Gold Dot Capture
 

After hunting season ended this year, i started playin' with breech plug modifications of the plugs in my Omega, and Accura. I have since fired 100's of shots at paper. For awhile i was shooting xtp bullets, and then as time went by i found some Gold Dot bullets for about the same price as the xtp, and because i liked the Gold Dot for hunting, i decided to just shoot them at paper instead of the xtp. I have found a pile of the xtp bullets on the hillside behind the target. A few are intact, but most are pieces of jacket, and pieces of lead laying around on the ground. I have found 2 45 caliber Gold Dot, but have never found a 44 caliber Gold Dot behind the target. This led to a strong desire to try and catch a 44 caliber Gold Dot.

This morning i cut some boards, and bundled them up to help in the capture of a 270g .44 Gold Dot. Also filled a couple laundry jugs with water. The idea was to shoot the bullet through the water and then the boards, and find the bullet in the back of the bundle of boards. Here is a picture of the trap.











Wife came along to take pictures, and she did a fine job 'capturing' the action as shown here.



























The trap didn't exactly work as planned. The bullet went through the water jugs just fine, but then it evidently started to turn, and only hit the edge of the front board, and veered off escaping the trap. This made me sad, and we spent some time looking for the bullet. I got tired of that in a bit, and decided to bundle the boards again for another try, even though i didn't figure there were enough of them to stop a bullet. She continued looking for the bullet to no avail, and i put the boards up the hillside to get it further away from the rifle.

When i came back down, and picked up the rifle to reload it, i saw the bullet laying on the road. It had turned right angles, and stopped on the road about 15' away from where the jugs and boards were sitting. So i was now happy because we had achieved our goal, albeit not exactly as planned.

After reloading the rifle i fired it at the bundle of boards, and of course the bullet blew right through them. I wandered up the hill aways beyond the busted up bundle, and there laying on the ground was the bullet.

Here are pictures of the bullets.


















The bullet on the left is the one that went through the water jugs, and it weighs near 269g. The bullet on the right went through the boards and bounced on the ground some, and it weighs near 225g with a little bit of wood imbedded in the face.

And that, my friend, is why I like Gold Dots. I haven't hunted with the .44/270 grainers Ron, but wouldn't hesitate to do so. I've never recovered a GD from game - always pass throughs. But every one of the .410/210s, .452/250s, and .452/300s that I've found on our rifle range were expanded well and retained most of their weight. Most look just like the one on the left in your picture. Thanks for the report.

Nice action pictures! I'll have to buy some gold dots.

Just remember they are not called 'Gold Dots' any longer - they are now being marketed alson with some centerfire rifle bullets as the 'Deep Curl' series...

Nice report Ron, thanks fer sharin.

This one a 250gr went through a bucks chest and I really wanted to see what it looked like, I shot the deer at 45 yards out of a high tree stand and got out the metal detector and was lucky enough to be able to find it and dig it out, it was about 5 or 6 inches deep in loam after going through the deer.
The buck dropped on the spot did not even kick but once.
There may be a bullet that does a better job, on bigger game but how do you get any better than that on deer?

Haven't tried the Gold Dots in my 45. Guess the .410/210s would fit that bill?

Old/New

Maybe not... I have tried them in my Knight 45's with a Harvester Crush Rib sabot. i can get them down, but I also see that I distorting the sabot all to heck as it squeezes it's way though the crown of the bore.

Because of the difficulty loading the the 41/210's I decided to try some 40/180 Gold Dots - now those work get - fly great and hit very hard.

Sabotloader,

Thanks for the tip. I'll try 'em.

Old/New

I am shooting those 180's with 110 grains of T7-2f - They a flat & they are fast....