I was really hoping the Hornady that I just picked up would expand more than the golden sabers, but that was not the case. I did not perform a penetration test, and have a feeling the hornady would do better in that test. Will try to do one of those at a later date. These where fired into a water tank using my sig P229 at about 20 feet. The golden saber is 165 gr and the XTP is 155 grain. It does appear that the XTP will hold together better, just don't have a scale that will weigh that much, my scale stops at 110grs.

Golden saber opened to 0.72"



XTP opened to 0.62



XTP on the top.

The Gold Dots are known to have dependable expansion and penetration even after encountering barriers.

I use Gold Dot the most, but next to them the XTP is right there.

Be interesting to see your other tests.

Trying to find a suitable media to shoot into for the penetration tests. May have to kill a hog, just to use for a test. I like the expansion on the golden sabers, but the jacket separates from lead most of the time. I was surprised to see it stay together on this test.

Looks like both perform well, what's the price differnce? Not that PRICE matters much when yours or your family's life is in danger.

Not sure, I reloaded the golden sabers a while back. The Hornady XTP's are 18 dollars for 100 b. bullet so my best guess is it cost me about 23 dollars to load 100 rounds.

Well it looks like both will get the job done.

What type of material was the water tank?

Just a thick plastic 55 gallon barrel turned on it's side at an angle. Then filled with water till it was flowing out. Tried shooting through the side first, but the bullets did not expand due to plastic filling the hole in the end of the bullet. Next is the hog test, just need to kill one so I can hang it and shoot at it.

I currently keep a mag of the Golden Sabres in my P229 that stays in my truck. Glad to see those photos.

Yeah they open nice, the only issue I have with them is jacket separation. I can post some pics if someone wants of one that separated completely from the jacket.

Thanks for the info.

I was actually watching youtube yesterday and there's a guy that's tested just about every hollow point out there. I was very impressed with his test on Federal HST and the PMC starfires. The gold dots didn't look as good as those two which kind of shocked me.