I was at a local gun shop yesterday and found a couple lbs of AA#9 and come 180 gr. Gold Dots.  Finding such rare items, I decided I had to take them home with me.  Now that I have them, I am having a difficult time finding any load data to start with.  None of my load books pair AA#9 with the 180 gr. Gold Dots.  I have found a few references searching this and other forums, but they all reference max or above max loads.  I am looking for some advice for a starting point with the end goal of hitting around 1150 to 1200fps.

Driftwood, you could use the 180 grain data for most any JHP bullet that Accurate Arms list.

Here data Accurate Arms list for the Hornady XTP
AA#No.9 12.2 grains @ 1093 fps
AA#No.9 13.5 grains @ 1242 fps 34,100 psi

I have considered that but wasn't sure how the different bullet lengths would affect the loads.  My thought was since the XTP bullet is about .005 inch shorter than the GD and the Accurate data list the XTP at an OAL of 1.25...I would think that if I loaded the GD at 1.255, I would get pretty similar performance to the Accurate XTP data.  I am thinking 12.5 to 13 gr would get me in the ball park.

It will work @ 1.250" and shorter, that load is not that close to the edge and it will be fine,  Gold Dots slide through the rifling easier anyway.   

Thanks for the input.  Much appreciated!

I've only been loading a little over a year now, Driftwood, and I'm finding the Speer manual disappointing.