Blue Dot , 9mm start data

[milprileb]

Well, here I am with 120 and 125 gr Lead bullets, a pound of Blue Dot and totally lost on where to start developing loads.

No BD in my Lyman Cast Bullet book, None in my Hornady and good old Alliant has a reloading site that is perfectly worthless for loads.... its all J word bullet loads for 9mm and BD.

The internet.... nothing there I can hang on to. Lots of speculation but no published loads.

Can anyone tell me starting loads and max loads for 9mm 120 gr and 125 gr lead bullets ?

Oh, pulled up my fathers two book set of Ken Waters Pet Loads..... no cigar t here either.

[Trey45]

125gr lead bullet, starting load of 7.4gr blue dot, max load of 8.2gr.

Start low obviously, once you get good reliablility and accuracy, stop. Always be on the lookout for signs of overpressure, a blown up gun is a good sign you've gone too far.

I'm NOT a big fan of blue dot in the 9mm, the minimum caliber I like it for is 40S&W.

[sundog]

The reason you are not finding any published data is that Blue Dot is not suited for this purpose. Save your BD for something like .357 mag. Powders suited for what you want to do are roughly in the range of HS6 and faster. 231, #2, #5, and several others meter very well in small charges and are suited for what you want to load.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

There are lots of loadings for 9mm with lead bullets in the Lee manual (which is reasonably priced) as well as other sources. I use 115-125 grain lead bullets in 3 different 9's including a Luger. After a lot of tinkering with a lot of powders I found that 4.7-4.8 grains of IMR 4756 ran everything very well with a good loading density, lower pressure, burned clean and did not batter the guns. Recoil was mild and accuracy was good. Sundog is right; that blue dot is not the correct stuff for 9mm, especially when there is so many other choices around that are better. LLS

[casterofboolits]

Well, here I am with 120 and 125 gr Lead bullets, a pound of Blue Dot and totally lost on where to start developing loads.

No BD in my Lyman Cast Bullet book, None in my Hornady and good old Alliant has a reloading site that is perfectly worthless for loads.... its all J word bullet loads for 9mm and BD.

The internet.... nothing there I can hang on to. Lots of speculation but no published loads.

Can anyone tell me starting loads and max loads for 9mm 120 gr and 125 gr lead bullets ?

Oh, pulled up my fathers two book set of Ken Waters Pet Loads..... no cigar t here either.

I have used BlueDot for 380, 9mm and 38 Super since the early 80's with great success.

The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, third edition lists BlueDot data for the Lyman #356402 09-121-TCPB. 5.9 gr. to start and max of 8.0 grains.

I use an H&G #275 09-125-SWCBB sized .357 and 6.5 grains of BlueDot. This is a mild load and has worked in Colt, HP and EAA pistols. This load made one hole groups at 15 yards from my HP.

Do not, I repeat....DO NOT use the max Lee loading data for BlueDot. I do not consider it safe.

I load my 38 Super IPSC rounds with a Wilson designed 38S-158-SWCBB and made major PF with no problem using BlueDot data from the same manual.

Data is out there.

[gefiltephish]

...None in my Hornady...

Hornady #8 page 899 shows 3 jacketed and one cast. I used this BD data for my mihec 124 hp bullets. I tested 4.8-6.1. I have seen max of 8.2 listed elsewhere, but I didn't go near that charge. I found no over pressure signs, including measuring across the web with a mic. Cases remained clean for all charges. Seemed to be fairly mild. Didn't produce better accuracy as I'd been hoping. Power Pistol showed a bit more promise for my application.

I made up some more and will be testing them from a rest instead of off hand.

[milprileb]

Why Blue Dot.... slower burn rate so I don't get leading as I was getting with
Bullseye. BD was the recommended powder on this forum to use as was AA5.

[rond]

I've used a lot of Red Dot for 9mm and 45acp, have not seen the need to use Blue Dot.

[milprileb]

Red Dot is faster than Bullseye and BE contributed hugely to my leaded bore with cast bullets. Red Dot... that dog ain't gonna hunt !!!!

[fecmech]

I'm not quite sure why people are so afraid of the max loads in the 9MM with BD. I've been to the 8 gr level with 120 gr bullets and got good performance and no pressure signs. The 3rd edition cast book shows 8.0 and 31.6K cup for 356402. BTW the Lee 120TC @ 1.060 OAL has the same bearing surface and amount of bullet in the case as 356402@ 1.110 OAL. The 2005 Alliant powder guide shows 8.2/BD for both lead and FMC 125 gr at 29.7 KPSI for lead and 29.9KPSI for the FMC. I don't think you can get enough BD in a 9MM case with a 125 gr bullet for a serious overload as 8 grs pretty much fills the case to the top!
As far as BD in the 9MM, IMO it's use is to duplicate jacketed performance with cast bullets.

[milprileb]

With 8.0 being max, just where is the starting level for 120 Gr TC bullet? I would prefer
to work up a load rather than leap into max level.

[mac1911]

you could call and ask alliant, they generally have unpublished knowledge.

[milprileb]

Mac1911... that is on the training schedule for Monday at 0910 hrs. I don't expect much from t hem but perhaps I can get as starting charge out of them.

THey were real antsy about giving me BE data for 9mm six months ago.

[Cherokee]

I would start about 6 gr and work up to what performs fine in your gun. I like BD and never had a problem with it.

[ph4570]

6.5 gr BD and Lee TC 120 gr combo is a fine plinking load in all four of my 9mm tools.

[dougader]

I've used BD for 9mm, 357 mag, 44 mag, 45 auto, 45 Colt, 9x23 Winchester, etc, since about 1989 or so.

First rule: do NOT use magnum primers. Its not needed and can cause pressure spikes like crazy.

I never used BD with cast bullets but used to run 8.9 grains BD under a Sierra 115 jhc for about 1258 fps. (Speer 11 data)

My Lyman 46th Edition shows their 121 grain bullet (#356402) with the following data:

Start: 5.9 grains BD for 973 fps @ 18,200 CUP
MAX: 8.0 grains BD for 1253 fps @ 31,600 CUP.

[HeavyMetal]

milprileb:
look at Richard Lee's Modern Reloading second edition In it you'll find some Bluedot loads for the 9mm.

Under 125 grain boolits I found both a start load and a top load of 8.2 grains Bluedot.

Mostly, I believe, because you can't get more than 8.2 grains of BD in a 9mm case! BY the way this will be a compressed load so seat boolits slowly.

I also have a couple Speer manuals that show BD loads for the 9mm.

Suggestion to start at 6.9 grains and work up is sound advise and will not give you an issue.

Lee manual show 125 grain lead 8.2 grains Bluedot at 1190 FPS ( 4 inch barrel no doubt) and 29700 psi.

room to spare here I think.

You'll like BD in the 9mm particularly if you have a 5 or 6 inch barrel to burn it with!

[fecmech]

With 8.0 being max, just where is the starting level for 120 Gr TC bullet? I would prefer
to work up a load rather than leap into max level.

The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, third edition lists BlueDot data for the Lyman #356402 09-121-TCPB. 5.9 gr. to start and max of 8.0 grains.

[timkelley]

I am no expert and I won't give any load data but I like Blue Dot in 9mm and .380. I get little leading and soft recoil.

[theperfessor]

I use 6.8 - 7.0 gr BD with the Lee 358-125 RF and a Lyman 358480 133 gr SWC in my HiPower. I could probably kick it up a little more but why? It feeds and functions fine. I think I started at 6.2 and worked up until things worked dependably, it's been a long time since I first started using BD in 9mm.