No Red Dots in Red Dot Powder

[340six]

I was given 4 pounds of old red dot in a card board keg never opened.
I opened and was going to use some and it has no red dots? It is still smells right and is like powder should be! So it is good as it was stored inside a home on a shelf at My dads home!
In fact I was with him years ago when he bought it new and was saving it for shot gun loads that never happened.
It is just a plain Cardboard contaioner with the factory sticker on it and has some Stamping on the cardboard container it self under the sticker says RD 11
The Alliant Powder Web site does not show any round nose lead loads.
The only 3 books I have that show red dot for this load say:
#358242 rnl 120gr and 356242 and 356204 all same weight 2 being rnl and 3rd "356204" TC but still same weight and loads
My alloy comes in at 128 with lube and have done fine with midrange loads of WW231 and info for 125rnl
1)Lyman 49th printed Dec 2008 red dot 3.0-3.9

2)The lyman cast bullet handbook "3rd edition" printed from 1980-2008 that came with my lyman pot,lube sizer ect. says 3.8-4.5 of red dot

3)And an even older Lyman book{1973} says 3.8-4.5 of red dot

I am tempted to load a few and at 3.8:confused:

[deerslayer]

What caliber are you trying to load?

Also I have some red dot from the 70's that I just repackaged today and it definitely has red dots in it. This was three different lots from three different cans and red dots in all of them and they were packed in metal cans.

[340six]

9mm 125rnl {with my alloy 128} been with WW231 at 4.0 grains but want to use up some red dot since I have it and see how it works out.

[deerslayer]

Lyman's 49th reloading handbook says 3.0-3.9 grns for a 120 grn rn boolit.

You can probably cut this a little for a slightly heavier boolit and or different design/components.

[340six]

Lyman's 49th reloading handbook says 3.0-3.9 grns for a 120 grn rn boolit.

You can probably cut this a little for a slightly heavier boolit and or different design/components.

Thats what I wrote above I was wondering why the big differance between the 3.0-3.9 and the 3.8-4.5 in another book :holysheep
I was going to load some at 3.5 and see how they shoot My RCBS powder toss is set at 3.5 right now with the powder when I weigh it.
Thanks for your imput

[Le Loup Solitaire]

IIRC Dean Grennell in one of his ABC's of Reloading mentioned that someone picked out a lot of the red dots and worked up correct loadings with them and proved that the red dots were the same as the non red dots; the red ones were just colored red by a dye that had no effect on the burning rate. The purpose of the dye was strictly for ID ing the powcer in relation to some other flake powders like green dot, bluedot etc. As for use in the 9mm, I did not have much success with RD. I once ran a series of loadings with 3.5 to 4.0 grains using the Lyman 356242 and got poor results including cratering primers, some leading and poor accuracy. I'm sure that some folks may have gotten better results, but I felt that the pressure was a little high. I would not push it past 4.0. I ultimately got good results with the same bullet using 700X which is slower burning and finally setteed on 4.7 grains of 4756 which is even slower. You probably want to use (up) the RD so in all fairness give it a try; it may turn out to work well for you, but keep in mind that RD is pretty fast stuff and one can get into hot water easier with it than with a slower burning powder. You would do well to start the loads at 3.8. LLS

[Box13]

I have a can of red dot with no red dots also.It seems to work just fine...Robin

[340six]

Thanks I will load some at 3.8 and shoot some with my oldest son and dad.

[Shuz]

I have some old Red Dot that I was given. The Red Dots in it are extremely faded to non-existant. I was concerned about it's suitability, so I loaded a few rounds of 6.5 grains and a 429421 in a .44 mag case. I have a newer lot of the same powder and loaded up a few of the same load with it. My chrono showed that there was no basic difference between the two lots of powder.

[mtgrs737]

My red dots have faded also, I can still see them but I have to look at them closely. Powder still is good though.

[340six]

3.8 was really hot now have some at 3.3

[desi23]

I have an old metal drum of Red Dot given me years ago by a friend who was getting rid of his reloading stuff. I dont see any red grains in it but it performs just like it should. He said he bought it new and had used about half of it, has the ID printed on it in ink, no paper label. I think I still have enough for a lot of handgun loads at the rate I am using it. Red Dot works well for me in 45 colt and 32 auto.