Extreme Reloading: Loading and testing 168 gr. Speer Gold Dot rifle bullets (ep. 10) 

It is good to meet you James and see another reloader who has been at it even longer than I. Thanks for watching and posting. I agree Speer bullets are good and should be looked at more closely as another good bullet option.

These bullets certainly do group nicely at 100 yards. Nice job and thanks for watching and posting.

I use this in my 30-06 with IMR-4350 for whitetails. Extremely accurate and puts golf ball sized entry and exit holes in deer. One shot drops. No need to try and find anything better. I think word has got out how good of a deer bullet this is. Can’t find them anywhere. By the way, I’d try IMR-4064 in your 308 Win instead of Alliant in my opinion.

@@stevemccall6201 Thanks for watching and posting Steve. Any popular bullets or powder is hard to find now. I used to use 4064 a long time ago but have not used it for years.

Thanks for the note Martin. We did a video on premium scopes a while back. Here is the link if you are interested ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tS9rxUMnkuU.html

Thank you. That was my idea also... that it should have very good terminal performance. I would like to test this in the gel and will try to do that this spring. I wonder if this is indeed the bullet used in the Federal Fusion ammo. I am not sure. I wish I had higher velocity on this though. Take care and thanks for watching.

@@sdkweber I would agree that the velocities surprised me. I would have expected much closer to 2700.

@@sdkweber I apologize for repeat comments but the more I think about this video the more things come to mind. I have gotten excellent & consistent results with 150s-168s with Varget, IMR4064 & H4895. Varget being the best. I have used 24" & 26" barrels. Just a thought on increasing velocities with hindering accuracy.

@@guardianminifarm8005 Yeah, I was hoping for a higher velocity. The velocity is important for hunting bullets as energy is mass x velocity squared (velocity plays a huge role).

@@guardianminifarm8005 Varget is great. Another person commented on good results from IMR4064. The problem is finding different powders now. I have some Varget but not a lot. One excellent bullet to look at for hunting is the 165 gr. Barnes TTSX for .308. We did a brief test of this a year or two ago. It looks promising.

Yes. I agree. I am not sure why this group did this. When I see stringing I think of shooter influence but I felt like my shots were good. Ideas? The load ended up working out quite well in the end though. Thanks for watching and posting.

@@sdkweber yes, in my experience horizontal stringing is usually shooter or support induced. Vertical is load, also could be shooter but you do a great job with your routine. It’s always hard on the 4th or 5th shot. Pressure is on to complete the group. I generally walk away, shake my arms out (like a pitcher on the mound) then readdress the gun and start my normal process. Just as if it’s the first shot in my string. That’s just how I do it though. It’s not uncommon for me, on a cold range, to walk down and look at the target closely before taking the next shot. Gives time for the barrel to cool and settle as well as settling myself as well.

@@WorldofTon Thanks for the ideas. I try to finish my groups and normally do that in about 2.5 minutes (5 -shots). I worry that if I get up, break position, I might not return perfectly for shots 4-5. Good ideas and I appreciate the insight. Thanks again.

Hello Kevin, Since I am punching paper and slapping steel with this rifle, the velocity is not that important to me. I do think it is quite slow though so a bit disappointing that way. How does that bullet group for you at 100 and 200 yards? Thanks for watching.

@@sdkweber .65 MOA at 100. And that’s without really spending any more time really trying to tune the load. Haven’t actually grouped it at 200 or more. Single digit SD/ES with IMR4064. It’s my go-to powder for a few different bullets that shoot well out of that rifle.

@@kskehoe3132 That is good. I used to use IMR4064 but have not used it recently. Of course, now finding any powder is very difficult.

Very good question and one I am wondering about also. I am having trouble getting good downrange velocities recorded for this bullets with the Labradar so I cannot answer that now (estimates range from G1 BC of 0.381 to over 1.0... I know these are not correct). We are continuing to test this bullet and have some more videos coming up. Thanks for watching.

Hello again Highdesert_hunter. I was able to pull the shot tracks from my Labradar on a lot of shots from the Speer Gold Dot. This gave me 365 samples and resulted in a G1 BC of 0.384. I will be putting out a video in the future on how to do this using a new XLS spreadsheet I created.

@@sdkweber Thanks for that as Speer has a habit of inflating their BC's. I'd love to get an accurate BC for their 165gr. BTSP in .308

@@AlienMetals You might want to check Brian Litz' website, he has tested a lot of bullets and calculated good BC for many. I am not sure if he did the Speer 165 though.

It is about precision. Speed does not equal precision.