Remington Golden Saber .38 Special?

[Dan Goodwin]

Doc,

Any data/photography on this load? This is what my agency issues to those who carry issued revolvers and gives to those who carry personal BUGs and want to carry this load.

I've personally switched to 148 wadcutters, but curious about this load's performance under your standard procedures.

Did the old-school wet newspaper test several years back with G.S. in 2-, 4- and 5-in. barrels and expansion and penetration was about the same: bullets looked like magazine pictures and penetrated 12-14 inches fired from 3 yards.

[Saginaw79]

I carried it for a while when I was doing Security locally

IIRC it performed real well in the FBI tests, proper expansion and penetration etc;

[tpd223]

I think it's an OK load, wound ballistics wise.

I used to carry it in my 642 off-duty/BUG, quit doing so after I saw a fall off in QC at Remington.

I had to use a mallet to get my gun open one time after the bullet pulled forward from the case while I was shooting a qual course. Bullet tied up the cylinder from rotating.
That round had no crimp at all, and the Golden Saber is already a fairly long round as it's loaded from the factory.

I have seen this several other times since in other 642s at our range.

I'm now carrying the 135gr Gold Dot in one of my 642s, Cor Bon DPX in the other.

I recommend the Gold Dot to everyone who asks me what I think the best snubby load is.

[bkb0000]

how do we like the golden sabers in .45?

[tpd223]

I used to carry it in my USP as a duty load, but I think there are better choices now, also note my comment on QC problems from Remington.


Check here for duty ammo info;

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=19887

[Marcus L.]

Overall the Golden Saber has never been that great of a performer. Often it is a marginal expander with excessive penetration and it has a good deal of core/jacket separation when punching through barriers. Not nearly as good as Ranger Talons, Federal HST, Gold Dots, or Federal Tactical Bonded.

bkb0000,
The .45acp in Golden Saber is very inconsistant and plugs easily. So, it usually has little or no expansion in FBI testing and penetrates very deeply. Better than FMJ though.

Pick something from tpd223's link and you can be confident in your ammunition choice.

As for .38spl from a short barrel. The best load currently on the market is the Speer Gold Dot 135gr+P.