Speer Ammo Test

Dinadan · January-01-12 09:01

I finally got some Speer/CCI short barrel ammo. This morning I went out to the range and

   shot some of it. I also did a comparison to Winchester magnums. I used books as my

   comparison material. The firearms I used were my Pug, my

   Black Widow and my 3" Earl. Surprisingly, since it is optimized for 2" barrels, my

   Black Widow had the lowest penetration of the three guns. Here are some photos:

   the numbers indicate the number of pages penetraed; 600 pages was about two inches.

capn · January-01-12 10:01

Boy, for us soon-to-be or new NAA owners, yours is a valuable report and nicely documented.



   I'm creating a link so I can get back to it easily.



   Many thanks, Dinadan.

gunr · January-01-12 12:01

I did a test in wood some time ago. I have a 4" earl. I'm wondering what it will do, compared to the 3". I have a few of the gold dots left. I just got a chrono and am anxious to see the comparison.

Nice report you made there.

drakeal · January-01-12 16:01

Great information, thanks for posting that Dinadan. I just got my pug yesterday and plan to go shooting tomorrow. I picked up both the hornady critical defense and spear gold dot.

I love the grips on your pug, do you mind me asking where you got them? I was thinking of getting some wood boot grips for mine.

Dinadan · January-08-12 09:01

Drakeal - I made the grips on the Pug.

Dinadan · January-08-12 09:01

I did another test with the CCI/Speer ammo today. Using the same three guns, this time

   the Black Widow and the Pug had the same penetration, with the Earl doing a little better.

   I think the penetraion is inversely proportional to the expansion, which makes sense.

   On my first test the BW had better expansion but worse penetration, with

   more testing the BW and Pug had about equal expansion and penetration.

   The Speer rounds never seperate from the metal jacket like the Winchester rounds

   sometimes do, and the Speer rounds usually have better expansion, but they never equal

   the Winchester rounds penetration. Of course, my test medium is books, which are not

   much like a human body.

argleargle · February-01-12 18:02

Good thread. I sort of wish now that I'd photographed some of the stuff I've tested with.

I really should have filmed me shooting that monitor.

Dinadan · February-01-12 19:02

Was the monitor CRT or LCD? Sometimes those CRT things are darned hard to shatter!



   I am still undecided about whether penetration or expansion is more important.

   I am carrying the Speer as my SD ammo right now. I have never had a FTF with it,

   though I have only shot forty rounds or so. I need to shoot some more of it before

   I can compare reliability to Winchester SuperX. I have had a couple of FTFs with SuperX.

argleargle · February-01-12 20:02

I've done both. The NAA short killed an LCD, resulting in "all the colors of the rainbow" for a second.



   I agree with you totally on the CRT toughness. I killed a CRT once with handguns, but my .22 HR622 just wasn't cutting it. It took several rounds from .40 to get through that three inch glass. Formerly, it was expensive. When there is shooting outside your house, hide behind your old expensive CRT tv. The screen will probably stop a few .380 jhp at least.



   My FTFs with SuperX were mostly in groups, as in a "bad box."



   Just between you and me, I carry FMJ in my BW. I've seen too many non-expanded JHP pulled from ballistic gelatin. I've seen too much "inconsistent" expansion. Why pay more for a non-expanding hollow point?



   The very first CCI MM+V I saw pulled from gelatin was unexpanded. Perhaps it would have affected my FMJ decision, I don't know. I'm expecting to have to punch bone. If there were a spitzer point .22 mag FMJ, I would use that. They all have a bit of a meplat, unfortunately.

kevntt · April-05-12 10:04

Looks like the Winchester Super X is hard to beat for real world protection. That's what I use!

Dinadan · April-05-12 15:04

Kevitt - Depends on whether expansion or penetration is more important.

   If you want more penetration, I have tested CCI Maximag 40 gr Total Metal

   Jacket, and it has more penetration than SuperX Hollowpoint, but with no expansion

   at all.

pink · April-11-12 06:04

Good stuff. Had my money on the Earl.

taseal · August-08-12 21:08

this was great. looks like the speer works good on 2" barrels like intended. but when it comes to 1" barrels (like the pug or the 1 1/8) you best stick with the winchester X which seemed in your review to work better. I see better expansion AND penetration.

I'm going to stick with my Winchester super x.

Dinadan · August-09-12 16:08

Taseal - thanks. I (and other tests that I have read about) seem to agree that

   the Winchester SuperX is hard to beat. In spite of that I still carry CCI in

   my carry gun. I really should buy a few boxes of each and just shoot a couple

   hundred rounds of each to compare FTF rates. I do not shoot a lot of mag ammo, so

   the couple of FTFs that I have had with SuperX are statistically meaningless but

   do bias me against it.

taseal · August-09-12 19:08

fwiw, I shot a box (my 1st 50 out of my mini) and all 50 were flawless.

gunman10000 · December-08-13 08:12

I have reviewed CCI, Winchester Super X, Winchester PDX1 and Winchester HE ammo through the Pug.
I just got my hands on some Speer GD ammo but have not had a chance to evaluate it yet.
The CCI 40gr TMJ penetated very deep. The PDX1 penetrated deep with nice expansion.
I had the chance to shoot it through bone and flesh. I was very impressed with the results.
The HE ammo fragmented as claimed. The HE should be used for hunting small animals only.
The Super X was accurate but tumbled alot. It did not consistantly penetrate beacause of the this.
Check out this video to see what I am talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vXdRbYVRU4.