# Short Barrel Defense Loads



## rjw_sparks (May 11, 2010)

Speer has some factory ammo with Gold Dot bullets with supposedly less recoil and flash. Anyone have a clue how that could duplicated with reloads? I recently purchased a S&W 431 in .32 H&R ( I like the sixth shot) and was thinking of a "short barrel" load for practice. I want to try Speer's new GDHP's as well. I know Speer makes them for .327 Federal but I'd like to compare against Hornady XTP's and Speer's JHP's. Any ideas on a poor man penetration test?


----------



## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Milk jugs full of water equal my penetration test. three jugs minimum 4 jugs max for my Speer GDHP hand loads. My chrono validates velocity as compared to factory specs. The chrono is your best test as there is plenty of test info on the major loads like Speer Gold Dot.


----------



## rjw_sparks (May 11, 2010)

Milk jugs are workable. Wasn't sure about the number though. If you know of a good source for penetration data on the new .32 cal 100gr and 115gr Speer GDHP, I sure would appreciate it. When I called Speer, they didn't have anything they could share. They did say that both of those new bullets are designed for .327 Federal velocities and will not give the same expansion at .32 H&R velocities. I've seen .327 advertised in 1400-1500 fps range and I have measured my H&R loads using 100gr Hornady XTP and Speer's JHP's at right around 1200 fps. I assume the same weight of the new 100gr GDHP will yeild velocities in same ballpark. So, at that reduction in velocity from .327 loads, what reduction in expansion could I expect and how would that compare to other non-GDHP's utlizing the same load is what I'm trying to determine. The new "short barrel" factory loads sound interesting but I haven't seen any performance measurements of that. I'm assuming it it somewhat reduced to accomodate flash and recoil but if so, wouldn't that affect penetration also? That is fine for plinking and practice loads as I can't see buying GDHP's with today's availability and cost of .32's but would like to know what to use for maximum penetration when not in plinking mode.


----------

