammo expanded

Most projectiles expanded to over .80 inches in diameter. That’s about thumb width.

One unusual note about the Winchester PDX1 bonding design. The bottom of the projectile is “open” and you can see the lead, so it “looks” like more of a traditional jacketed projectile. No matter – just be aware that it’s bonded and not jacketed.

The Winchester PDX1 bullets are hollow points and scored for even expansion performance. Winchester claims that the projectiles will expand to 1.5 original diameter. According to the box, muzzle velocity is 920 feet per second which results in 432 foot-pounds of energy given the 230 grain projectile weight. Also according to the box, velocity at 5 yards should be 916 feet per second yielding 428 foot-pounds of energy.

We tested velocity at the range with a Shooting Chrony Beta Master Chronograph, placed 15 feet down range, and clocked a 1.3 boatloads of shots. If you need a translation, 1.3 boatloads is about 2 1/2 (20) round boxes. After doing some serious math, we figured the average velocity, launched from a 5″ barrel Springfield Armory TRP 1911, to be just about  911 feet per second – right in line with what the box says.

To see how these rounds expanded, we fired another boatload through 4 layers of light canvas and into a wet pack backstop. ‘Wet pack’ is derived from the latin words ‘wet’, meaning has water, and ‘pack’, meaning old newspapers that were cluttering up the office.  As you can see from the photo, expansion was dramatic most of the time. Most rounds expanded to just over .80 inches while one in the photo expanded to .86 inches. And yes, you can see that one from Google Earth.

It probably goes without saying, but function was trouble-free. The cartridge cases are nickel-plated for visibility, slippery-ness, and corrosion resistance. And they’re fully reloadable if you’re into that.

All things considered, the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .45 ACP ammunition proved itself worthy. We’re adding it to our Ammunition Buyers Guide.

You can buy Winchester Elite PDX1 Supreme Ammunition here.

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Buyers Guide: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender Ammunition .357 Magnum 125 Grain

October 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My Gun Culture Shooting Buyers Guide

Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 357 Magnum Ammunition

Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 357 Magnum Ammunition

In our recent ammo review, we found the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .357 Magnum 125 grain load to be supremely effective.

Velocity was quite respectable, even out of a short barrel snubnose revolver. We measured that at 1,214 feet per second on average, as measures by our Shooting Chrony Beta Master placed 15 feet downrange.

More importantly, expansion performance was impressive with some projectiles nearly doubling in diameter after passing through 4 layers of light canvas and into wetpack.

Good stuff!

 

Available Here Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender Ammunition .357 Magnum 125 Grain
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Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm +P Self Defense Ammunition

October 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm+P Defender 124 grain personal defense ammunition

Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 9mm +P 124 grain personal defense ammunition is a bonded bullet design intended to succeed against the tough FBI ammunition testing protocol. Without going into top secret details (not really), these tests are intended to examine how ammunition performs in a variety of law enforcement usage scenarios. Do they still expand after passing through barriers like clothing, automobile glass or steel, and common construction materials? Will the bullet achieve adequate penetration after passing through these barriers? Will Jessica still marry Claude after she finds out about his mob connections and previous engagement to the Crown Price of Belgravia?

Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm +P Personal Protection Ammunition

Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm +P Personal Protection Ammunition

With the exception of that last question, we know the answers. The FBI was impressed enough with test results of the Winchester PDX1 round to adopt it as their official duty ammunition. While we didn’t replicate the full FBI test protocol, we did tinker around a bit with a similar scenario or two.

Velocity of the Winchester PDX1 9mm +P load was impressive. Winchester rates it at 1,200 feet per second. We measured it with our Shooting Chrony Beta Master placed 15 feet downrange and found results to be better than advertised. Fired from a Glock 17 Generation 4 9mm pistol with a 4.49 inch barrel, we clocked the Winchester PDX1 9mm +P load at an average of 1,264.7 feet per second. Fired from a Springfield Armory EMP 9mm with just a 3 inch barrel, the average velocity measured 1,146.7 feet per second.

Expansion performance was excellent. We fired numerous loads into thoroughly soaked newspaper through 4 layers of light canvas. All rounds expanded perfectly with no sign of hollow point clogging. The largest expansion diameter we measured was .675 inches – nearly double the diameter of an unfired 9mm bullet. While relative to the testing media used, penetration depth was as good as any 9mm load we’ve tested.

Being a bonded bullet design, we noticed no fragmentation or separation of the projectiles and all weighed in with over 98% of their original 124 grain weight.

We found this to be a quality load for personal defense. FBI approved.

Available Here Winchester Elite PDX1 9mm +P 124 grain personal defense ammunition
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Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P Short Barrel Self Defense Ammunition

September 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We test a lot of self-defense ammo. It’s a great excuse to go to the range and do silly things.

Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P SB 135 grain ammunition

The Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P Short Barrel load performed well from a snubbie revolver

What’s not silly is the inconsistency of .38 Special ammunition to expand reliably – especially when fired from short barrel revolvers that are so popular for concealed carry. Expensive ammo that should expand properly doesn’t always. Part of the reason for that is reduced velocity when said ammo is used in a very short barreled revolver.

Speer has figured out that gajillions of people now carry snubnose revolvers like Smith & Wesson’s and Ruger LCR’s. And they have made special cartridge designs specifically for the characteristics of these guns. Simply put, the Short Barrel (labeled SB on the Speer ammo boxes) loads are designed to expand at lower speeds than “standard” projectiles.

They do. The bullets in this photo were all shot from a Ruger LCR, through 4 layers of light canvas, and into a container of wetpack. By the way, the Ruger LCR has a 1.875 inch barrel – that certainly qualifies as a short barrel revolver!

Just remember, expansion and penetration depth are forever balancing forces. As tempting as it might be, don’t load your full size gun with Short Barrel loads. They will work, but they will also expand too much and penetration will suffer. And your bullets may come apart. Use standard Speer Gold Dot loads in guns with barrels longer than 3 inches and the Short Barrel loads in guns with barrels less than 3 inches.

Available Here Speer Gold Dot .38 Special +P 135 Grain Short Barrel Ammunition
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Ammo Review: Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender .357 Magnum 125 Grain Ammunition

September 24, 2012 By 6 Comments
Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 357 Magnum Ammunition

Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender 357 Magnum Ammunition

We’re in the middle of testing about a half dozen different calibers of Winchester’s Elite PDX1 Defender Ammunition – one of which is the .357 Magnum 125 grain load. A classic self defense and law enforcement load in terms of bullet weight and velocity.

Since we focus more on personal defense solutions, we elected to test the .357 Magnum Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender load in a snubbie revolver. A Ruger LCR .357 Magnum revolver to be specific.

The PDX1 Defender line uses bonded jacket technology, meaning that the bullet jacket is welded (as described by Winchester) to the lead core. This is designed to prevent separation of the heavier bullet core from the jacket material. In our testing, we found the .357 Magnum PDX1 loads to retain virtually all of their weight, even when torn up by tough barrier material.

Expansion performance of the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender load was excellent

Expansion performance of the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender load was excellent

Winchester advertises velocity of 1,325 feet per second velocity measured at the muzzle. While we were unable to verify, we’re assuming that this measurement is from a somewhat standard 4 inch barrel. Out of the Ruger LCR .357 Magnum, with it’s 1.875 inch barrel, we measured average velocity of 1,214 feet per second with our Shooting Chrony Beta Master placed 15 feet downrange. not bad considering the LCR barrel is shorter than the average car key.

Expansion performance was excellent. We shot through 4 layers of light canvas into wetpack and achieved maximum expansion of .665 inches in diameter, or nearly 1.9x expansion. That was well above Winchester’s claim of of 1.5x expansion for this round.

We’re having equally good success with other loads in the Winchester Elite PDX1 Defender ammunition family and will cover those separately in the next several articles.

Filed Under: Ammunition Reviews, Reviews

Ammo Review: Winchester PDX1 Elite Defender .40 S&W 165 Grain

August 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

The .40 Smith & Wesson cartridge has been called many things since it was introduced in 1990.

Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 40 S&W 165 grain.JPG

Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 40 S&W 165 grain

Slow & Weak

Save your bacon & Walk free

Sexy & Winchester

Shoot & Wound

Sledgehammer & Wallop

Shortened & Widened

Sluggish & Wimpy

Slay & Waste

Studious & Well-spoken

Oh yeah, and Smith & Wesson…

Used by the majority of law enforcement organizations, the .40 S&W round has somehow managed to gain flocks of proponents and many vocal detractors. One thing we’ve found in our testing is that broad caliber generalizations are absolutely meaningless. Everything depends on the specific projectile and load being tested with any given caliber.

Let’s take a closer look at the Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 Defender ammunition in .40 S&W 165 grain loading.

Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 Defender .40 S&W 165 Grain Ammunition Overview

Winchester PDX1 ammunition is a bonded hollow point design. In average Joe’s English, that simply means that the jacket of the bullet is chemically attached to the lead core interior. Speer Gold Dot ammunition uses a similar design process.

Why?

Winchester believes that a bonded design allows more control over the delicate balance between penetration and expansion – without risk of jacket separation that is prone to occur with traditional jacketed / lead core bullets. The Winchester PDX1 round is pre-programmed by shape and cuts to expand into six segments as the projectile expands.

165 grain .40 S&W: Feel the need for speed…

We clocked a veritable pile of the Winchester PDX1 Elite .40 S&W 165 grain ammo through our Shooting Chrony Beta Master, placed 15 feet down range. When all was averaged out using some complex addition and division with a touch of calculus, we found that the PDX1 ammo achieved average velocity of 1,195 feet per second. Factory specs listed on the box claim 1,140 feet per second at the muzzle, so this round outperformed the claims in our evaluation.

The test gun for the velocity test was a Beretta PX4 Storm full size – we did a full gun review on this one a while back. This particular handgun features a 4 inch barrel, so we’re not getting the full velocity advantage of an extra inch on a longer barreled pistol – and the round still outperformed the velocity claim.

Why?

Could be a number of factors. Perhaps the claimed velocity is a conservative number. We’ve seen that before and we always welcome conservative marketing claims – it’s a pleasant surprise when your ammunition performs even better than expected. Or perhaps our testing is done in a higher temperature environment. We’re in South Cackalackee where weather conditions are generally 90/90/90. That’s 90 degrees, 90 percent humidity, and 90 times hotter than it should be. The hotter it is, the higher the pressure, and higher the measured velocity.

Winchester PDX1 ammo expansion performance

Winchester Supreme Elite PDX1 ammo expansion

Expansion performance of the Winchester PDX1 was excellent – most rounds doubled in diameter.

Our expansion testing always considers performance through barriers. Any reasonable ammo will expand in picture perfect manner when shot into water or gelatin. It’s like reality TV. Real, but not really. Many fail however when you place the water or gelatin backstop behind real world barriers like clothing. Not too many thugs run around buck naked as far as we know, so we’d rather see how our carry ammunition performs against clothed attackers.

For the Winchester PDX1 Defender tests, we used a barrier consisting of 2 layers of light canvas and 2 layers of cotton fabric. We’ve settled on this combination to provide an average “clothing” simulation for average weather conditions. We’ve found that many brand name hollow points have failed to perform consistently behind even this relatively simple barrier. Some rounds will expand while others will clog with fabric and behave like full metal jacket ammunition – passing right through the target. Behind the fabric barrier, we used simple wet pack. That’s just thoroughly soaked newsprint.

We obtained excellent results with this particular Winchester PDX1 ammo. The extra velocity available with the 165 grain load made a noticeable difference in expansion performance. The packaging claims 1.5x expansion capability. In our tests, we found that projectiles expanded to over .6 inches in diameter easily, with many rounds doubling in diameter. Performance of the programmed petal expansion was consistent as well with all six petals expanding in nearly every case.

Closing arguments

This particular Winchester PDX1 ammunition performed in stellar fashion. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it’s important to look at each specific loading independently as performance may vary. We’ll be testing the heavier, but slower, 180 grain Winchester PDX1 ammo as well and will report on that separately. Considering that this test was done with a Beretta PX4 Storm with average barrel length, we highly recommend this round for mid size to full size handguns. We’ll try to test it in a short barrel .40 S&W handgun to see how it fares.

Our Rating

4 Nuns Four Nuns! Velocity was better than advertised through an average length barrel and expansion performance through moderate fabric barriers was excellent. What more can you ask?

 

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