Underwood "Delta Elite" 180 grain

[Overkill338]

Has anyone run these over a chrono from a Glock 20 or 29?

They are "rated" at 1240 fps from a 5" barrel. That's 60 fps off the full power 180. So since Olgo got 1231 from the normal 180's and his G29, I guess a safe assumption would be 1165-1175 from a 29 with the "Delta Elite" load.

That would be about a perfect SD round wouldn't it? Assuming it feeds reliably. But what about the Nosler bullet? Any Gelatin tests for that bullet? If they used Gold Dots I'd already have some on the way. I might have to call Justin at Underwood again and see if you can make substitutions lol

Seriously though, seems like the Nosler would be a hunting bullet that would turn into a FML™ (Full Metal Liability™) once clogged with clothing.

[Dave84]

Might not be a gold dot but I've heard good things. Check out videos on YouTube for it. Pretty sure I've seen tests by one of our members here. Don't recall the name.

[Overkill338]

Justin at Underwood sent me this when I asked why that load didn't have Gold Dots.

If the availability of Gold Dots was as easy as the Nosler JHPs it might be easier, that's one of the reasons that the Delta load isn't a Gold Dot. I can see where Nosler would be reserved in recommending that for Defense, as I understand it it was designed for hunting, but at the same time they might be using that to push their "defense" line, kind of like Hornady saying don't use the XTP for defense, try our new Critical Duty haha.
In our testing the Nosler JHPs did very well actually. They did no worse than the Gold Dot when it comes to light barrier penetration like denim and dry wall. The Nosler JHPs actually have a smaller opening at the mouth, I think this helps them quite a bit in aiding barrier penetration, whereas the Gold Dot has such a wide mouth but still seems to reliably expand as well through common light barriers. Denim tests were virtually the same for us with the 180gr Gold Dot and 180gr Nosler. I might add too that the Nosler type has a better ballistic coefficient for it's class, so that much truly does make them a better hunting bullet because there isn't as much guess work at 50-100 yards.
Gel block results were relatively the same as well, the Nosler type might typically penetrate about 14"-16" in a gel block, downloaded a bit in the Delta load should penetrate about 13"-15", and the Gold Dot will typically penetrate about 14"-16" as well. The bigger differences are just the shapes when the expand, and the Gold Dot typically has more weight retention. Now, we might be thinking that the Bonded type should penetrate alot further than the non bonded type right because of weight retention right? Typically yes, but the different types of expansion keep penetration relatively the same. The Gold Dot expands pretty big, letting it slow down more by having a greater surface area. The Nosler type more or less look like that classic hollow point "mushroom" when they impact, with good expansion though, so they are extremely violent at first and the shape lets them penetrate well for only keeping 80-90% of it's initial weight.
We could recommend the Nosler JHPs with full confidence for self defense based upon our testing, even loaded a hair slower in the Delta load. If Gold Dots were as easy to come by these days as just about any other hollow point, it would be an easier thing to do as far as a loading, but as a result we discovered the Nosler JHP to be a pretty darn good substitute even though the two bullets work in different ways.

[sgtbones]

I have the Gold Dot version of the Delta Elite load.

[Overkill338]

Is that load months old? Because the Gold Dot shortage has been going on for quite some time now. Thats why Underwood doesn't have a 9mm 147 +p+ loads any more.

[sgtbones]

The boxes that I have are maybe as old as 2011