I think the 185 grain .45 ACP Speer Gold Dot is a very good short barrel load. We processed an officer-involved-shooting a few months back and the suspect was shot with a Springfield XDS from 10 feet. The bullet retained 100% of it's weight, penetrated 11 inches and mushroomed to .669 inches. From witness statements the suspect dropped immediately...literally collapsing on himself.
Just an opinion, but the cartridge design seemed to work well.
Addition: I will say this though about the 185 grain Speer Gold Dot in terms of dislikes..as the bullet is short it sets back in the cartridge case fairly fast. I see officers loading and unloading the same round again and again and when we used the 230 grain Speer Gold Dot it wasn't a problem, but the 185s set back about half way after about three or four loadings. For the private person this may not be an issue, but for LEOs it may. I don't think the 230 grain Speer Gold Dot would have dropped the suspect as fast, but it was a more "stout cartridge" for LEO use in my opinion as the cartridge case has more surface area to grab the bullet. I hope this makes sense, but I've been seeing our 1911s beating the **** out the 185s and that didn't happen before.
