Anyone load .380 Golden Sabre 102gr ??

[125JHP]

My box of 102gr Golden Sabres just made it All-The-Way from MidWay
(heh heh... a little humor there).

I can't believe these things have been popular & selling for years and no-one seems to have load data for them. I have searched the web and the forum for posts and scoured all my manuals. I have collected 40 loads for 100gr FMJ but not much in the way of specifics for this bullet. Of the 7 posts I found for the 102 GS, most are well over published data and are therefor suspect.

Be assured I will work up to any final load from the data I have found. The factory stuff is advertised at 940 fps so that, or a little faster, is my target point(around 1000fps). The bullet is .475" long but the "full caliber" driving band is only .20" long which is about the same as 90gr XTP. The rest of the "shank" from the step to the olgive is actually undersize which gives it a total length similar to 95gr FMJ.

I'm currently shooting a blow back design. I tend to load around .965" to .970" as the longer loads don't always feed well in that gun.

A couple of the loads that caught my eye involve Herco or N-320.

I have had luck with 3.4gr N-320 in both 90 XTP and 95 FMJ. That is also listed in the 2002 Vhit manual for 100gr so I'll drop a couple tenths and work back up to it.
I also have lots of other powders available, including AA-5, AA-7, Zip, W-231, Bullseye, Unique, N-330, WSF, WST Herco and Alcan-5 but don't plan on buying any others.

Does anyone have a decent load they can share for this bullet?

Thanks
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[colt_saa]

I can't help you too much.

I load this projectile into the 357SIG cartridge over a big charge of Power Pistol. The long bearing surface of the 102GS works well for the 357SIG.

It really cooks out of my P229 Sport and X5. Very flat shooting load.

I have not had a chance to chronograph it out of the 9" MP5 yet. I am hoping it will hit 2000FPS

[shovelwrench]

Power pistol is all I've used under that bullet with the max load for 100gn bullets from a PPK, Colt 1908, and LCP.

4.6gn seated @ .926 listed @ 1035fps, I've never chronographed em. That driving band on them kind of decides the length on these as it has to be seated deep enough to allow for your crimp...

It is a fairly accurate load (considering the guns that use them) and always functioned perfectly in the guns I've tried them in. While I understand why you wouldn't want to purchase another powder, Power Pistol is a fantastic full power powder...

This data is the best I've found for Power Pistol, and I have personally used many of the loads listed here with no signs of pressure....

[125JHP]

Thanks for that list, I've heard a lot about power pistol and figure one day I'll try it. But doesn't it have a huge fireball flash and loud report? It also falls between Unique and Herco on the burn rate charts, in the same band as N-330.

I tried 115 XTP in 380 but wasn't impressed so am looking at this and will also try some of the Magtech 100 SP.

It's all just for fun.

[shovelwrench]

It is a little "flashy", I haven't noticed the report to be louder then any other full power load from a short barrel.

I use it in .38spc +P, 45 +P, .380, 9mm and .38 Super..

The .38 super data is a little reserved, as is the 9mm. I've seen and loaded data for the super and 9 with max loads for the 115gn, but under 124gn... Also, a pretty standard load for .38spc +P is 6gn, 158LSWC, quite the potent SD round.

More recently I've been trying some target type loads for the Super, I found that a 124TC (lead) shoot REALLY well over 5gn(6" 1911).

[Rule3]

I have "several" 380's and used the Hornady data for their 100 gr bullet. Hornady #8 manual. The OAL needs to be adjusted to your barrel.

Power pistol gives the highest velocity. I having been playing with PP in the 9mm and 40 SW.

It does have a loud report. It burns very clean. I like it.

Before PP I was using the HP38/W 231.

[Mike_in_VA]

Here's a factory duplication load:

102 gr Golden Saber
3.3 gr 231
WW brass
CCI 500 primer
0.960" LOA
915 fps
Gun = Sig P232

Factory ammo clocked at 913 fps from the same gun.

[125JHP]

The other day I had a chance to shoot some loads I worked up for my .380 using 102gr Golden Sabres. Scouring the internet for old info and posts didn't turn up very much for this specific bullet but a couple of you responded to my thread with helpful data to get me started. I found a lot of loads for 100gr pills, so that formed the basis of my trial loads. Since my current 380 is a blow back design, I didn't want to push the max loads too much, but I was looking to get in the 950 to 1000 fps range. I've compiled my data, analyzed primers and targets and come to my conclusions that this is a keeper bullet and I have a couple good loads to use with it.

I put together loads with 5 different powders and Winchester primers and set my OAL at .970" and kept the head-stamps the same for each powder batch. As expected when calculating Energy and Power Factor these were well above any 95gr FMJ load I have tested but surprisingly they were also significantly higher than the 115gr tests I recently did. Although I didn't do any penetration or expansion tests they should should make a good SD load compared to other 380 offerings, if one were to want to carry reloads. Golden Sabres seem to have a good reputation for expansion.

Cases were noted to be typically thrown 6' to 10' toward 4pm compared to factory that usually lands 4' to 8' away. 10 shots were fired of each load thru the CED, at a target 10 yds away. Targets were scanned and groups analyzed with On-Target software. Avg Velocity is from 10 shots. The Extreme Spreads were a little higher than i like, typically 40-50 fps with each powder, even though I hand trickled each load. Normally I have ES in the 10-20 fps range so I don't know what happened this time. The loads were shot from a 3.5" bbl:

3.2 Bullseye 946 fps SD-15.3
3.8 Unique 902 fps SD-17.2
4.2 Herco 1020 fps SD-20.5
3.3 N320 1010 fps SD-15.2
3.4 W231 943 fps SD-12.5

All groups were under 2", which is good enough at 10 yds for the intended purpose, with the best group and 2nd highest fps from the N-320 load (1.27" & 1010 fps 231 ft lbs).
The second smallest group was with Unique ( 1.57" @ 900 fps) and the most powerful load was with Herco (236 ft lbs @1020 fps).
The flattest primers were with W-231 (which often is the case with my loads) but they were not excessivly flat.

I may try the Magtech 95gr Soft Point next, since solid bullets seem to have better penetration in .380 but I will load up another batch of these Golden Sabres to put back for a rainy day.

Thanks to all who helped with this experiment.

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