Ammo Review: Precious Metal You Can Bank On – Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP 185 grain JHP

“I love gooooooooold!”
Goldmember, 2002 and 1975

Most bullets expanded to .75 inches

We’re developing a fondness for it as well. In its jacketed form anyway.

As part of our ongoing Will It Expand series, we’ve been testing lots and lots of ammo. Many of those tests have represented somewhat realistic scenarios. Others?  Not so much.

In any case, it’s been interesting to learn how different premium self-defense ammo performs in less than ideal situations. Any bullet will expand into perfect mushrooms in water or gelatin, but how many keep working as advertised when shot through leather, canvas, layers of fabric and even hard barriers?

One that has consistently impressed us is the Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP 185 grain JHP load. We’ve been shooting it from a full size Springfield Armory TRP 1911 Armory Kote with a 5 inch barrel. Out of this particular gun, we’ve measured velocity with our Shooting Chrony Beta Master at an average of 1,062 feet per second – clocked 15 feet from the muzzle.

Feeding has been flawless, even with the TRP’s tight chamber dimensions. What has really been impressive however is the expansion performance. We’ve shot it through  multiple layers of leather and cotton fabric and through a half dozen layers of light canvas. In both scenarios, we backed the barriers with wet magazines – not the most forgiving of bullet test mediums.

As you can see by the attached photo, we’ve gotten consistent expansion results with most rounds measuring  in the neighborhood of three quarters of an inch.

Felt recoil with this round is modest due to the 185 grain projectile weight.

We recommend it.

AVAILABLE HERE: Remington Golden Saber .45 ACP JHP 185 grain JHP, 25/box