Ammo Question

[firstcavapache64]

I have been waiting for 3 months to get some Speer gold dots in .327 Federal Magnum caliber. These are very hard to come by, but from what I hear the Speer bullets are far better than the Federal ones. Now here is my question and it will show my ignorance of loading data. The federal premium cartridge is a 85 grain round and the Speer Gold Dot is a 115 grain round. Why can I not see a size difference between the two? Is the grain number a measure of the powder, or is it a weight of the bullet? I was expecting a bigger bullet based on the 115 grain versus the 85 grain but I can't see any size variance at all. I have wondered about this before with my .45 bullets but now it's driving me nuts and I gotta find out what the grain relates to. Thanks to anyone that can help me out with this.

[CCFan]

It's the weight of the bullet (projectile). The 115 grain bullet is probably sat deeper in the casing than the 85 grain bullet - so the cartridge overall length is the same. I have seen some 9mm ammo that has a less pronounced cone in the heavier weight hollow points, so the bullet length may be the same but it could just be my eyes playing tricks...

There's a good thread here that might help...