The Bullseye/Red Dot Thing Revisited

[Whitespider]

I’m not trying to restart old arguments but I just picked up the new (free-bee) 2009 Hodgdon/IMR/Winchester Basic Reloading Manual today; it’s pretty comprehensive for a “free-bee”. Anyway, on page 13 is a Relative Burn Rate Chart, and I must say that my testing and results, in real-world cartridges, mirrors this chart closer than any other chart I’ve looked at.

The first thing I noticed was Bullseye listed at number 9, and Titewad, Red Dot, Clays, and 700X are listed as faster burners, numbers 5 thru 8 respectively. I also noticed they list HP-38 and W231, at numbers 22 and 23, as slower than Titegroup, Green Dot, Trail Boss, International, IMR PB, AA#2 and SR 7625. A couple others worth noting, AA#5 is listed as slower than Unique, Herco, 800X and SR4756; and Blue Dot is listed as a faster than AA#7.

I tend to agree with this new chart, or at least my loading results agree with it.

[waco]

my hogden manual shows similar burn rates to those
i was suprised to see reddot faster than bullseye

[runfiverun]

i tend to group powders nowdays, as you just have the same basic offerings from the various manufacturers.
you can then pick a powder if they are outta your normal one.

[35remington]

Ranking of burning rates change according to just who's doing the rating. Not everyone tries them in a comparative way, but rather relies on what the other manufacturer says they should rank.

Burning rates also change depending upon what cartridge they're used in.

Red Dot, Clays and 700X are indeed faster burning than Bullseye as my usage in various cartridges has shown.

[encoreman]

Hey guys, do you have any data using the Red Dot in a .38/.357 or .40S&W? My speer doesn't show Red Dot. Thanks Mac

[jonk]

OK... but my experience has shown I'm ok with loading a rifle cartridge (like a 30-06 for instance) with up to about 14 grains of Red Dot (11 is the sweet spot) but sure as heck ain't going to try 14 grains of bullseye.

[dale2242]

My go to plinking load in my 6" Ruger GP100 is 5gr Red Dot with 158-160 cast at 1050fps----dale

[richbug]

I was looking at that chart yesterday myself. Local shop had 8# jugs of Win lite and win SH for $90, was trying to figure out what I could do with it.

That chart seems to be lacking quite a few powders that I would have used as reference points, and moved others considerably.

In my experience AA2520 has always been slower than Varget

AA5744 not listed, nor RE10 or RE25

[MT Gianni]

I think we should own more than one manual and verify charges that look out of line. Perhaps we should have access to more than one burn rate chart also as all do not agree.

[Trey45]

I have a 40sw load using Berry Plated 200gr bullets and 4.3gr of red dot. My red dot is hercules tho.

[sheepdog]

my hogden manual shows similar burn rates to those
i was suprised to see reddot faster than bullseye

I'm not senior loader but from those that are i heard red dot starts off weak but peaks very very quickly in higher grains. This is the reason for the magic "Load" of 13 grains for any military rifle 30 cal+. Kinda trippy to see a 38 special with 4 grains of red dot and a 30-06 with only 13.

More on that here. http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/view_topic.php?id=1387&forum_id=22