My issue with the slow speed of the 64/62gr GDs is that I try to maintain consistency across rifles. I use those rounds for home defense, but home defense means something different for me than for somebody else. Home defense means shooting a coyote at 180+ yards off my back porch. I also like going coyote hunting which is 200+ all day long.
The speed sucks for that. I could always use two different cartridges, but why can’t anyone make a faster 5.56 rated ~62gr bonded loaded round?
Once these gold dots run out, I’m just going to load my own.
I’ve already loaded 69gr SMKS at over max 5.56 pressure. They’re ok but I am thinking about going a bit lighter with something bonded. Like 55gr Gold Dots if I can find them
What you would choose for a 10 inch SBR would be pretty different from what you would want from a PDW with a 5" barrel. Almost anything will work well with a 10" barrel, even the dreaded M855 green tip. About the only thing you want to avoid outright are the ballistic tip varmint bullets, as they fragment and fail to penetrate past a few inches. Pretty much any FMJ or bonded HP is going to get the job done. I think the Black Hills 77gr stuff is probably the gold standard, but Speer Gold Dot also seems to perform very well. That comes at a massive price premium, though, and at the end of the day it’s probably unlikely to do anything in a human target that Lake City wouldn’t do, as well. If you have a department that will foot the bill for anything you want, though, Black Hills is probably ideal.
Things change quite a bit with barrels under 10 inches. The best case scenario seems to be a solid copper bullet in the 40gr range. Very, very spendy, though. Surprisingly, the ballistic tip bullets start to kind of work from those barrel lengths because the velocity is starting to get low enough that they don’t fragment on impact, and will penetrate pretty deep. Whether that’s at all superior to 55gr M193 I have no idea. You might be just as well off with the cheaper M193 option. Suffice it to say, if you opt for something highly specialized like an AR PDW, you might just want to go into it expecting to pay out the nose for ammo.
XM556SBCT3…the vaunted “FBI load”. Good luck finding it though. I have ~ 700rds of it bought prior to the current tom-foolery when the picken’s were good. It’s essentially the 62gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw JSP load at 5.56 pressure.
I also have about half that number of the 64gr Gold Dots. I too have wondered why Speer only did a limited run of 5.56 pressure loads then mostly went to .223.
Yeah, I’ve got a case of that SBCT3. I haven’t shot any of it. Kinda afraid to cause I know I won’t likely be getting any more and what if I really like it.
You are still getting 2000Fps out of a 16 inch barrel at 180 yards. GD expand really well at that velocity. You also say home defense means something different to you because you shoot coyotes. Are they trying to rob or take over your home?
Probability scenarios are nice; life is unpredictable, that’s why good training has ambiguous problems pop-up. Being hyper focused on specifics and using that to prepare—to me—doesn’t sound very sound. Multiple hits on demand from short to mid range and some longer range ones seems more balanced. Especially if you can hit far and small fast. That gives me lots of flexibility with rifle work, and that I mostly do with my 14.5 upper and a nice mix of ammo that works.
To a point made earlier, I did quite well for the 4.5 year and change service with a Colt and lots and lots of 55gr IMI ammo. I laugh at myself nowadays where I live among generally “civilized villains” — they don’t dismember and burn their victims here — and with gear and ammo that are a bazillion percent better vs. what I had when my rifle was the equivalent of my laptop today.
It’s all really nice but somewhat exaggerated. My inflated 2 cents for the next month.
To many are getting caught up in the velocity game. Speer/Federal know exactly what they are doing. There is a reason they set the velocities where they do. They perform with accuracy and expansion. 62, 75 Gold dots are some of the best there is. So much testing goes on with these rounds. I worked at Federal plant for years. They know what they are doing. Factory Gold dots are great and so is the LE223T3. These are the best loads in the world for expansion and penetration.
Everything is a trade off, the lead in Gold Dots seems to be far softer than in other companies projectiles, that leads to better expansion at lower velocities. That also means the bullet will start to come apart if it hits barriers like autoglass if pushed too fast which is why they dialed the velocities down.
As vicious says below, there’s always a trade off. I have read the Gold Dots will penetrate and expand at low velocities also and may be a good choice for SD/HD from SBRs and PDWs. No doubt superior to pistol rnds, but likely short of the terminal ballistics you get from rnd designed for, and doing, the velocities that see rifle rnd terminal ballistics via yaw and fragmentation and hydro static effects would be my guess. I agree some may not realize how many manufacturers are making rnds that will perform well as much lower velocities, and overly focused on velocity as the only metric worth taking about, but the classic rifle wounding effects we associate with rifle bullets seem to happen at higher velocities, and the 5.56 associated with those wounding mechanisms due to velocity. Again, everything is a trade off…
There is no one bullet that does everything. 75gr GD is great for those max 200/250 yd civilian/LE distances but I chose the 77gr TMK for my longer range guns. 75gr GD starts to run out of steam past 300 yd, I can tell you for certain those .400+ published BCs on the Speer site are BS.
The 75gr even at slow velocities have amazing terminal ballistics, both in gel and in flesh. Terminal performance is as much about bullet shape than velocity and when you get something that opens up as quickly as the Gold Dot you can generate some pretty impressive temporary cavities. Talk to guys who hunt with their ARs, the 75gr is blowing up deer far more impressively than bullets like 70gr TSX which have a much higher impact velocity.
I’m personally only interested in their performance from SBRs for SD/HD. I know various brands offering rnds knowing SBRs and even PDWs, are what is most popular.
