New Speer Gold Dot 6.5 mm bullet

[Songdog]

Song Dog,
Many people don't hunt in the wide open spaces typical of the western U.S. Many that do like to stalk closer anyway, the amount of people that shoot past 300 yards is pretty small when you look at all North American hunters. It's a free country so you are able to use whatever you like and so are other people. This is a thread about the newly introduced Speer Gold Dot bullets, not about long range shooting anyway.

If that’s all you’re going to do.... and BC doesn’t matter.... then why bring it up?

Furthermore.... if all you’re gonna do with a 6.5, is shoot inside 300 yards.... then I recon you don’t need a 140 grain Plastic Tip Bonded High BC bullet to begin with.... so again, why bring it up?

All things terminal/accuracy the same... why not shoot the higher BC?

In my example Scotty referenced, between the 160 AB vs. 162 Amax..... all things terminal were not equal, so I hedged my bets on the side of terminal performance, and gave up some BC.

I agree not everyone shoots past 300... or in the wind... but BC always matters. It helps determine both where the bullet ends up, and how much it’s packing when it gets there. I guess you just need to decide if it matters enough to you.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the diversion folks,

SD, I never said BC doesn't matter..I did say it doesn't matter to the degree marketing folks tell us it does. My point was I'm encountering a larger group of younger shooters who get OCD about the BC numbers of whatever bullet they're using and can't go 5 for 5 at 100yds from a field position on a pie plate. The internet chatter and the marketing tells them it matters greatly but the sleekest, slickest, slipperiest bullet in the world can't help these guys much past bayonet range on a calm day. Not cause they're using the wrong bullet...cause they can't shoot to start with.

It's a lot like MV back in the 80s and 90s...everyone wanted 3000+ fps to hunt whitetails from a treestand cause that's what the gun rags and marketing folks told them they needed... and I met a lot of those guys toting cannons that couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a big bass fiddle inside a barn! The 300RUM is a great tool, but I doubt many folks with one can leverage the capability to any appreciable degree over a .308 or .30-06.

I love the new sleek bullets and the stunning capabilities of some of the new cartridges...they can yield impressive results in the right hands, but I think there's a whole lot of people that need to shoot old school a bunch more and worry about the ballistic chart a little less.

Over on another forum I frequent (mainly younger guys hunting the West)...there's a big bunch of them talking about the AMAX and similar HPBT target bullets being better elk rounds solely because they have a better BC...that won't work out for the elk IMHO.

At any rate- sorry to the OP for the thread drift and anyone else for a blood pressure spike.

 

[gerry]

Song Dog,
I never said I didn't want to shoot over 300 yards just pointing out that many don't or hunt in country where you can even see to 300. Where I live lots of places you are lucky to see over 200 yards to be honest. I was just reporting about a new bullet and giving as much info as I could find. As long as a bullet is reasonably sleek (like the 130 gr 6.5mm AccuBond) it will work out to 500-600 which is as far as I want to ever shoot at game once I get good at longer range. Most of the time I want to be much closer. For most hunters there is too much fretting about relatively minor differences in b.c. and forget about other factors like bullet performance.

 

[Dwh7271]

Me too! I had a lot of hopes for their DeepCurl bullet, but it's vanished after a short run.

Me too. I liked those bullets. Never saw the pressure spikes they mentioned as a reason to discontinue them. Think I still have 3 or 4 boxes of them laying around.

FWIW, I really think the Deep Curl was just a Gold Dot in rifle diameters. I have a hunch these "new" Gold Dots are nothing more than a re-engineered Deep Curl. If you look at them they pretty much resemble the Deep Curls.

Pretty smart marketing IMO to make some rifle bullets with an already successful name behind them albeit a pistol bullet rep (meaning Gold Dot).

 

[gerry]

Me too! I had a lot of hopes for their DeepCurl bullet, but it's vanished after a short run.

Me too. I liked those bullets. Never saw the pressure spikes they mentioned as a reason to discontinue them. Think I still have 3 or 4 boxes of them laying around.

FWIW, I really think the Deep Curl was just a Gold Dot in rifle diameters. I have a hunch these "new" Gold Dots are nothing more than a re-engineered Deep Curl. If you look at them they pretty much resemble the Deep Curls.

Pretty smart marketing IMO to make some rifle bullets with an already successful name behind them albeit a pistol bullet rep (meaning Gold Dot).

I wonder if that's what they are as well a redesigned Deep Curl that hopefully had some of their issues worked out. Time will tell. All I know it is nice to see Speer get back into the game in a meaningful way.

 

[Cleveland48]

It is nice to see them back with new rifle bullets and data. I mean their handgun bullets are probably the best there are for police and personal protection. I really like the hot-cors, but it’s nice to see them adding on.


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[SJB358]

Their Gold Dots and Unicors are amazing Bullets. Pretty sure the 300 grain 45-70 is about the best sleeper ever.

Rocky Mountain Reloading always has a slew of Fusion pull downs. Pretty good prices too if you like bulk.

 

[andrewctillman]

Correct me if I am wrong, but arent Gold dots just a lead bullet with electroplated copper "jacket," like the Federal MSR or old Remington Power Lokt (not Core lokt)? (I am dating myself here).

Speer claims their pistol bullets are bonded, but that is like saying an inexpensive plated bullet like the Berry plated lead bullets is bonded.

Check the heel diameter of a Gold Dot pistol bullet and you will see that it is diameter of a plain lead bullet not a jacketed bullet.

The MSR is a descent ammo choice for the money but required a fairly high SD and modest velocity to perform well. A true bonded bullet with thick tapered copper jacket can be fired at high velocity at close range with low SD bullets. that separates a bonded bullet from a plated bullet in a hurry.

 

[gerry]

I can't speak about the pistol bullets but I do know the Fusion and discontinued Deep Curl have a heavy jacket. It appears the Gold Dot rifle bullets are very similar to the Fusion bullets from what others have mentioned elsewhere.

 

[andrewctillman]

I have shot the 62 223, 150 and 165 308 and they were all copper plated not bonded.