230g Gold Dot Captured
 

Scott requested these 45 acp pistol bullets be tried in a rifle. It was snowing and about 33 degrees, so the camera wasn't left out to record the capture, and all the shooting was done from inside the truck. The distance to the first jug was 25 yard. The rifle used was the Omega Dream Season. The breech plug used today was the same one first used in the 'Leaky Primer Thread'. The load was 80g Blackhorn, STS primer, Harvester short sabot . The bullet was found in the second water jug, which had several small holes on the back side, evidently made by small pieces of lead.













The front water jug was pretty much blown up. The second jug was kinda shredded. The remaining bullet weighs 93g.


First thing done this morning was to place a target at 25 yard. The first bullet tried was the 300g XTP in a crush rib sabot. The aim was the middle target, and the bullet hit about 11" high on the top target. The elevation dial was turned down more than 2 revolutions, and a second shot taken with the XTP bullet. It hit left a bit, and near perfect elevation. The windage dial was adjusted right, and a third shot taken with the XTP bullet. Not bad, so next, the Gold Dot was loaded, and shot; the bullet hit near center. Another Gold Dot was loaded, and shot; it hit near center. After seeing where the Gold Dots hit, it seemed it was time to shoot the jugs. After the two jugs were blown up, the target was walked out to 98 yards.

The falling snow made the target hard to see.
















The bottom target was the aim at 98 yard, and 3 shots were taken using the Gold Dots, and the 80g powder charge.

Well Ron, I'm impressed. Water is pretty tough on a bullet and I wouldn't have expected that 230 grain ACP bullet to make it past the first jug. The expansion is about what I would expect. And Speer's Gold Dots/Deep Curls always seem to hold together well.

I got a kick out of you picture of targets in the snow. It's eighty-nine degrees outside my window right now and we got two inches of rain yesterday evening.

I have 96 out of 100 of these Speer Gold Dot 230 gr bullets leftover and don't even use them at the range or hunting @ 150 yards. Supposedly they will break-up when adding too much speed.

Same with my 230 gr XTPs. So I parked them on my gun cabinet shelf, to collect dust until further notice. It's the same reason why I won't purchase the 200 grain XTP in 50/40. I have more confidence in using Hornady SSTs and Precision Polymer Tip 50/40s with 90-100 grains of BH powder.

Using 80 grains appears to be fine, as long as you're sticking to 100 yards. Beyond that calls for more fps, that ensures a clean, quick kill/harvest.

We received 1 1/2" of rain a couple three days ago. It was wonderful. Broke a drouth is what it did. We probably won't see eighty nine degrees here until July. What is the humidity there, right now?

Well, i don't suppose you want to hear about my cold wet feet....

I really do not think so - they are a bonded bullet it is very difficult to bust them up.

The XTP's that is a different story altogether. In fact any Hornady I have ever shot or experimented with will come apart at times - not always but at times they do.


shock waves/sst's





Hornady FTX



Hornady XTP



Speer Deep Curl

Current humidity shows 73%.

Sixty percent humid here. Forty six degree, cloudy, and dampish. Thirty five percent humid in the house.

If that's the case, I'll target some 230 Gold Dots again next range visit. I have a box of 45 cal 180s also.

Following are photos of 230g 45 caliber Gold Dot bullets. Speer calls this Gold Dot bullet, a bullet for 'personal defense'. The recovered bullet on the left was fired from a 45 acp pistol. The recovered bullet on the right was fired from an Omega rifle, pushed by 80g Blackhorn powder.

















The bullet on the left weighs 230g. The unfired bullet weighs 230g. The bullet on the right weighs 93g. The water jug in which the 93g bullet was found has little holes in it's back side from pieces of lead thrown from the bullet.

The velocity of the bullet fired from the 45 acp, was about 900 fps when it impacted the 'trap'. The bullet from the rifle impacted the 'trap', traveling at about 1550 fps.

This is not a Deep Curl bullet. This bullet doesn't seem to be as stout as a Deep Curl bullet.

The following photo shows a 300g Deep Curl bullet captured at varying ranges by jugs filled with water, and phone books.












At 45 feet the bullet was traveling at about 1800 fps; it weighs 276g. At 200 yard, the bullet was traveling at about 1300 fps, and weighs 300g. At 300 yard the bullet was traveling at about 1150 fps, and probably weighs 300g.

The Gold Dot doesn't seem able to handle these speeds, whereas the Deep Curl seems to work good.

Speer names the Deep Curl a 'hunting bullet'. Speer calls the Gold Dot a 'personal defense bullet'. It seems that is how they were built.

That's what I originally was told. The Gold Dot is not comparable to the Deep Curl in 230 grain.

Now I can go back to letting those two boxes of Gold Dots (230 + 185) collect dust, unless I keep the fps down for 100 yards or less, which I don't subscribe to. .

I had a System-One with a 1 in 38 twist and it liked the 230 Gold Dot shot nice groups with 110 grains of RS. I took a number of deer with the always placing the shot right behind the foreleg.

I've used the 230gr. Speer Gold Dots with success on animals, in my 50 cal rifles.

The 50 cal 300gr. Speer Gold Dot HP is what I like in my 54 call and they work very well at the range on every thing from non working spray paint cans to milk jugs. Made it thru almost 9 inches of wet phone books and still weigh 300gr give or take per unfired weight averages in a box.

:D Al

Regarding the two lines of Speer bullets, I thought that with respect to how they were made (bonded), the Deep Curl and Gold Dot were identical, the name change was to address liability concerns. Originally, they were all called Gold Dots.

My guess is that if one Speer bullet is "less tough" than another, it is more due to the shape of the bullet rather than whether it is a GD or DC. That 45cal/230g GD bullet looks like it has a pretty deep hollow point, unlike the 45cal/300g DC. The DC 45cal/250g (Long Colt) is another bullet that does not hold together well in torture tests and it also has a very deep hollow point.

You are absolutely correct - Liability - essentially the courts have determined that if you shoot someone with a bullet labeled 'hunting bullet' you are liable for any/all of the collateral damage. But if you were using a 'Home Defense' bullet your liability decreases greatly. I still have a box of 452x300 Gold Dots from before the court decision and a couple of boxes of the newer Deep Curls - If you were to mix them up you would never be able to tell the difference.

I wouldn't want to use a bullet on big game that loses over half its weight on impact.

It performed pretty much as i expected. When you shoot a bullet at nearly twice its designed speed it usually pancakes. I was curious though since its a GoldDot.

I had the 250gr DeepCurl over expand almost as bad in water jugs but i dont remember the load data. Im pretty sure it was shot at nearly twice the speed of a 45LC.

But does it loose that much weight?

He said it was a 230 grn bullet that he fired into the water jugs and they weighed 93 grains when recovered. That is a substantial loss of weight.

I'm not prone to using a hollow point for hunting anyway. Using a polymer tipped bullet is about as far as I will take it. Hollow points are, in my own personal opinion, made for dropping the 2 legged predator. Have to admit, we are a hell of a lot easier to kill than our 4 legged prey.

Speaking of the XTP's coming apart I never under stood why people had a problem with that?

If the bullet sheds the jacket and the lead core does the job along with that shed jacket all I see wrong is a bigger wound channel and damaged meat.

:D Al

This is my experience in the testing I did. Below are pics of the 240, 250, and 180 deep curl. The 240 had a shallow hollow point, the 250 & 180 had a very deep hollow point. I have now tested over 2 dozen bullets - these were the only two that failed completely. I can't explain why, I just know that I personally won't use them for hunting. This was from a mk-85, with 80gr pyrodex & #11 cap - fired into a damp sand bullet trap at 20yds. So the velocity was not an issue, I didn't chrono but likely 1600 ish.

Every other bullet across a wide spectrum held together, some did much better than others in expansion, weight retention, and penetration. The 240 as you can see was very impressive. The pictures don't really do it justice, its literally turned inside out and basically held completely together.