Musings: M69/2.75" - Hornady Critical Defense 44 Spl vs Speer Short Barrel 44 Mag
This is a short range report and musings about an ammo test with my new M69 with a 2.75" barrel. I was only testing shootability for an EDC round. I also wanted to get the gun sighted in.
The two ammo options I settled on was the Hornady Critical Defense .44 Spl 165gr FTX and the Speer Short Barrel .44 Mag 200gr Gold Dot. The latter is discontinued but Bud's had it in stock, so I bought a bunch just in case it was the winner.
There isn't a lot of decent performance information on ammo from a .44 short barrel to help in this decision. I believe that prevailing wisdom seems to be that the Speer ammo will be about 200 fps faster than the Hornady ammo, based on various published stuff on the web (it's on the web, so it must be true!) These two videos are what led me to settle in on these two options:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aszzuAXBhs"]Hornady Critical Defense .44 Spl 165gr FTX[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n059uyefhnk"]Speer Short Barrel .44 Mag 200gr Gold Dot[/ame]
The range results were interesting. For me, I didn't think there was any difference in felt recoil between the two loads. This is an area where definitely YMMV. But in my case, either load would be about the same in this area of shootability.
Where I found the difference was in flash and noise. In the confines of an indoor range, the Speer load is definitely much louder and makes a pretty decent flash, even though it's supposedly designed for short barrels. On the other hand, the Hornady load didn't produce any flash (that I could perceive) and the noise factor was pretty "normal", so not much different for me than a .45 ACP.
Lastly, the two loads shot to the same point of impact at 7-10 yards in my gun, so I was able to set the sights and not worry about which ammo I would carry.
The moral of the story? I'm carrying the Hornady round. While the terminal ballistics on a BG I may have to engage would probably be better with the Speer round, I think the Hornady round will be just fine in the BG put-down department. The noise and flash were the deciding factors for me.
My 2 cents, in case it helps the next guy down the road.
This is a short range report and musings about an ammo test with my new M69 with a 2.75" barrel. I was only testing shootability for an EDC round. I also wanted to get the gun sighted in.
The two ammo options I settled on was the Hornady Critical Defense .44 Spl 165gr FTX and the Speer Short Barrel .44 Mag 200gr Gold Dot. The latter is discontinued but Bud's had it in stock, so I bought a bunch just in case it was the winner.
There isn't a lot of decent performance information on ammo from a .44 short barrel to help in this decision. I believe that prevailing wisdom seems to be that the Speer ammo will be about 200 fps faster than the Hornady ammo, based on various published stuff on the web (it's on the web, so it must be true!) These two videos are what led me to settle in on these two options:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aszzuAXBhs"]Hornady Critical Defense .44 Spl 165gr FTX[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n059uyefhnk"]Speer Short Barrel .44 Mag 200gr Gold Dot[/ame]
The range results were interesting. For me, I didn't think there was any difference in felt recoil between the two loads. This is an area where definitely YMMV. But in my case, either load would be about the same in this area of shootability.
Where I found the difference was in flash and noise. In the confines of an indoor range, the Speer load is definitely much louder and makes a pretty decent flash, even though it's supposedly designed for short barrels. On the other hand, the Hornady load didn't produce any flash (that I could perceive) and the noise factor was pretty "normal", so not much different for me than a .45 ACP.
Lastly, the two loads shot to the same point of impact at 7-10 yards in my gun, so I was able to set the sights and not worry about which ammo I would carry.
The moral of the story? I'm carrying the Hornady round. While the terminal ballistics on a BG I may have to engage would probably be better with the Speer round, I think the Hornady round will be just fine in the BG put-down department. The noise and flash were the deciding factors for me.
My 2 cents, in case it helps the next guy down the road.
