My little Ruger LCR is filled with Hornady 110gr +P Critical Defense. I like it.
I carry the Speer Gold Dot Short-Barrel 135-grain JHP +P that is mentioned in the link above.
"This load provides a quality jacketed hollowpoint for the new breed of lightweight handguns that could not use the lead hollowpoint. We liked this load a lot. While the performance of the load mirrors some of the 110- and 125-grain bullets, the 135-grain bullet offers greater mass. Produced 13 inches of penetration and .62-inch expansion. This load and the Buffalo Bore 125 are practically identical in performance."
I keep Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel +P 135gr in my LCR.
Not sure if this really proves anything, but prior to settling on it I tried a bunch of different loadings over my chronograph. One thing that I found interesting is that of 6 loadings, the Speer was the ONLY one to reach its advertised muzzle velocity from the 1-7/8" LCR barrel. The others missed their advertising hyperbole by amounts ranging from "that's not too bad" to "are you fricken' kidding me?"
(Tried using a fixed-space font to keep the table readable)
ETA: ... and it didn't work
Adv Act Act
Mfr Ctg Bullet MVel MVel ME Shots Temp Description
Federal 38Spl 110gr HS 980 873 186 10 60F Hydra Shok Low Recoil
Federal 38Spl 129gr HS 950 867 215 10 60F Hydra Shok
Hornady 38Spl 90gr FTX 1200 951 181 10 60F Critical Defense Lite
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 907 201 10 60F Critical Defense
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 951 221 15 90F Critical Defense (retest)
Hornady 38Spl+P 110gr FTX 1090 1009 249 15 90F Critical Defense
Speer 38Spl+P 135gr GDSB 860 865 224 20 90F Gold Dot Short Barrel
Adv MVel = advertised muzzle velocity
Act MVel = average actual (measured) muzzle velocity
Act ME = average actual muzzle energy (calculated based on bullet weight and measured velocity)
Shots = number of shots included in the actual averages
Temp = temperature
I ran the Hornady 110gr FTX Critical Defense twice, once on a cool day and once on a hot day. Very different results, not sure if they're really that temperature sensitive, if there was a big variation in lots, or if my chronograph was having a bad hair day.
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