Bluedot and 38/357s

[crabo]

Anyone using blue dot in their 38 or 357 loads in a revolver? What velocity range are you working in when you use the blue dot? Are you happy with the results?

Thanks,

Crabo

[shooting on a shoestring]

My .357 snubby carry load is 10.7 grains Blue Dot and 158 grain Gold Dots. Velocity out my 2.25" SP101 is 1140 fps.

Blue Dot is for medium to full throttle loads. It gets eratic at low pressures such as .38 spl velocities. Usually with 4" or longer barrels the slower powders like 2400 or H110/W296 will out run it slightly at max loads. However in my 2.25" SP101, Blue Dot was the velocity leader. Blue Dot does use smaller charges than 2400 and the other slow powders, so its more economical. I like it.

[twidget]

Blue Dot is my main powder for full-power loads in the .357 Mag. With Lyman 358156s and 10.6 gr. BD I get about 1200 fps from a 4" Ruger GP-100. I've tried other powders, like Win. 296, H110, and 2400, but they all give lower velocities and need higher charge weights to do it. YMMV, of course.

[Adam10mm]

I love Blue Dot. I use it a lot in 10mm but it has its place in 357 Mag and a few others.

I did up some 180gr XTPs with 9.4gr of BD. Fantastic. No chrono but was very controllable.

[9.3X62AL]

I got away from Blue Dot for about 10-12 years until getting some in a box of goodies given away at the range a few months back. I'm getting re-acquainted with the fuel now, I have some 357's with #358156 loaded up over 10.0 and 10.5 grains just for grins. I've never tried it in 38 Special.

When this powder was brand new (around 1974), the late Bob Milek did some handloading with the stuff in 357 Magnum. As I recall from the gunrag article, it did better work with the lighter jacketed 357 bullets (110 and 125 grain) than did 2400 and 296, and about a dead heat with the heavier bullets (140-60 grain-class). What Milek also noted was that in very low temperatures the powder would do weird unpredictable pressure spiking--temps like -35* F. This didn't affect me in California significantly, but I add this as info for folks in the North to consider.

[S.R.Custom]

I like Blue Dot, and it's accurate, but I haven't used it in a while because it burns very hot. Not an issue with jacketed or gas-checked bullets, but warm to full-power loads with plain based bullets leave a leady mess in the bore.

For mid-range to almost full-power loads under plain based bullets, I've been using Herco for quite a few years now.

[Larry Gibson]

I use BlueDot for real .357 magnum loads using the Hornady 125FP/XTP. Thes run 1690 fps out of my 6" Ruger SS.

I also use it in a Spanish Destroyer with the barrel set back so it is now a .38 Super. I push the same FP/XTP at 1703 fps out of the little carbine. Deadly on jack rabbits!

Larry Gibson

[racepres]

I'm pushing PB 158's out of a "single action" 38 spl 7.5"bbl at 963 fps. Using the top load in the Lyman manual. I also keep a box of "J" word 140 gr HP's loaded w/ a "heavy charge" of BD specifically labeled for my "contender only" the 10" Contender spits those out at 1750 fps avg. and is the only "serious" load I use in the contender. According to my notes, alot of combinations have been tried in quite a few guns and these two shine out. When it comes to larger bore's I use more BD, than anything else.. MV

[fecmech]

I use 10.0/ BD with 358429 cast out of 50/50 ww/lino and that gives me about 1250 fps out of a 6" Ruger gp 100. Excellent accuracy, as good as 296,H110, wc820. I went to Blue Dot because the fine grained ball powders bound up the powder measure on my progressive Auto Champ. I've since fixed that problem but am glad I tried BD. With the cost of surplus powders going up the Blue dot with the lower charge wts can be more economical for magnum loads than wc820. Also works great with cast in the 9MM!

[shotstring]

I haven't used Blue Dot in my 357 loads since 1990. I made up some loads at that time with either 160 or 180 FMC bullets and was maxing out the load according to the Speer catalog at that time. I can't remember whether it was a 4 or 6 inch barrel Smith I was using at the time, but it sent a wall of flame a foot and a half long out the end of the barrel. I had lots of unburned powder residue in the barrel after the fact, so I just stopped using it. Might have just been a freaky batch of powder, but it was summer in Cal so cold weather wasn't an issue.

[ozbornm]

I did years ago It worked fine.

[9.3X62AL]

Super Mag--

I'm another fan of Herco for mid-level to 90% loads in mag revolvers.

[S.R.Custom]

It's wonderful stuff; I could prattle on like a fool about Herco all night, but I don't need to tell you, do I? :-D

[9.3X62AL]

Not at all--revo rounds, 12 gauge field loads, and 28 gauge field loads. An 8# keg lasted about 3 years, and I just got another one recently. Very, very useful.

Blue Dot also served well as a 2-3/4" 12 gauge magnum (1-1/2 oz) powder. There was a time in the dark past when I thought pheasants and chukar were armor-plated, my celebrated Blue Dot period that lasted into my late 20's. I thought an ounce and a half of #4s or #6s respectively was the keystone element to upland success. I got over that fixation before it progressed to the Blacktail Belted Magnum level, thankfully.

[S.R.Custom]

...I thought pheasants and chukar were armor-plated, my celebrated Blue Dot period that lasted into my late 20's. I thought an ounce and a half of #4s or #6s respectively was the keystone element to upland success.

Sounds like my late summer squirrel loads from years ago... :mrgreen:

[gunarea]

My decision to use a 357 in IHMSA brought Blue dot into my reloading life. 10.5gr under a 160gr Hornaday sil turned the top frame rail blue in a S&W mod 686 and wouldn't topple the rams. 12 gr under the same bullet in a Ruger blackhawk was marginal at 200m rams. Ruger called me on the phone and told me to stop doing that when they recieved the blackhawk for repairs. I still have most of a four pound keg. You say it works good in a 9mm? Thanks.
Roy

[S.R.Custom]

...12 gr under the same bullet in a Ruger blackhawk was marginal at 200m rams. Ruger called me on the phone and told me to stop doing that when they recieved the blackhawk for repairs.

Get a little flame cutting, did you? (LOL...)

Blue Dot does work well with the 9mm. Just take lots of cleaning brushes with you to the range. ;)

[JIMinPHX]

Blue Dot is for medium to full throttle loads. It gets eratic at low pressures such as .38 spl velocities.

You took those words right out of my mouth.

BD gets real spooky at the low end. All of a sudden, speeds are all over the place & smaller charges give higher velocities. Also at the low end, there is frequently a lot of unburned powder floating around. I tried 6 grains of that stuff in a .38 once. I'll never do that again.

Blue Dot is good for medium to heavy loads in a .357 or .44mag, but I find that at the very top end, I do better with H-110. BD is also pretty good in a .45acp with heavier loads.

Two of the downsides of BD are that you need a lot of it compared to something like 231 or Bullseye, so it is a little expensive to use & it does not meter well from my powder dispensers. I end up hand weighing it when I do use it.

BD is also good if you want to put on a pyrotecnics show. It really lights up the sky. You need to keep your chrony about 10 feet from the muzzle on a sunny day if you want it to read correctly. Indoors, the chrony would not work with the BD flash no matter what I did.

[JSH]

I bought a 1 pound jug of BD a few years back for a project I never got around too. It say for a long time, unopened. I ran across some data for 30-30 and CB's. Loaded a few up and shot them from the bench. Shot pretty good, well enough I went home and loaded up enough to shoot an IHMSA match with. Things started off wierd, but just thought I was having an off day. To shorten this up, I found BD to be very position sensitive in bottle neck cases, at least in my case. YMMV and YRMV. I tried in in some 38+P loads, didn't do anything other powders would do any better, though I did see some issues arise that I contributed to pressure issues. Burned it all up and don't plan on buying any more, unless for shotgun loads.
Jeff

[felix]

N105 is a single base equivalent to BD, which is a double base. N105 is considerably better than BD in all accounts except for the maximum energy released. Unfortunately, N105 is considerably more expensive. ... felix

[Bass Ackward]

N105 is a single base equivalent to BD, which is a double base. N105 is considerably better than BD in all accounts except for the maximum energy released. Unfortunately, N105 is considerably more expensive. ... felix


Yep. Very close. Quickload has it as just a smidgen faster.

For those that like and believe in the superiority of Herco, and you can count me in that group too. Like the case filling BULK but it can meter a little off.

Quickload says that Ramshot Sillouette is basically the same burn rate. Anyone tried it in anything? Should meter better and be a little less temperature sensitive.

[flinchnjerk]

FWIW - in an earlier life, Ramshot Silhouette was WAP (Winchester Action Pistol); the powder that gave me the smallest ES and Sd in .45ACP 230 gr. hardball factory duplication to slightly "hotter" loads than any powder that I ever tried. And because of my endless quest to buy proficiency rather than gain it through practice.... that's a large number of powders.

[GrizzLeeBear]

My decision to use a 357 in IHMSA brought Blue dot into my reloading life. 10.5gr under a 160gr Hornaday sil turned the top frame rail blue in a S&W mod 686 and wouldn't topple the rams. 12 gr under the same bullet in a Ruger blackhawk was marginal at 200m rams. Ruger called me on the phone and told me to stop doing that when they recieved the blackhawk for repairs. I still have most of a four pound keg. You say it works good in a 9mm? Thanks.
Roy

Roy, try a 180 - 200 gr. bullet at about 1,050 - 1,100 fps. I've been wanting to get a 358430 (195 gr. RN) mold for quite some time, but other things have gotten in the way, it looks like it would be a good ram killer. You will have to use more sight elevation, but will have much more momentum. Ft.-lb. energy means nothing in sillywets, its momentum that knocks down targets.
I found 10.0 grains of BD with a 358156 to be a very accurate load out to 100m in my GP-100.

[bushka]

I always liked Bdot with 357 110g jacketed bullets ,was always clean burning with magnum primers.gave a neat blast like a 223.Loaded 12grains of it in 454casull with sierra 250g jhp for years as a plinking load.
Another creampuff load i had for a 45 1911 was 230g fmj over 8.5grains of the stuff,which recoiled like a 22lr and gave exc accuracy