Hi folks,
I have been a reader for a long time and have learned a lot on this forum, and I am delighted to be making my first post. I have been handloading for more than a decade (I started at 19), and love getting very accurate BC readings so as to control every aspect of my loads as precisely as possible. I have worked up loads with quite a few bullets that my rifles like well (Hornady SST and various match BTHP being my favorite in .308), but have recently been eyeing the Speer Gold Dot rifle bullets with interest. I am very familiar with Speer's Gold Dot offerings for handguns, and they are pretty much the only bullet I use for my defensive/hunting loads in my various handgun calibers. I love not only the idea of the true bonded performance of these bullets at their low price point, but of the fact that their recessed soft nose won't get deformed in magazines of semi autos. I have taken rounds out of my magazines after hunting season, and have seen some SST polymer tips that were quite beat up from the recoil of my AR-10s shooting a few deer.
The Gold Dot rifle bullets have all the hallmarks of providing great consistency and terminal performance, but there is one thing with which I am having a hard time: Speer's advertised ballistic coefficients for these bullets.
The first offering at which I looked was the 75gr Gold Dot in .224", which is stated by Speer variously as having a BC of .37 and .4. I called Speer technical support, and they told me that the .4 BC was confirmed with Doppler radar out to various distances, being an actually-derived BC, and not a theoretical calculation. The thing is, looking at that bullet, it just does not look very streamlined. The meplat is fairly wide, and boat-tail is of the stepped variety.
Making the advertised BCs even more questionable to me are the .308" offerings, with the 150gr variety of the Gold Dot having a listed BC as over .5. The 150gr SST from Hornady, for example, which is one of my AR-10s' favorite bullets, has a much more streamlined shape, and delivers a BC of .413-.415. I just have a hard time believing that these Speer bullets, which offer a mag-safe tip for semi-autos and are bonded (read great consistency in semi autos and terminal ballistics) are really as effect at cutting through the air as their manufacturer claims.
Am I missing something, such as the stepped boat tail that these bullets use? Is it possible that that is a considerably more aerodynamic design for a boat tail, and it accounts for the seemingly-impossibly-high BCs?
I am particularly hoping Mr. Litz will chime in here, or even have data on what the actual BC of these bullets should be. I have relied on Mr. Litz's work for my entire reloading career, and have spoken to him a couple of times, and he is a Godsend for reloaders.
I have been a reader for a long time and have learned a lot on this forum, and I am delighted to be making my first post. I have been handloading for more than a decade (I started at 19), and love getting very accurate BC readings so as to control every aspect of my loads as precisely as possible. I have worked up loads with quite a few bullets that my rifles like well (Hornady SST and various match BTHP being my favorite in .308), but have recently been eyeing the Speer Gold Dot rifle bullets with interest. I am very familiar with Speer's Gold Dot offerings for handguns, and they are pretty much the only bullet I use for my defensive/hunting loads in my various handgun calibers. I love not only the idea of the true bonded performance of these bullets at their low price point, but of the fact that their recessed soft nose won't get deformed in magazines of semi autos. I have taken rounds out of my magazines after hunting season, and have seen some SST polymer tips that were quite beat up from the recoil of my AR-10s shooting a few deer.
The Gold Dot rifle bullets have all the hallmarks of providing great consistency and terminal performance, but there is one thing with which I am having a hard time: Speer's advertised ballistic coefficients for these bullets.
The first offering at which I looked was the 75gr Gold Dot in .224", which is stated by Speer variously as having a BC of .37 and .4. I called Speer technical support, and they told me that the .4 BC was confirmed with Doppler radar out to various distances, being an actually-derived BC, and not a theoretical calculation. The thing is, looking at that bullet, it just does not look very streamlined. The meplat is fairly wide, and boat-tail is of the stepped variety.
Making the advertised BCs even more questionable to me are the .308" offerings, with the 150gr variety of the Gold Dot having a listed BC as over .5. The 150gr SST from Hornady, for example, which is one of my AR-10s' favorite bullets, has a much more streamlined shape, and delivers a BC of .413-.415. I just have a hard time believing that these Speer bullets, which offer a mag-safe tip for semi-autos and are bonded (read great consistency in semi autos and terminal ballistics) are really as effect at cutting through the air as their manufacturer claims.
Am I missing something, such as the stepped boat tail that these bullets use? Is it possible that that is a considerably more aerodynamic design for a boat tail, and it accounts for the seemingly-impossibly-high BCs?
I am particularly hoping Mr. Litz will chime in here, or even have data on what the actual BC of these bullets should be. I have relied on Mr. Litz's work for my entire reloading career, and have spoken to him a couple of times, and he is a Godsend for reloaders.
