Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 120 Speer Gold Dot

Anyone have experience they can share on how these perform on deer from a 6.5CM?

I run the 62gr Gold Dot out of a .223 and it's lights out for deer and hogs. I'm comfortable that your load will perform.

It’s curious to me that Speer touts the GDs only as self protection bullets

Several folks reporting excellent results with them out of their 6.5GR and CM on the Grendel forums.

That's good to hear, thanks! I use the old Deep Curls with great success, both in accuracy and terminal performance in other cartridges. Was hoping that these would be similar.

The old 120 Hot Cor was my bullet of choice in my 260, until they quit making it and my stash ran out. I killed a pile of deer and my first antelope with it. Can't imagine that the Gold Dot wouldn't work as well.

Same here, I killed alot of deer with the old Hot Cor in the 260 and still do in the 25.06. I've read lots of positive reviews that are beginning to pop up on the Gold Dots from the 6.5 and their performance on deer. Looks like a good bullet to use on deer and their price doesn't break the bank either.

Have been using the Sierra 120gr in my various 6.5's since back in the 1960's on mature muley buck's . Never had a problem . See no reason why the Speer GD should not work as well.

Sasha:

How’s your .223 twisted ?

Thanks,

Bob

Is not the Gold Dot the rifle bullet very similar to the Federal Fusion? The Fusion is a very good bullet. If my memory is correct, both bullets are made by Speer. If they are similar, I think the Gold Dot would also be a very good bullet.

That's correct, IIRC at least some of the Fusions are just relabeled Gold Dots. The 90 gr .277" comes to mind.

The electro-plating process creates an inexpensive bonded and very uniform bullet. Should be great in the medium 6.5s.

I have a stockpile of the 120gr Hot Cor. Its a might tough for quick killing but I've never had a deer stop one. And they were cheap. I like to shoot the same bullet at everything. And cheaply.

More impressive in a 120gr 6.5mm for deer was the SST made for Remington. Plenty tough and still more dramatic results.

I have a stockpile of the 120gr Hot Cor. Its a might tough for quick killing but I've never had a deer stop one. And they were cheap. I like to shoot the same bullet at everything. And cheaply.

More impressive in a 120gr 6.5mm for deer was the SST made for Remington. Plenty tough and still more dramatic results.

I got a thousand 62 gr Fusions from Rocky Mtn Reloading for a good price. They are much more accurate, at least for me, than the 64 gr Bonded Solid Base (BSB) from Nosler. Terminal performance is pretty close. I’ll take the more accurate bullet every time.

DF

FWIW: I emailed Speer and asked the question. Here is the response:

"The 120 gr is going to be designed for the velocities of the 6.5 Grendel and you would be better suited for the 6.5 Creedmoor to use the 140 gr Gold Dot as it is better designed for these higher velocities"

well........crap. Was hoping they might be tougher than the 120 Prohunters I been using in my 260Rem.

Are you talking from experience or just personal opinion, some of us here need a clarity and it interest me to know. Thank you.

IME the Nosler Bonded Base is not an accurate bullet. I’be worked a lot with the .277 90gr Nosler BB in several 6.8SPC ARs.
I’ve tried several different powders and yet to find a load that gives anything very accurate.

Comparatively, the 90 gr Gold Dots are easy to find accurate loads.

I’ve set the Noslers in the back of bullet storage because I’d have to be hard pressed to use them for any purpose when GD are readily available.

GD bullets in handgun cartridges and certain rifle calibers (.223, 308, etc) are sold under the Speer Gold Dot brand snd mar here’s for personal protection.

These same GD bullets in some of the same calibers plus other calibers are sold under the Federal Fusion brand as “hunting” cartridges.

In some cases the same bullet and same cartridge can be found under both brands. For example, you can buy .308 Gold Dots snd .308 Fusions. I doubt there is much if any difference aside from packaging.

Not sure I follow your question, but here goes. The experience I have with Gold Dots, is that the 120gr produced a very accurate load in my 6.5CM with little effort. I have not used any Gold Dot bullet on a game animal.

My comment was that I find it curious that Speer only refers to "Personal Protection" as a "Use" for Gold Dots and does not mention "hunting" as an appropriate use. It would seem to me that a bullet designed for personal protection should work pretty well on deer-sized game. If this is correct, why wouldn't Speer promote the line of bullets for more than one "use"?

As an as-side, the Gold Dots appear to me to be quite similar to the old Deep Curls and current Fusions. I do have experience with Deep Curls for hunting (257/120. 270/150, and 30/165). I have found them to be easy to find an accurate load for and to provide excellent terminal performance.

I do plan to try the 120/6.5s on a cull doe to see how it works, Will start with a broadside lung shot to see if it provides good expansion and complete penetration.

Hope that provides clarification...

It will likely work great. It's at least bonded (or at least bonded the same way the fusions are). The fusions tend to be soft, on average, they lose some weight but overall hold together pretty well. Up close they make big buttonheads and mostly stay together close up but farther out you still get a textbook mushroom.

If it's made for the Grendel at 2400 fps all that says to me is that out of a creedmoor it'll be a versatile bullet it will expand at longer ranges and lower velocity and probably open instantly and mostly hold together close up. I've found deer have noticeably shorter dead runs when hit with light, fast, soft bullets, for instance nosler 120gr BT's in 7mm.

I’ll not comment on the newest GD, but experience with 7mm Fusion has been not so good. Neither my son’s 7mm Rem Mag nor my 7mm Weatherby shoot them worth beans. Don’t know why, just quickly moved on. Also, a hunting buddy shot a big bodied mule deer with a Fusion at 240 yards or so with his 7RM and what a bloody mess on the exit. Dead deer but lost a shoulder in the mess. It’s just a plated chunk of lead, so why wouldn’t it hold together? It’s a “mono metal” but unlike the coppers such as Barnes, probably tougher to control expansion at higher velocities. Your mileage may vary, just my two cents for what it’s worth. Happy Trails

Just did a quick check of Federal Fusion ammo and they show the 120 only in the Grendel. The 260 and CM are loaded with the 140 Fusion. Not sure if this correlates to the Gold Dot but it might.

The GD bullets are great bullets. I bought a whole bunch of the 140s on a super sale at Midway awhile back. I load them to 2740 and have killed at least a half dozen deer with them. The 120 loaded to 3000 fps, should be a hammer.

I bought some of the 120s in hopes of finding a reliable, accurate, and affordable bullet for my Grendel. The 129gr ABLRs can be hard to find and are usually a bit pricey. Bingo! Today I put 4 in an inch over some Accurate 2000 MR, the powder that gives the top velocity in Speer's data. Jumped on the interweb when I got home and bought four more boxes of 50 at $13.99.

BC is .457, not awesome, but not exactly a pingpong ball either. At the usual 20-30 yards I shoot deer at, don't think I'll be handicapped too badly.

My first attempt to reload the Grendel used the 120 Gold Dot. They shot to the same POI and had the same group size as the factory 123 SSTs. More work is in order, but that was a pleasant start.

I liked the idea and bought a couple Boxes. In very short order my lil Grendel was shooting these bullets sub moa withbthree powders!! RL15, Benchmark and AR-COMP! I seated them
Long as my mag a d worked up a ARcomp load that was 2750 in my 22" Howa Mini.

I shot my largest buck ever couple years back. 263 after hanging three days. The 120g GD bullet Slipped high center on lungs BETWEEN Two ribs. Angled down thru the lungs clipping the heart and lodging behind the offside front leg. (Shot from
Above) The bullet entered hi and never exited. It was on snow and not a drop if blood was found u till I was 10-15 yards from the dead animal.

I called Speer a d gave all particulars. I was told I MUST ADHEAR to Loads in manual. While this bullet may work well its designed for personal Protection not hunting.
Its marvelously accurate a d fairly inexpensive! Its just one deer. I wont give ip on it. But I will Slow it to about 2600! Bottom
Line from Speer was velocity Was too fast. Beyond design parameters for the bullet.