My department tried the 200-gr Gold Dots and we had major problems with FTF's. We went back to 230-gr.

If you do a google search, I believe that there are a lot of folks that have problems out of the 200 grain Gold Dots.

 

shortened rds get all blowedy-uppity

Do NOT fire shortened cartridges.

When in doubt start tests with 230g Winchester choices.

I personally load the R-P 230g Golden Saber bullet, and the Remington factory cartridge is a good choice.

 

We had a problem with the 230 grain GDs in maybe 5 percent of our duty guns. Not a lot in total, but enough that we went away from them and back to Hydra Shoks, which we did not have any problems with.

 

Yep, I've had issues with them also. Switched to Hornady XTP and no problem .

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll end up shooting off the Gold Dots and trying the other brands.

This is just to show how badly the setback occurred on four of my cartridges.
The one on the left is a non defective.

 

I think there is a lack of case tension on those bullets!

 

Gold dots are the worst I've ever run across for set back. I don't use them anymore.

 

Just in 45ACP or are you talking all cartridges in general?

 

I agree.. The Gold Dots caused me more problems that ANY other ammo.. No more of them for me... Ron

 

I didn't notice any setback, but experienced some level of feed problems on every pistol (all 45ACP).. Ron

 

Never had any issues with Gold Dots. My department issues them in 230gr for the 45's and 180gr for the 40's.

 

Wow, all I can say is WOW! How many times did you chamber the round on the far right?

One thing I might suggest is to change how you chamber a round when loading your weapon on a daily/weekly basis. The design of the 1911 literally slams the cartridge into the chamber during normal operation, this is not a problem in normal operation due to the fact that the bullet is slammed into the chamber and then fired. In all honesty bullets are not designed to be chambered and ejected repeatedly, they are designed to be chambered once, shot and have the empty case ejected.

Not every 1911 will feed hollow points reliably, but assuming yours has no issues feeding hollow points during normal firing it should do so no matter how fast the slide is moving. What I am getting at is you should be able to ride the slide with your hand when chambering the first round, this will slow the slide down and very much minimize the battering of the round when it is chambered. This won’t eliminate bullet setback all together but it should help a lot.

 

Wow, all I can say is WOW! How many times did you chamber the round on the far right?

I'd say I attempted to chamber it 3 or 4 times

In all honesty bullets are not designed to be chambered and ejected repeatedly, they are designed to be chambered once, shot and have the empty case ejected.

Probably true, but is there really a way to avoid this? i.e. when carrying hollow points to the range, and emptying the weapon and magazines to fire ball ammo, then reloading the defense rounds on the way out.

 

If you're going to ride the slide as you chamber a round to minimize set back, make very sure the extractor hook is picking up the rim as it leaves the magazine and not "jumping" the rim as the slide goes into battery. Jumping the rim like that is a dandy way to break an extractor.

 

I don't think riding the slide is a good idea. Ammo should not set-back with a few chamberings IMO.. I'd try a some different ammo.. JMO.. Ron

 

Never shot 200gr. but I've carried and shot Gold Dot 240gr for years and have NEVER had either a feeding problem or the slightest set back. According to Ayoob 70% of law enforcement agencies carry them daily. Must be something about the 200gr. bullet

 

I have 2k 230gr Gold Dots on hand and havent had an issue with them. I have chambered many of them more then a dozen times and have not seen setback issues like pictured above. I have tried to create the situation and had a few set back a little but nothing dangerous.

So far all my 1911's, Glock, and HK feed them just fine. I dont fire hundreds to check for failures because I dont see the point. Instead I shoot competition and learned how to quickly clear any sort of malfunction because they will happen for one reason or another at some point. I always check a new CCW gun with a box or 2 of SD ammo and as I mentioned havent had an issue with the GD's.

I read these threads and just dont understand what people are saying because its as if GD is the worst ammo on the planet and I havent experienced this.

Are you guys shooting crap guns or cheap 1911's?

 

GD feedback seems to be of the black/white variety. For me they don't perform.. Could have been the batch I had or not, doesn't really matter. It's just not worth fooling with as there's lots of other ammo that does run for me. I suppose the problem could be crap/cheap pistols, but that's what I have.. YMMV I guess.. Cheers.. Ron

 

DK is spot on with his advice.. One needs to expend the carry ammo periodically anyhow.. I have to be careful with hot ammo, so as to not blow up my cheap/crappy pistols... Ron

 

I just assume any ammo has the potential to set back. That may or may not be true, but I never load a round back in the mag that has been chambered. There are also those that practice mag changes before the gun runs dry believing that letting the gun run dry is a tactical mistake. Changing a mag with one (or two) still up the spout would decrease the chance of a stoppage that could occur when dropping the slide on a fresh mag. It would of course be very difficult to keep an accurate round count under stress but anything that is practiced long enough can be achieved I suppose. I haven't read any mention of this here. Sorry if it's an old tired topic.

 

Interesting.

I have fired close to 5000 230 grain rounds of this stuff and not too much of any issue.

Usually a round is chambered one time then fired. If during class I have a live round get ejected during administrative whatever I leave it on the range floor.

 

It's the 200 grain bullets that are known for problems.

 

one small point

I am 'aware' of high-quality issued duty (known and renowned for their sturdy robust nature) guns blowed up ('KB') with high-quality issued duty (big big brand name) ammo.

Set-back can occur with any brand in any gun.



It ain't just Glocks, and Speer.....

 

Set-back can occur with any brand in any gun.

Sure they can, but all loads do not setback equally. In my opinion, if you chamber a cartridge three times and can visually see setback, then something is wrong. It can be the pistol, but it's usually the ammo. If I can make reloads that don't setback, certainly the major manufacturers should be able to.

 

what'cher makin' is assumptions

We agree; setback is bad, and highlights a problem.
We disagree: I think if any cartridge sets back during any feed cycle it is defective.
We agree: we can make ammo that doesn't set back.
We disagree: major manufacturers cannot ensure every single cartridge they offer wil not set back.

We have the evidence. Some manufacturers do better.

Special methods available to preclude setback include compressed loads, cannelured cases, cannelured bullets and roll crimps, adhesives, and special case neck sizing.

 

Setback can occur, no matter what. You should not ever rechamber a round, it can cause these sorts of issues. Better practice simply to fire off the chambered round, or set it aside for firing off at the range on your next trip.

 

I see that this is an old thread, but I too experienced problems today with Speer Gold Dots 45 ACP HP's product code 53966. The round will not feed into my S&W 1911sc Commander with factory magazines or even Wilson Combat magazines. The round just nose dives and hangs up on the feed ramp. I have fired hundred of various bullets types prior and never had any feeding problems or hiccups. The Gold Dots may be better suited for my Sig P220??

 

I used to like Speer Gold Dot's but it's been at least 2 years since I've been able to find them locally so I switched to Hornady.

 

What's with so many people necroposting lately?

 

I learned a new word today: "Necroposting", thank you for sharing. I suspect that old threads are found during a Google search and are resurrected?
That's what happened in my case.

 

I'm not satisfied with how the thread got turned to the discussion of 'set-back'. If I had a feeding issue with ANY reasonable ammo, I would want to work out why it was happening and fix it or have it fixed. If a .45 1911 can load 'flying ashtrays' and empty cases, it can load a semi-roundnose hollowpoint. Its possibly the magazines allowing the rounds to nose-dive while still in the magazine, running them straight into the ramp. Fully load the mag and the nose of the top round down to see how it can 'dive' in the magazine. You can also push it from the rear as it will happen in the gun and see it do the same thing.