Hi folks,

I love a good bonded, barrier-blind round to give the .223/5.56 the terminal ballistics to be effective at personal defense and on game, but one thing on which I insist is a good ballistic coefficient so I can take deer and hogs at longer distance and have my sights' range settings work for the premium ammo.

I love the Federal Fusion 62gr bullet, as its aggressive boat-tail gives it a good BC and lets me stretch out there, using the range settings of the A2/A4 sights on my 20" ARs.  Back in the day I got a few thousand of those projectiles as factory seconds, but Federal still does not offer them for sale.

Therefore, I love the idea of the Gold Dot bullets for the .223 Rem, but from the looks of the projectiles (both in loaded ammo and the ones available for handloading), the 55gr and 62gr offerings have flat bases.  However, the listed BCs for them are suspiciously high, with Speer claiming a .250 G1 BC for the 55 and .310 BC for the 62gr.

These do not strike me as being believable, as the 62gr Federal Fusion (same parent company, ATK), with its aggressive boat tail, is listed also as exactly .310.  Moreover, I still have many unloaded 62gr Fusion bullets, and they look just like the Gold Dots, only with an aggressive, stepped boat tail.

The Speer listed BCs are also higher than their respective GI projectiles, the M193 and M855, which are respectively the same weights and have very large boat tails.

The listed .410 BC of the 75gr offering is much more believable, as it has the stepped boat tail very reminiscent of the 62gr Fusion, and also is the same length of, and claims a slightly-lower BC than, the same-weight VLD.

Does anyone have any experience or insight into whether these BCs for the Speer Gold Dot rounds in .223 Rem (or their handloading components) are accurate?

Thanks in advance

The BC of the 75gr round is in the .2s, nowhere near the .4s.

I did a little research awhile back and found .267 for 64GD and .22 for 55GD.  

Good enough for me since I have those rounds for defense and short range hunting (under 300m and most likely inside 200m).

Albeit in the upper .2s. I remember hearing a .28 figure a few years ago. That seems quite low for a 75gr .224” bullet, but I’ve never actually tested it.

I have several technical references that state the boat tail makes little difference for a supersonic bullet.  I believe one of those references is Hatcher's Notebook.

Yeah, high .2s or low .3s sounds more reasonable for the 75gr bullets.  That is a shame, as I'd sure like an ultra-heavy bullet like that with a high BC that also met my requirements of bonded-bullet performance.  Would you happen to have a source for the testing that showed the 75gr Gold Dots to have the .2xx or .3xx BC?

I hunt pronghorn with one of my 20" .223 Wylde ARs, and while the 62gr Federal Fusions I load up do a fantastic job (I use a mild load of H4895, which gives me 3000fps at the muzzle) out to my longest shots of 400 yards, I don't like hunting with bullets for which I can't get resupply.  It is too bad, as I am sure if the 75gr Gold Dot actually had a BC of .4 or higher, they would do that job exceedingly well also.

It's funny you'd mention Hatcher's notebook, as that is exactly the resource that made me doubt the BC claims by Speer.  I love the fact that Hatcher used actual chronograph readings at various ranges, and he was quite right that at least some flat-base bullets can have impressive BCs.  For example, it was his measurements that made the government raise the listed BC of the M2 AP projectile.  While the boat tail is not a panacea or a magic feature, later tests using his method did prove that an aggressive boat tail, like that found on the 7.62 M80 ball and 5.56 M193 ball can help the BC considerably.

Since it seems the Gold Dots don't fit the bill for me, at least for rifles (125gr Gold Dots in .357 Sig and 230gr Gold Dots in .45 GAP have accounted for a LOT of Eastern NC deer out of my Glocks), does anybody have any ideas for a high-bc bonded .224" bullet I could reliably get and load up for my needs?  I am afraid the Scirocco II doesn't work for me, either, since it apparently has hideous barrel-leading problems.

I checked my personal notes, and Hatcher's statement is as follows:

"...it should be observed that at velocities above the speed of sound it makes little difference whether the base of the bullet is boat-tailed or not."

I'm pretty sure I remember this subject being addressed in the book Military Ballistics - a Basic Manual, by Brassey's publishing.  I remember something to the effect of the boat-tail being a feature that allowed the bullet to remain stable while it slowed down below the speed of sound.  This book is available online for free.

Boat tailed bullets have a higher BC than flat based bullets of the same weight and nose shape.

However there is a common misconception that boat tailed bullets are automatically "More Accurate"

Flat based bullets have a precision advantage in the fact their flat bases are easier to produce more precisely than a boat tailed bullet and statistically should be more accurate.

However the higher BC of a boat tailed bullet means less velocity loss, less drop, and less wind drift at longer ranges and are therefore easier to hit a target with making them "More Accurate".

But putting a boat tail on a crappy bullet doesn't automatically make it more accurate.

I don’t know if it helps, but Target Sports USA has both MSR and normal varieties of loaded 62 gr Fusion in stock right now. $0.90 per round for MSR, $.80 per round for standard.

Thanks for the tip on the loaded Fusion rounds, and not only is that a great price, but it is a miracle that such good ammo is in stock with the panic-buying these days.  I sure am glad I reload and keep tons of supplies on hand.  I load up the Fusion rounds, custom-tailored for my AR's barrel, for about $0.18 per round, so while $0.80 per round is a screaming deal for loaded ammo of that type, I am spoiled by how cheaply I make it at home.  I also load mine to a lot higher velocity (still a quite mild load according to my reloading manuals) so that its trajectory matches the M855 for which the A2 sights and ACOGs on my ARs are calibrated.

Adding more evidence to Speer being wildly optimistic with their ballistic coefficient figures is their 150gr Gold Dot in .308, which they claim has a BC of .503.  This is ridiculous, as the M80 ball runs from .38 to .4, and the SST, which has both a more aggressive boat tail and a much finer point, is only .415.

That said, however, I read the thread on Lightfighter about the .224 75gr Gold Dot, and using Litz's formula, they got a .4 BC for that bullet, so I may have found my projectile for hunting/stockpiling ammo.

Actual BC is in the .28's.

I use the 64gd... I've settled on a bc of 0.250 in my strelok confirmed out to 500 yards.

The BC may not be the highest due to to bullet profile but I have always been impressed with the accuracy of the 75 GD.

Yeah, ok.  That is highly suspect!

I have 75’s plugged in at .28 and 55’s plugged in at .22. Never shot the 62’s/64’s. And yes, lol @ the 75’s being .4X. That’s above the 77 SMK and in the ballpark of a 77 TMK, which is just silly.

.310 per my calculations based on Labradar readings over a 90 yard spread.

(Edit, had wrong yardage entered in calculator)

I go off of Litz' data, but it's interesting to see what LR gave.

Any place have 55 or 75 in stock for 50-60 cents per round?

Everything I found $1. Reloading makes sense... Need to start I guess.

Now is an awful time to be stocking up on ammo. I ordered 500 rounds of gold dot right before all this. Not on purpose, just coincidence. It turns out that worked out pretty well lol it’ll come back down, but if there’s not a pressing need to buy it at the moment I’d just as soon hold off on a bulk purchase.

The things I shoot GD with are already tested and zeroed with the round, so 500 rds of the stuff should last me a good long while. Last deer season I used a whopping one round of it lol

M193 is legit what it's always cost. Stop shopping at CTD! lol

M193 is great, and when one handloads with 55gr FMJBT, it can be extremely accurate, as well.  I use the Hornady offering in a Lake City case with a CCI BR-4 primer and a near max load of H4895, factory crimped.  It shoots substantially sub-MOA to 300 yards (the longest range I've tested it) in 3 separate Criterion chrome-lined 1:8" .223 Wylde barrels (16" midlength ultralight, 20" ultralight, 20" HBAR).  Tested it in gel, too, and it is the most consistently-fragmenting and -yawing M193 I've ever tried, and I've tried quite a few offerings.

That still is too bad about the Speer 75gr Gold Dots having lousy BCs, though.  It boggles my mind that nobody makes something like a Hunting Ballistic Tip, SST, or Interbond in a .224" diameter.

Why does it seem like there is always .223 GD bashing around here?  Ok, maybe not downright bashing but you get the idea.

It’s a fantastic real world performer with tons of results. Many PD’s use it  

I don’t have a dog in this fight, I think I have maybe 400 rounds if the stuff laying around, but I just don’t get why it’s dogged so much.

Especially when you could get it cheap at.....Palmetto was it?  Like $12.99 a box iirc.

Took the time to shoot the 75 GR. Gold Dot bullet over 5.56MM NATO pressure TAC in #41 primed new neck turned LC brass out to a Leica 2400-R laser verified 544yds. from an M4 suppressed accurized 18" 1x7.7 SS Krieger/CLE 5.56MM chamber SPR type barrel I had Frank White at CLE turn for me. With a 100yd. zero that grouped 0.75", actual bullet drop was 71.0" to the center of the 5.2" group at 544yds. with MV average of 2905 FPS. Atmospherics were 30.00" Hg/100ft. MSL/72F/68% humidity with virtually no wind value. Leupold 24X BR scope was 2.6" above bore. That should be enough data to feed into a ballistics program to get a usable BC on the 75GR. Gold Dot bullet at that MV. Looks like G1 BC of 0.330 matches that actual bullet drop for the 75GR. Gold Dot bullet. Plug the above values into your ballistics programs and see what it spits out for you.

The factory 75GR. Gold Dot bullets (22475GDB2) I am using appear to vary little in weight. Range over the (10) bullets I weighed was only 75.15GR. - 75.25GR. Average weight of the (10) factory bullets was 75.21GR. with most of the bullets weighing very close to the 75.2GR. average weight. At least some of the Hornady 75GR. TMJ bullets appear to vary much more in weight as posted here: https://www.ar15.com/forums/Armory/75gr-Gold-Dots-and-5-56-pressures/42-506746/. HTH

.333 pretty much matches your results dead on the way I figure it.