Went to the local overpriced gun store. Found powder!

[jdgabbard]

They had plenty of BE, Red Dot, and Green Dot to go around, no Blue Dot or Unique (was really upset about this one) to be had. So I bought a pound of BE and a 4lb jug of Red Dot. I can use the Red Dot for my .45, and at 5g a round should net 5600 rounds of ammo. For you lead horders, that is 184lbs of galena. So I may even try using some of it in my 9mm and 38spl loads. Hadn't really used it before, but after getting home and looking at my data for it, it really is almost as universal is Unique.

[Jack Stanley]

I haven't used Red Dot in a very long time , but when I first started loading it was a standard on my shelf . I think Unique has taken its place for me .

Jack

[jdgabbard]

Jack, I started out using unique and BE for all handgun loads, minus magnums that is. But I'll keep red dot on the shelf since its all I could find.

[newton]

You talking about dongs? Red dot works in the 9mm. I've used it. It seems a little more faster. But that's expected.

[runfiverun]

i love red-dot powder.
it's great in shotgun shells,45 colt,45 acp 44 mag.
i keep an 8 lb jug in the gun closet just because i feel weird not having at least that much around.
it's old school clays.

[HangFireW8]

You'll like the performance of Red Dot. The only issue with it is that it can be hard to throw from measures in small (pistol sized) quantities.

My Red Dot story... I went through many, many pounds of the stuff during my trap shooting days. I got a bad pound (old? humid?) that left huge amounts of unburnt powder in my shotgun, so I switched to 700X and that last 1/2 pound sat around for a few years.

When I started handloading for 45 I had everything but the right powder, and I found that Red Dot was listed, so gave it a try. In 45ACP behind 230FMJ that same old dirty shotgun Red Dot burned clean and cycled with authority. That's the difference another 8K PSI makes I guess.

When I started loading rifle with cast I had to try "The Load" and instantly found it as accurate as the rifle I was shooting it out of (whichever rifle it was). In rifle quantities (aprox 13 grains) as in shotgun quantities it is a whole lot easier to throw in a volume measure than in handgun charge weights.

So, good buy.

HF

[taco650]

They had plenty of BE, Red Dot, and Green Dot to go around, no Blue Dot or Unique (was really upset about this one) to be had. So I bought a pound of BE and a 4lb jug of Red Dot. I can use the Red Dot for my .45, and at 5g a round should net 5600 rounds of ammo. For you lead horders, that is 184lbs of galena. So I may even try using some of it in my 9mm and 38spl loads. Hadn't really used it before, but after getting home and looking at my data for it, it really is almost as universal is Unique.

Did the store have the prices jacked up over what they had been a few months ago?

[40Super]

Should have gotten the Green Dot. It is a good powder and works equal in both your calibers. I have an 8lb jug that I was given from my boss from when it was named Hurcules and in the cardboard container. He figured it was to old and it would just blow up so I told him I had some trees that needed fertilizer and took it to make his guns "safe" :twisted:.
I loaded several test batches with it in 9, 40,and .45acp , all did well, If I needed more powder and it was on the shelf I'd scoop it up.

[Bullwolf]

I like how versatile Red Dot is. I use it in a quite a few pistol cartridges as well. It's a bulky (fluffy) powder, and much like Bullseye it seems to go a little farther than Unique grain per grain. I like that its easily visually identified by the red flakes too, so you are less likely to make an obvious powder mix up. The main reason I changed from Unique to Red Dot in 12 gauge though was to conserve powder.

I noticed with my clay busting loads, that really light charges of Red Dot did not burn as clean as the medium and higher end loads did.

12 gauge 2¾ shell, 1 ounce and 1/8th shot, using Red Dot.
Using my components - hull, 209 primer, wad, etc.

Low 15.5 grains of Red Dot (unburnt powder in barrels)
Mid 17-18 grains of Red Dot (cleaner)
Top 21.0 grains of Red Dot (spotless)

15.5 grains of Red Dot was pretty light, even for the girls to shoot. It would probably be an awful load for cold weather. Doesn't burn too great at this light of a charge. Also left a fair amount of visible unburnt powder in the barrels.

17.5 -18 grains of Red Dot is right about where things started to clean up. A pretty mild load still, but you no longer see unburnt powder in the barrel after shooting.

18.5 - 19+ grains of Red Dot burns very clean. Break it open and look, and you see clear barrels, even in the shorter lengths. A clean and economical load that saves me a few grains of powder per shell. I liked the Red Dot load so much that it became my standard clay breaking load, and I quit using more Unique for my trap loads.

Most powders seem to have an optimum range where they perform best. I thought this was a good example of it with Red Dot. I noticed the same thing using Unique. At higher pressures, Unique starts to clean up as well.


- Bullwolf

[jonp]

I just bought a 1lb bottle of Unique at my local shop for $27.95. The price on all of the powders has gone up there and I think this is close to gouging. I can buy a 4lb jug from Midway for $66 and even with the hazmat and shipping come out a couple of bucks below that price. I keep Unique/Bullseye on the shelf for all non-magnum pistol loads and H110/2400 for my magnums and haven't run into anything yet that I reload that these 4 won't handle. Probably are better specific powder out there for several loads like 231 or universal but I'm pretty happy with these.

[rintinglen]

Used to be a store called Fedmart that was sort of like Costco. They sold the old Hercules cardboard tube 8 pound tubes for 29.99, but only "Shotgun" powders--no Bullseye, no 2400, no Unique. But they did sell Reddot, Greendot,and Herco. I went through 4 of those Reddot tubes at 2.8 grains to the 38 wadcutter in a 2 year span from 77 to 79. Nowadays that 8 pounder would cost about a hundred bucks more.
It is THE powder for standard celocity 44 Specials.

[10mmShooter]

Reddot and Greendot are two of my favorite powders

[dverna]

If you are using Red Dot for shotgun loads you will save some money by buying Promo. It has the same burn rate as Red Dot and uses the same load data. BUT - it is a different density and varies lot to lot so you need to weigh drops and NOT depend on bushings sizes to give you the required load. In fact, there is no bushing chart for Promo for that reason. I have used 8 jugs of Promo and love it. I have another 8 jugs in the pole barn. It is not recommended for pistol and rifle loads but frankly I am not sure why (maybe metering of small charges???). I have been meaning to call Alliant to answer that question but I use HP38, Clays, and Unique for my pistol loads so have not bothered to investigate. If it is a metering issue, then light/reduced loads in rifle should be OK. Need to contact Alliant next week. I will post their answer.

[captaint]

I'll never be without my Red Dot. I use it in the 45ACP, 9mm, 41 mag, 38 wadcutters. Love the stuff. Mike

[jdgabbard]

You talking about dongs? Red dot works in the 9mm. I've used it. It seems a little more faster. But that's expected.

Haha, yes Newton, I'm speaking of Dongs. Wish Lash's was still around.

[jdgabbard]

Did the store have the prices jacked up over what they had been a few months ago?

Yes, they were. I paid $99 for 4lbs of Red Dot, but I was running dangerously low on unique, so I needed to buy something. $25 a pound isn't too bad, compared to the $40 some people are asking for.

[casca]

13 grns of REDDOT works very nicely in 30 caliber loads. as long as they aren't semi autos

[Shiloh]

3 weeks ago I went in to my usual supplier. He is out of Blue Dot, Herco, and Red Dot. There was a 1# Bullseye, and I bought the last Unique.
$19.99. The only primers he had were 209 shotgun and WLMR primers.

Shiloh

[161]

I picked up an 8 lb jug yesterday at Scheels. $119.00. Been using it in 45 ACP,light 44 mag. 45 Colt. Shot a lot of it when I was a kid in 38 sp. Just loaded some 40 S&W with 4.4 gr. under a Berry's Bullet 180 plated. Ran 890 fps from a Glock 22. Nice and fluffy in the 40 would be hard to miss a double charge.

[mpmarty]

Red Dot is in a dead heat with 700X for my favorite 45acp powder. 5.0gr and near any weight boolit works just fine.
700X in my 7.5X55 works quite well with 170gr boolits loaded at 7.0grs. I haven't tried it in any of my other rifle cartridges yet but 7.62 Nato will be tested next.

[alfloyd]

I bought the last 8 lb. jug of Red Dot that Sportsman *house had last week.
It was priced at $119 which I thought was a fair price.

Lafaun

[rsrocket1]

Me too on the Red Dot at SW, except this was in CA. It looked like they got a nice sized shipment on Thursday. By Saturday morning, almost all was gone and the guy in front of me got the other 8# jug of Red Dot. I really wanted to replenish my beloved Clays, but it is nowhere to be had so I am going to have to settle on Red Dot for my 12 gauge target loads for a while.

For handgun loads, I bought an 8# jug of Unique early last November just before before the SHTF. SW had their no tax sale and I got it for $116 OTD along with 2k primers and a box of 550 .22lr. Boy am I glad I had the dumb luck to pick that stuff up when I did.

Red Dot works almost as well as Clays for ultralight loads. Don't try to push bullets out as fast as you do with Unique or you'll go over pressure. Bullseye is actually very close to Unique in performance while using about 10%-15% less powder. It does soot up a gun more quickly than Unique (50 rounds will make your stainless steel revolver look like it's blued), but the soot cleans off pretty easily.

[MUSTANG]

I bought the last 8 lb. jug of Red Dot that Sportsman *house had last week.
It was priced at $119 which I thought was a fair price.

Lafaun


+1 on Red Dot. Use it when Bullseye and Unique are not available. Price was fair for 8lbs. Seems that what powder is available, is going for far more than $119 for 8lbs right now.

Mustang.

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, I loaded up 50rds with red dot last night. I was conservative... 4.5grs over a 230g 1R Lee RN in Winchester NT brass with a Wolf SP Primer. Hopefully I'll get to shoot them this weekend. I plan on going to pick up the son for visitation Friday afternoon, and taking him to the range to get his time in. If all works out right I plan on having enough time to do some handgun practice with him. So I'll test the load then. The reason why I chose 4.5 is my vintage lee dipper of 039 throws a charge of 4.5grs. It'll probably go up when I start loading on the turret with the auto disk.

But I'm REALLY looking forward to loading some at about 5gr with my NOE 230gr HP mold. I haven't cast any up yet, but I will hopefully in the next week or so...

[MaineJim]

I have used quite a bit of green dot ,but never red dot till a friend shared some of his 8 pounder with me.
So far ive used it for 9mm,.45 acp and target .357 loads and like it a lot.
It will never replace my Unique,but if i run into it i would definately buy it.