Blue Dot powder

[Goatwhiskers]

Always hate it when I don't bookmark something, or at least make a note with the primitive pen. Was reading on some forum the other day about some fella who had done a bunch of research on use of blue dot for reduced/cast loads. Seems his results were something like this: Fill the case with the powder to the top and weigh the charge. 50% of this weight would be absolute max, 20% would be minimum charge. Any of you got any info on this? Sounds somewhat reasonable, but I'm not one to play around data outside the book which has not been proven. There was little other info in the post I read. GW

[dtknowles]

Always hate it when I don't bookmark something, or at least make a note with the primitive pen. Was reading on some forum the other day about some fella who had done a bunch of research on use of blue dot for reduced/cast loads. Seems his results were something like this: Fill the case with the powder to the top and weigh the charge. 50% of this weight would be absolute max, 20% would be minimum charge. Any of you got any info on this? Sounds somewhat reasonable, but I'm not one to play around data outside the book which has not been proven. There was little other info in the post I read. GW

This sounds like a bad plan. For some cartridges a compressed load of Blue Dot is a good load, I would imagine that a 50% load in a 30-06 would be a big overcharge. Blue Dot is also a squirrelly powder and has had bad press in some cartridges.

Tim

Tim

[Maven]

Goatw, You may want to google Sea Fire's Blue Dot Loads or some combination of that. I tried his method in my Type 56 SKS with a 160 & 175gr. CB's and got good results, but unreliable ejection. Those loads were quite loud as well, but no signs of excessive pressure. Small charges of B. Dot in larger cases, e.g. the .243Win. and .30-06 work OK with CB's and something like 9 - 10gr. is quite accurate with PB CB's in my '06, but I think I'll stick with Unique for that and much slower propellants in the SKS.

[Kestrel4k]

+1 on Seafire's loads in bottleneck cartridges. Good for jacketed bullets light-for-caliber IMO, i.e. 40gr in .223Rem, 110gr in .308Win.

Personally, I do get nervous @ 20% and see no real need for going that low anyways.
I start to get pressure signs past ~55% in .223Rem.
Very clean burning and can be extraordinarily accurate; well worth investigating if curious.

Before developing my loads, I spent quite a while reading every forum thread I could find on Blue Dot loads for any/all bottleneck cartridges.
THEN I modeled specific ones of interest in Quickload before ever dropping the first charge.

And I further refined my loading technique so as to absolutely minimize potential loading errors.
There's a reason there is no published data on this - great potential but /extremely/ unforgiving of mistakes.

[paul h]

I've used Seafire's loads in the .223 and .308 with jacketed bullets. They work just as advertised and the accuracy has been steller.

[selmerfan]

I've used Seafire's loads and methods with Blue Dot in the .243 Win, .260 Rem, .308 Win, and .30-06. They work and are no more dangerous to load in terms of double-charge risk than the loads we all use with cast boolits and fast powders. Charge and case and immediately seat a bullet. Repeat until done. My daughters were both introduced to centerfire rifles with these loads. Low recoil and low muzzle blast.


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[TCLouis]

His methad works fine as long as one knows what they are doing./

I have used them from 222 to 338 Win Mag and in several in between.

I did a load for a friends son using the method to give a reduced recoil load. . . .

Results . . .

As Don Eades said to me one day . . . Dead is Dead.

Google Seafire Blue Dot and Calhoun 223 reduced loads, info is out there tracking down those posts from some years ago, may be the issue.

If you don't have any luck PM me and I will see what I can find.

I have a lot of it in a Word document . . . in a dead Computer

[HangFireW8]

I have a lot of it in a Word document . . . in a dead Computer

Easy to retrieve. Put the old Hard Drive on a USB-to-SATA adapter can copy it off.

[Lloyd Smale]

Go by a manual period! Especially with a powder like blue dot. I don't use it anymore because when you flirt with full power loads it can do funny things. It goes from mild pressure signs to wild pressure signs with a 1/2 a grain increase in charge weight.

[madsenshooter]

The most accurate loads out of my first Krag were loaded with Blue Dot. 168 cast & jacketed both around 2000fps and a 123gr up around 2500fps. Had to give them up though, the high nitro content moved the start of the lands forward pretty fast in a Krag barrel.

[leadman]

While you are surfing the web for Blue Dot loads also look for the guns that have been blown up using these loads. Blue Dot is not the same as it was many years ago. Alliant put out a warning not to use it in the 357 with 125gr bullets and not in the 41 mag at all.

I think that formula the OP posted is for Trail Boss, not BD. I do use BD sometimes but it id usually 13grs in a 30-06 with a 150 to 200gr boolit. I will use it in loads from a current manual or off the Alliant website in handguns.

As Lloyd said, it can and does get real squirrely when higher loads are used.

[madsenshooter]

I'll admit, I had been packing my Blue Dot around for each move I made for over 10yrs. But with that old stuff, groups, SD, and pressure signs indicated the loads were very consistent.