I started trying to test these rounds in a Clear Ballistics FBI 10% gel block as early as October. That particular day I only had one of them and I got pass-throughs and no signs of any expansion whatsoever in the bullet trails.





I continued trying up until yesterday, but I can't keep using resources on them when it has become pretty apparent that the G2 just doesn't work like it is supposed to. Chrono velocities were consistent and stayed around 988-1000, which is good. But these rounds would not expand consistently, even in bare gel. One of the less-expanded rounds made it about 17", but the remainder of these shots hovered around the 15" penetration mark.











Surprisingly, the Winchester PDX1 made it about 1/8" shy of 15" penetration and looked like this:











Tested a handful of different Barnes rounds too. As usual, those were freaking perfect, and I'll get an article up about each of them pretty soon. But for now, given the choice between Gold Dot G2 and PDX1/Ranger Bonded, HST, or even original Gold Dots, I would take option B. I understand that the FBI says this round outperformed anything else they had tested...but if it can't even perform satisfactorily in the easiest gel test there is, there might be cause for Speer to take a look at the design and see what the reason for the inconsistency is.
 

Thanks for this test .

 

We were just issued the 147 9mm with our new glock 17's this month . I was shocked to see them. When you work for the government they have no idea where or how there ammo is chosen and absolutely no ballistic research is done. Where I work it's usually dollar projected research.

No problem. I have some more ballistic tests that I just have to finish the photos for, but suffice it to say that everything beat this round.

The G2 doesn't even make sense from a cost basis standpoint because it costs substantially more per round than the standard GD 147. I hope they perform for the LEOs that they are issued to, but I would certainly not feel confident going into harm's way with this load.

Cost basis doesn't matter when it's tax payers money . Ammo Im sure like everything else is ordered through a subcontracted third party company that's charging double what Msrp is.. There attitude is give us what you got right now!

That's true lol, but I guess what I should have said is that a decision to go with G2, even over standard Gold Dot 147 grain 9mm, makes no sense on any metric until they figure out these issues.

I actually found the opposite to be true.  I worked for three different cities during my career and the budget  for the police departments were meager at best.  The reason Glock took the police market by storm wasn't that they were the best...they were the cheapest.

Anyway I've heard of others testing that G2 round with very similar results.  Hmmmm?

Speer has voluntarily recalled all the 147 gr G2 ammo purchased by the FBI. In the mean time it looks like they are going to be carrying old stocks of Winchester Ranger until the G2 design/production can be fixed.
Linky

I believe the FBI was who issued a recall. I have yet to see Speer make an announcement, which is unfortunate because no one needs to be going into harm's way with these rounds and the FBI isn't the only agency in the country carrying them.