Howdy Mr. Sravaka,
Since you are asking for opinions, I will offer mine.
First I do not believe that there is one "magic" bullet, that will outperform all others clearly. I personally think that given the advances seen in duty type loads in various calibers in recents decades (yep I is an old fart
) just about any bullet from an established manufacturer will do it's part as long as I do mine. I think shot placement is far more important than the brand of projectile coming out of my barrel.
As a 37 years police firearms instructor, I have fired and issued most of the commonly discussed rounds and calibers. Again, my personal opinion over the decades is that most rounds will funtion as intended as long as we do our part shooting them. That said, are there some rounds that perform better than others do - probably, at least in my view.
My agency was lucky in hiring a true ballistican to become our first real "ammo expert". He had retired from HP White and found sitting around all day bored him to death. Our national firearms unit at the time was located in his town, so he jumped at the offer, and it proved to be a win-win for everyone.
He reviewed all of the current rounds being offered in the various calibers we allowed at the time, and selected various bullets for duty use for us. I can tell you that Mr. Jim was extremely impressed with the performance of both the Gold Dot and the Golden Saber loads in 9mm, and seemed to favor the Gold Dot projectiles in other calibers.
The trend that I have seen in both my agency and others law enforcement groups I have discussed the issue with, is to choose a 124 grain HP load for 9mm pistols. The FBI selected the 147 grain JHP decades ago, when poor tactics in Miami, forced them to blame their carry round (the 115 grain Win STHP) instead of their tactics (my opinion, but based on discussions with several folks, including DEA firearms instructors based at Quantico at the time). Most agencies have since concluded the 147 grain bullets often will not feed as reliably as the 124 grain loads, especially when several makes and models of handguns are involved.
I would not feel under armed with either load to be honest - as long as I put the round where it needs to go. But since you are asking what our personal perferences are, I will tell you that you will find Gold Dot bullets in assorted calibers loading in all of my pistol magazines.
Hope this will help a bit anyway sir. Others may have different experiences they can offer. But I will agree with the comment that the Speer Gold Dot ammo does indeed have an excellent street rep among law enforcement agencies. It is certainly not due to any greatly reduced cost, as it is not the cheapest round an agency could select for issuance, for sure. So there is a valid reason I think, why so many LE agencies continue to purchase and issue this round.
twoguns
