Remington Golden Saber Black Belt Ammo for Personal Defense

If you want reliability in a personal-defense round, it’s a good idea to go with what the pros use. And if you’re looking for what law enforcement officers use, you might be seeing Remington Golden Saber Black Belt making appearances as the ammunition of choice in the future.

Remington introduced the new load in conjunction with its bid to compete for an FBI ammunition contract, and the features that will go a long way toward making it a contender for that contract are sure to stand up in defensive situations as well.

“The next evolution in Remington’s premium P&R (pistol & revolver) collection came with the Golden Saber Bonded line. The Golden Saber Black Belt brings the best features and benefits of the previous lines to it, providing best-in-class performance,” said David Schluckebier, new product development manager for Remington.

Here are some points worth consideration.

The spiral nosecut is intended to ensure expansion, even when the ammunition is used in short-barreled firearms.

The round has a bullet with a spiral nosecut that ensures expansion, even at low velocities. That means that it offers superior stopping power in short-barreled carry guns, despite their lower muzzle velocities, when compared to full-size firearms.

Then there is the round’s namesake black belt that is visible at the top of the casing. This is what the company describes as the key to its superior performance. “The belt is there to displace the jacket toward the center axis of the bullet. It was a way to provide a mechanical core-locking feature more pronounced than the initial driving band we put on the Golden Saber,” Schluckebier explained.

This brass band with a black-oxide finish (the company experimented with plastic belts, but that idea was rejected) is what prompted the name of the round. More importantly, it resulted in a design change in the bullet, to more of an hourglass shape. For personal defense purposes, that makes the round less likely to over-penetrate, so you’ll have fewer concerns about any collateral damage that could result from a bullet going through drywall or windows.

The hour-glass shape of the bullet helps reduce the change of over-penetration, so there's less likelihood of bullets going through windows or drywall and causing collateral damage.

As with choices from some competing ammunition brands, the cartridge case is nickel-plated, which reduces the likelihood of corrosion and contributes to reliable function.

Remington Golden Saber Black Belt ammunition is available in 124-grain 9 mm, 124-grain 9 mm +P, 180-grain .40 S&W and 230-grain .45 ACP loads. The suggested retail price per box of 20 rounds starts at $24.29.