interesting test today

O

old fart

New member
i recently bought a beretta nano to carry, a friend of mine went with the lcr 357. i wanted a 357 myself but when i went to one i got such a great deal on the nano at $279 otd that i bought it. when my friend came over to shoot today he kept telling me how i messed up not getting a 357 cause its the best caliber to have on everything around my home place and woods. where i live in kentucky we have mostly coyotes or feral dogs in the woods, black bears are rare. so he decided to do a test to show me how much greater the 357 is, he took several 1/2 inch boards and screwed them together. we stood at 10 yds and fired one shot each at our boards with different ammo, we each had two boards. i was using 115 grain hp and 124 grain hp, in comparison he was using 110 grain hp and 125 hp. if i hadn't did this test myself i wouldn't believed it but the nano 9mm performed better than the lcr 357. the 9mm penetrated 1 more board than the 357 and was imbedded in number 2 board past the 357. also the hollowpoint expanded better in the 9mm. my guess is because the short barrel on the 357 but i was so surprised at this i had to post. if i can get a camera i will take pics of the boards and ammo. at least my friend quit talking down on my 9mm, but i know whats next he will bring over his gp100 to win one way or another. just thought i would let everyone know, i'm still amazed and can't believe it.
 
Interesting indeed. And I just got a LCR357 myself. I would love hear about the next time with the GP100 as that is another one on my short list. Also curious if he has any .38 Special loads for his LCR and how those compare.
 
No doubt your friend will be back for a rematch, with different ammo the next time.
There is such a wide variety of ammo out there, that comparison tests could take forever and still not have meaningful results.
It's maybe better to rely on one's skills, rather than equipment.
That approach does cut down on conversation and shopping opportunities, though.
 
Try the same test w a 4 or 6" 357. A lot of the 357 is negated by the barrel length in the lcr
 
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And price - .357 costs a lot more, too.
Which reduces practice time, effectiveness and the ability to hit what yer aiming at.
 
I'd be curious about a chrono reading - if the bullets are the same (or close enough) weight and diameter, and they're not expanding (which they wouldn't through a wooden board), then you would expect the faster bullet to penetrate deeper. It's a very curious result - does the short barrel and cylinder gap really cause that much loss in velocity? If that's the case, then there really is no advantage to using a 1.875" .357 versus a 3" 9mm.

I'd love to see the experiment repeated with chrono readings and different barrel lengths on both calibers to see where the curves might intersect (if at all). I'd also be curious about the results from a 9mm revolver.
 
if he wants a re-match, stick some FMJ round nose in and tell him they are hollow-points. that'll get him real upset when you penetrate about 5 more boards than him
 
Try some 158 grain bullets in the LCR and see what happens. Short barrels lose less with the heavier bullets and the heavier bullets plough through stuff better.
 
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