The Gold Dot Project –Part 1
A few years back, HPD switched 9mm issue ammo from the Winchester 147gr. Q load to Speer Gold Dot 124 gr.JHPstandard pressure (X3618)
I thought it might be useful to develop a cheap reload that simulates the shape, velocity, recoil, point of impact, etc. of the real thing.
My philosophy is that if you keep a “house gun” in 9mm, then the Speer Gold Dot would be a good choice for ammo. Why? Because apparently it is a pretty decent performer and HPD uses it. So it (the ammo) is legally defensible.
So the idea here is to practice regularly with something like your actual self defense load. Then you will be better prepared for a real emergency.
Where to start?
Procure some genuine Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. standard pressure ammo!
Fortunately I happened to stumble across such a box.
Here is what I saw:
1- A rather ordinary looking JHP bullet weighing in at 125 gr., .355 dia. .564 length
2- The powder was 5.3gr.of grey flattened ball powder similar to some Winchester pistol powders.
3- OAL was 1.12
4- Mouth dia. was 0.375
5- Case is nickel plated brass
6- The bullet might have had a small amount of sealer on it.
7- Factory spec for velocity is 1150 fps
Finding a suitable bullet:
I searched for Speer bullets, Winchester, Remington, Rainier, Berry’s, Sierra, Hornady, Montana, Extreme, etc. The closest thing I could find was Xtreme bullets.
All the others were the wrong shape, unavailable, or too costly.
The Xtreme plated 124 gr. hollow point was the only economical bullet with a rounded profile like the GD bullet. Most all the others were truncated cones.
The GD is like a truncated ball. See the pics…