Ring: "Speer Product Line Manager..."

Me: Thanks for taking my call. Mind if I take notes?

Him: Not a problem, good to finally hear who I've been emailing.

So, I'm still trying to understand what you meant by "too much expansion" when we discussed cranking Gold Dot 357's up to 1600 fps and beyond...

Well, too much means the bullet might begin to, or actually lose a petal, and that's what we've seen from the 357 bullets when fired from carbines.

And losing a petal is in and of itself a bad thing how?

Ah, that's not an easy question...

They don't look pretty enough to photograph? Creating an 80 caliber wound channel then leaving debris after 14 or so inches is bad?

Not really, it's a complicated process. The manufacturing and advertising of ammunition nowadays. (Pause)

I'm listening...

Okay, the last thing we need is for our competitors to show some over-expanded Gold Dots or HST's to a large police department, because the next thing out of their mouths is going to be how this means the bullets will be ineffective in barrior-penetration...

Ah, okay, that makes sense....

Yeah, good to see you understand. The latest fad is what will a bullet do through glass, or metal, or wallboard, and as we've spoken about before, that's why "bonded" has become the holy of holy's. We could come up with a 357 or 40 cal that would drop a T-Rex and the next question out of the hunters mouth while he was skinning the thing was whether or not the product was bonded...

So a round losing it's integrity, or over-expanding or losing a petal is your way of saying that while there's nothing really wrong with that, bonded bullets should stay intact through just about anything...

Of course. LE is so into bonding that a one-inch mushroom gets a nod but not like it used to. BUT, part of the reason for the success of the HST is because some of the departments still prefer sucking chest wounds over pristine terminal ballistics (laughing), and you know that what LE uses, the population in general wants...

Any idea how fast a 357 Gold Dot has to go before disintegrating? Say, a 125 or 158 grain...

2000 fps is still okay as long as you aren't planning on shooting through automobile glass...

Whew, 2000 is more than I want to try even in a Ruger, but yeah, the rifle end, I almost forgot. How's about an HST?

Go ahead and light them up, they get fatter as they get faster. Just don't shoot a target standing behind a windshield and holding a bucket of water then expect the trajectory to remain the same. Since I'm the Speer-head (chuckle) of course I want you to use Gold Dots, but we're all one big family and the HST is a kicker. For a non-bonded bullet.

Going to make them bonded anytime soon?

Then they won't expand nearly as much. You could have both, but then the product is unreasonably expensive, and none of us make all that much off of LE as it is.

Yeah. You guys give the stuff away to them to lure us.

No comment. It's been good talking to you.

Same here.

Semper Fi.

Semper Fi.