Gold Dot Load Info.
 

Have been doin some research on Speer Gold Dots & wanted to ask about loads. Understand this bullet has a bonded jacket & will not frag at high speeds.
Want to try both 250 & 300 gr.
Will use in both Savage ML & T/C Pro Hunter for deer/coyotes.
Any Info. or help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

zakjak711

I have shot these bullets a lot, actually several of us have shot them a lot.... I shoot them with a 110 or 120 grains of T7-2f, depending on which rifle I am shooting. I also normally use the HPH-24 on either of the two bullets.

It seems to me that they like stiff charges to really help their accuracy.

I prefer the 250 shooting whitetail, when shooting under 150 yards. The 300 grain has a much higher BC (.233 reaching towards the BC of the pointy bullets) so it will shoot farther better than the 250.

gold dots
 

Sabotloader,

Thanks!
My son has been using 250 XTP's in his Pro Hunter with 110 loose 777/ short mmp sabots with good luck.
Him and I seen some posts though & wanted to try GD's especially with the Savage, but were concerned with frag's from higher velocity.
Suppose they'll work good in mmp's?
Will try a few different sabots though.

Mark

zakjak711

In a smokeless, the concave base might have issues with really heavy loads. Lower end book loads should do fine without blowing a sabot.

Using subs you should be fine in the Savage even with max loads. I haven't tried them yet in my MLII so i cant say for sure. Im only going by info on Doug's board. They don't seem as popular over there but most of those guys are going for top end velocity.

zakjak711

I am guessing you mean Harvester Short Black sabot as the MMP short black is a very thick sabot - can not imagine that would go down a TC bore....

Although that sabot is what the Savage guys are using as I undertand it.

I use the 110 in all of my TC's except I am using the HPH-24, I prefer the longer petals as the sabot tends to leave the bullet quicker.

Smokeless Savage users probably would not use that bullet as they are mostly in search of velocity - so they tend to go towards the high BC pointy bullets.

Think GM54 covered the Savage stuff pretty well I know very little about them.

I also have experimented with them quite a bit they are my favorite deer bullet in the Triumph and the Omega.
I find if I push them over 2,000 FPS The group open up fast, As far as terminal results are concerned I have never found a point at which they will break up but the highest FPS I have checked is 2200. I tried all three sabots that fit well in my gun and the Long black Harvester [over 300gr] works the best the other two the MMP HPH 24 and the Short black Harvester [which shoots a lot of bullets the best in my guns] shot an inch or more larger groups.

Gold Dots
 

Sabotloader,

No, I mean MMP shorts.
They do load tough, but give the best accuracy for him.
T/C barrels are tight animals.
The only Harvester's I've used are the Crushed rib, red one for .452 bullets in Savage. Also,I think an EZ slide or a three pedal one--but not sure since I didn't use that much.
Do one of you guys know the number on the short Harvester?

Thanks,
Mark

Lemoyne - you get better results out of bullets less than 300gr out of the long sabots that are rated for bullets over 300gr? DO you think that is beacuse of thegold dots or have you had that good of luck with other bullets?

zakjak711

To tough for me to load, except in the White. I'll stay with the 24's.

Harvester short black number:

H5045 SB

Bonner1
Well I am guessing as I Have not thought of any way to verify this, But my best guess is the shape of the bullet with the air coming off that big hollow point has a lot to do with it, the more streamline bullets shoot better with shorter sabots. Of course I could be wrong and it could be the vibration of the barrel that is the controlling factor.
The difference would not make a well centered shot miss while hunting at 100 yards or less. I just like to work at getting the best group I can. Some people would not pay any attention to the difference some don't experiment with different sabot to see what works best with each bullet. I would be willing to guess some can't shoot well enough to be able to tell the difference from what I read here occasionally .