Just curious if anybody else has noticed when running 200 grain bullets, my G20 and G29 seemed to be more accurate and less felt recoil, I'm running 180's also both arround 1150 fps. 200gn fp and 180gn rn
The longer frictional area tends to achieve better stability in the bore and carries that in flight stability.
I always liked the 200's like XTP's
I was lucky enough to get a good bunch of some Speer 200 grain Gold Dots as pulled from a 40S&W contract run.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tCTzvsGf/2025-05-13.png) (https://postimg.cc/8s2WjP5B)
(https://i.postimg.cc/sft1y7SJ/IMG-0161.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/xq393k6k)
Then later after much begging for Speer to make the new 200 grain Gold Dots a handloading consumable they actually fulfilled that for a little while. Here is the new Speer as compared to the old ones.
(https://i.postimg.cc/RVK0BRmn/IMG-0295.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/2VjYdnVz)
A little gift from Speer
(https://i.postimg.cc/Fzchh9MQ/IMG-0578.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/y3VMPz6f)
My XDm 4.5 is more accurate with 200s at 1230fps than 180s at the same or faster.
My XDm Elite 3.8 is better with 180s than 200s. Both are similar velocities but in the 1100fps range.
Recoil is about the same but the 180s have a tad sharper recoil impulse and the 200s more of a push.