Recovered Gold Dot from today's hunt

[mouthcaller]

Click on the links below for pictures of a 300 gr. Speer Gold Dot bullet that I recovered today from a whitetail doe shot at a distance of 75 yards using a T/C Omega, 115gr loose 777, and a HPH-24 sabot.

Sabotloader put me on these bullets, and judging form the performance of this one today I am extremely pleased. I hunt deer in an extremely thick, cutover, Mississippi river bottom. The deer I shot last year with the Hornady SST bullets ran forever and didn't bleed. Exit wounds on those I recovered were not impressive. I am looking for a bullet that quickly expands, causes a lot of internal damage, and exits the other side.

This bulletwas recovered from a large doe shot at 75 yards. She was facing me in a food plot but walking toward the thick stuff. I was up in a high tree stand shooting downward toward her. She lowered her head to browse and presented me with a shoulder/neck shot which I took. The bullet entered at the base of her neck near the spine, tranversed the chest cavity, broke the last rib near the diaphram, and was caught by the hide on the off side. Massive internal damage to the lungs. The poor doe didn't know what hit her and fell in her tracks.

The size of the expanded petels is about that of a quarter. The bullet peeled back to just behind the crimps and stopped. This is a bonded bullet and there appears to be no seperation of the jacket and core. There is a substantial shank of the bullet left in the rear. I haven't weighed it yet but I will report back later on that.

Overall impressions: Excellent expansion with massive internal damage. The bullet didn't exit, but did tranverse most of the body of the deer and was caught by the hide on the off side. I am anxious to take a broadside shot to see what kind of exit wound it leaves. There appears to be no loss of mass and the shank of the bullet stayed intact to drive the mushroomed frontal portion. The bonding of jacket and lead performed exactly as advertised.

Check out that "gold dot" in the middle of the frontal portion of the bullet. Now I know where the bullets get their name.

This is one excellent muzzleloader bullet. Thanks to Sabotloader and others who recommend this to me.

http://webpages.charter.net/tlovell/DSCN1952.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/tlovell/DSCN1955.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/tlovell/DSCN1956.jpg

[Triple Se7en]

Both Sabotloader & I have been promoting the Gold Dotsfor a while. This is the soft point I'm guessing. Would like to see photos like this using the HP's... HINT-HINT!

Thanks for the pixs. That expansion is awesome.

[sabotloader]

Triple Se7en

I think this was the HP

mouthcaller

Outstanding - That massive internal damage is just what has happened for me - everything turns to jelly

I would contact Speer and send those pics in to them - I bet they would droul all over themselves.

Nice job - I am still looking for the perfect buck - we are in rifle season here, but I am using my ML - ML season (does only) is in December.

Congrats....

[cayugad]

very impressive photos... from the looks of it, I am sure they did massive expansion. It would be interesting to learn what that bullet expaneded to in diameter.

[gopherfan]

Those are incredible images. Congratulations. Nice to see that you don't need to spend a buck a bullet to get results like that. Let us know if those are soft or hollow points.

Tom

[Chantecler111]

Very good expansion. Congrats.

[mouthcaller]

Triple Seven: This is the 300 gr. Gold Dot .Uni-Cor 452 HP bullet made for the 454 Casull. I looked up the muzzle velocity of a 454 Casull, and it is about 1750 fps with the 300 gr bullet - almost exactly what one would expect from a muzzleloader with about 100 gr of powder. I was using 115 gr. of 777, which is the load I worked up in my pre-season shooting sessions. More powder than that and I start loosing accuracy in my Omega Z5.

Cayugad: The frontal portion of the bullet expanded to approximately the size of a quarter. Below is a pic next to a quarter for visual reference.

http://webpages.charter.net/tlovell/DSCN1953.jpg


Sabotloader: In previous discussions you expressed a ligitimate concern that the 300 grGold Dotwouldn't expand sufficiently for whitetail. Based on this bullet I am confident that it will. I went with the 300 gr. over the 250 because I wanted an exit would for bloodtrailing in this jungle that I hunt in. The 250 gr. .452 Gold Dot is intended for the slower 45 Colt, therefore the deeper hollow point. The path this bullet followed along the long axis of this doe didn't produce an exit wound, but the deer dropped in its tracks - hard to argue with that. I am anxious to see what happens with a typical broadside shot on a larger buck, and I'll report back the results.

Thanks again for turning me on to this outstanding, and reasonably priced, bullet.

[sabotloader]

gopherfan

Looking at the Speer site - they do not make a 300 grain soft point Gold Dot. They do make a 325 grain and a 400 grain soft point in .452

http://www.speer-bullets.com/ballistics/bullets.aspx

[sabotloader]

mouthcaller

previous discussions you expressed a ligitimate concern that the 300 grGold Dotwouldn't expand sufficiently for whitetail. Based on this bullet I am confident that it will. I went with the 300 gr. over the 250 because I wanted an exit would for bloodtrailing in this jungle that I hunt in.

One certainly can not argue with sucess and the pictures to prove it. I am totally impressed and more importantly you have even helped my confidence level in that bullet. I have never been able to recover one to look at...

[cayugad]

That really is some impressive expansion. I have some Gold Dot bullets around here somewhere. As I remember, they shot well out to about 75 yards and after that the accuracy went bad real fast. I will have to try them again. Thanks for the great field report. It is just such reports as this that helps all of us pick the right projectile for what we hunt.