Bullseye & Red dot. New & old?

[kawasakifreak77]

So I've got me a sweet subsonic load in my 300blk that I've been using some old Bullseye for. Having only about half a pound, I scabbed onto another pound, new at the local fun store.

I had read several sources (including my 9th edition hornady, pretty new) that stated Bullseye was faster burning than Red dot. Then I opened another new manual, the make of which escapes me now, that had Red dot before (faster) than Bullseye...

Has something changed? Hasn't bullseye always been one of the fastest powders available & faster than Red dot?

[Outpost75]

In a small capacity, bottlenecked case, Red Dot will act faster than it will in a large bore, straight case, in which a small charge at low loading density is ignited with airspace exceeding the charge volume.

[35remington]

In the 45 ACP as an example, Red Dot velocities exceed those produced by Bullseye with equivalent charge weights.

In most metallic cartridges I've loaded using both powders, on average Red Dot gets more speed with similar charge weights. IME, listing Red Dot as faster is in most instances correct when it is used for metallics.

[fecmech]

If you look in the Alliant paper manuals from the past few years you will see many pistol loads that max out slightly less with RD than BE. I think of them as essentially the same except RD has bigger flakes and is more bulky than BE.

PS. What was interesting to me was the uniformity of BE over the years. A few years back a friend gave me a a half dozen cans of BE and 2400 that pretty well spanned the last 60 years. I loaded my standard 4.2/BE/158RN load from each of the cans and chrono'd them. Amazingly the total velocity average between all 6 cans was 35 FPS!

[lylejb]

I had read several sources (including my 9th edition hornady, pretty new) that stated Bullseye was faster burning than Red dot. Then I opened another new manual, the make of which escapes me now, that had Red dot before (faster) than Bullseye...

Has something changed?

No, nothing has changed.

Both bullseye and red dot are very fast, and close to each other in speed.

However, there is no "standard" set of testing procedures. One lab may use a different setup than another, leading to slightly different results.

Also, there's no standard for "steps" in a burn rate chart. If, for example, one powder was at #4 on the chart and another was at #7 there's no way to tell how different these may be. May be next to no difference, may be a lot. you can't tell.

I've seen plenty of burn rate charts over the years that don't agree.

Most important is to use data for the powder you're using. Don't try to guess based on a chart.

Bullseye and red dot perform as they always have.