357 Gold Dot?

[Bullet]

I purchased some Speer Gold Dot bullets for 357 Mag. They are 158 Gr. The listed muzzle velocity for these in loaded ammo by Speer is 1235 FPS. I usually load my 357 158 Gr. rounds at about 1400 FPS. My question is if I load Gold Dots at a faster FPS than the factory rounds how will this affect performance? Or another way of asking this, is the factory load at 1235 FPS the optium load for this bullet? I will be shooting these in 4 and 6 inch 357 Mag revolvers for personal defense.

 

[Mark whiz]

Every single pistol I've loaded Gold Dots for (.32ACP, .38Sp, .357Mag, & .45ACP) do not play well with fast loads with Gold Dot bullets. For best accuracy, I have to load them at about the same level as I would a lead SWC of the same weight. And this was working with 5 different powders, so it seems to be a pretty consistent issue - at least in my pistols.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

I have never gotten good accuracy with gold dot bullets in my .357s.

 

[Mikul]

The faster they go, the sooner they expand... generally speaking.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

WARNING: THIS LOAD IS AT OR OVER MAX IN CURRENT MANUALS-USE AT OWN RISK-

One of my favorite loads is that 158GD slug in front of 14.9 gr of 2400, in winchester brass, with federal magnum primers. Fast & accurate(in over a dozen 357's I've tried it in). Recoil isn't too wild even in my sp101s.

Careful though, I shoot rugers 90% of the time, this load may be a little rough on other guns that are weaker/smaller.

 

[Bullet]

Ben
Do you know the FPS for your load?

 

[ChristopherG]

Bullet,

Because GDs are formed by a process of heavy plating rather than filling a separate jacket, they have an excellent reputation for holding together when driven hard. I have loaded 158s for my Marlin carbine and can report good accuracy at around 1750 fps, though I didn't do any terminal ballistics testing.

A couple of commercial companies do load them hotter than Speer/CCI--most notably buffalobore, which claims 1485 fps from a 4" L-frame (!!!). I haven't seen any pictures of what such a projectile looks like on the other side of ballistic gel or anything, but if I was gonna drive any 158 JHP that fast and hope it'd hold together, the Gold Dot would be the one.

 

[heritageguy]

Several years ago I called Speer to ask about this issue. I was told that there was no benefit in exceeding the optimal expansion velocity of the Gold Dot bullet. At the time I was interested in the 230g 45 ACP GD. I was told that the optimal velocity for that bullet as 850 fps. I loaded them at approximately 850 - 900 fps and expansion was perfect between .75 and .80 in.

I suggest that you contact Speer and get the OPTIMAL expansion velocity for the 357 GD and load to that velocity. You can't go wrong with their advice! Good shooting!

 

[Bullet]

Thanks for your replies. I will give Speer a call.