Gold Dot G2

[Cal44]

I just picked up a couple boxes of 9mm Speer Gold Dot 147gr.

Never heard of G2 GD before.

What's the difference between GD G2 and regular Gold Dot?

 

[JJEH]

What's the difference between GD G2 and regular Gold Dot?

Different bullet. This is from their website:

Instead of a large hollow-point cavity, Gold Dot G2 has a shallow dish filled with a high-performance elastomer. On impact, the material is forced into engineered internal fissures to start the expansion process.

Speer Ammo - Gold Dot G2 - 24226

And apparently is has a higher velocity/energy as well.

 

[S&W Rover]

The 147 grain Gold Dot G2 is rated at 1020 fps muzzle velocity on Speer's web site. I've seen somewhat lower velocities cited in various reviews, including 946 fps mentioned in a Handguns Magazine review. See Speer Gold Dot G2 Review

The "regular" Gold Dot 147 grain JHP round is rated by Speer at 985 fps. The 124 grain "regular" Gold Dot JHP round is rated at 1150, and the 115 grain "regular" God Dot JHP round is rated at 1210 fps.

The speed of sound is roughly 1125 fps. Many 147 grain rounds appear to be designed to stay just below that speed, where the 'crack' of the bullet would be louder. 147 grain bullets 9mm rounds (of whatever company) are often paired with sound suppressors.

It seems the G2 bullet, with the plastic filled cavity, is designed to operate at somewhat slower velocities than the standard-design Gold Dot JHP bullets do. The Handguns Magazine article points out it is designed to reach the optimal penetration and expansion parameters of the FBI protocol for 9mm bullets. My totally unsupported-by-data guess is that G2 design would over-penetrate in the lighter and faster weights and that is why we don't see a 115 grain or 124 grain G2 bullet.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Speer brought out this load and it was shown to LE people in Utah on it's first introduction.

In order for it to perform correctly it needed a longer barrel than the standard 4", in order to achieve the needed FPS for proper expansion.

It was not offered to the general public at this time.

Here is a picture that I have in my records, enjoy.

 

[ContinentalOp]

IIRC, this was the load the FBI adopted when they first decided to switch to 9mm, but there were issues with the 1st generation, possibly what Nevada Ed mentioned. From what I understand, the current generation works better.

 

[Nevada Ed]

The "Gold Dot" is a good bullet now...............

but it flunked a lot of test in the field in in the "Rags" where they were written up and had poor tests and the writers asked the company for a new or second shipment of ammo to see what was up.

Speer sent a new sample of 38 special ammo to the testers and this time the bullets expanded better and everyone was happy with the outcome.

The "Rags" had nice pictures of bullet expansion and pasted the first test off as just a bad lot of bullets but you and I know the "Rest of the story".

Shot them first and......... "checky, checky" !!

 

[Echo40]

It's probably more beneficial to .380 ACP and 9mm Luger, which in the Gen 1 configuration had some issues with underpenetration or failure to expand depending on the load or the firearm it was fired from.
Basically, the G1 didn't tend to expand properly out of shorter barrels, with 9mm Luger and especially .380 ACP, and with Pocket Pistols and Subcompacts like the LCP or LC9 being all the rage, that was obviously a problem. The G2 most likely addresses this.

 

[junglefighter]

SGAmmo has some for sale as I type this.Be sure and watch the video before you buy.

 

[S&W Rover]

I noticed today (on the MidwayUSA web page) that Speer is bringing out a 9mm 135 grain elastomer-filled JHP round labeled as a G2 "Carry Gun" round for "compact concealed handguns."

Will its G2 bullet clock in a tad faster than the 147 grain G2 round? How will it do against the FBI standard for penetration and expansion, particularly through barriers and materials?

I am guessing Speer has optimized this round for the SD role in short-barreled pistols and to meet that FBI test protocol. Looking forward to see the reviews on it.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Can't wait to see those 135's.....

That weight bullet shot very well in my short barrel C9 pistol.

 

[S&W Rover]

The Gold Dot G2 135 grain 9mm round was available this weekend (17 April 2020) on the MidwayUSA web site but quickly went out of stock. At least this means it is now being produced and should appear in the inventory at various ammo sellers pretty soon.