IMR Blue Discontinued

[RMc]

I recently received confirmation from Hodgdon Powder Company that IMR Blue powder has been discontinued.

[swheeler]

Wow, seems they are trying to match Winchester standards, introduce a powder then discontinue it the next year.

[Dimner]

I recently received confirmation from Hodgdon Powder Company that IMR Blue powder has been discontinued.

Too bad. I liked it alot. Very inexpensive and worked for me 100% equivalent to blue dot

[zarrinvz24]

There is probably so much demand for powder right now it wouldn’t make sense to tie up an entire line or facility to produce something that doesn’t have the same demand as other products in the line. I’ve seen it written somewhere that there is over 4 billion in firearm back orders.

[megasupermagnum]

Too bad. I liked it alot. Very inexpensive and worked for me 100% equivalent to blue dot

No, it was not, and never was claimed to be a Bluedot clone. It was close in burn rate, but data could not be interchanged.

In the end, Bluedot had a 50 year head start. IMR blue never stood a chance. What would really be cool, if hodgdon really wanted to improve something, is make a better metering 800x that is identical in performance.

[green mountain boy]

well to bad, i just bought one. guess i will save it to sell at some point down the road...ya never know .

[farmbif]

well that didn't last all too long.
I know while everything was getting gobbled up like mad a few months ago powder Vally was selling , blue, red, green and target real real cheap

[Dimner]

No, it was not, and never was claimed to be a Bluedot clone. It was close in burn rate, but data could not be interchanged.

In the end, Bluedot had a 50 year head start. IMR blue never stood a chance. What would really be cool, if hodgdon really wanted to improve something, is make a better metering 800x that is identical in performance.

I'm not sure what you are reading into my post, but I will say it again.

It worked for me and it was 100% equivalent to BlueDot. Grain for grain I ran tests and both gave within 35fps of each other with the same POI.

[Dimner]

I wouldn't be surprised if during normal times blue dot was one of the lesser selling of the 'color' dot type powders.

So when Hodgdons came out with clones of all those powders, there may just have not been enough market for 2 types of the 'blue' powder. That's just a guess though. Could have been supply issues or anything like that.

All in all, if it were not for the panic, I would be ordering some IMR blue to stock up for my reduced velocity loads.

[dverna]

I am not anal about pistol powders and buy whatever is on sale; but buy in large lots. I keep it simple and only load 9mm, .38/.357, .40 and a wee bit of .45 ACP. I would not care if it is discontinued if priced right. Right now, that is unlikely as people are desperate and stuff is selling.

Makes no sense for a company to produce something that does not have a high demand unless they can get a premium for it. I expect to see more SKU's disappear.

[megasupermagnum]

I'm not sure what you are reading into my post, but I will say it again.

It worked for me and it was 100% equivalent to BlueDot. Grain for grain I ran tests and both gave within 35fps of each other with the same POI.

There are a lot of tests out there of various calibers that disagree. 10mm auto in particular, as bluedot is the shining star of that caliber. IMR blue grain for grain, shoots around 100 fps slower than bluedot, and with reduced accuracy. My only experience with IMR blue is in 9mm luger, I helped chrony some loads. In that case, it actually shot faster than bluedot, and experienced pressure signs sooner. It does look fairly close in 12 gauge shotguns, however appears off by quite a bit in many 20 gauge loads.

No doubt the powders are close, as I'm sure it was intended to be, but to suggest that you can dump in an equal weight of IMR blue with no more consideration is foolish.

[tomme boy]

They could not give it away till the panic started. It was their worst selling powder. Heck it is still on the shelves here at a few places if that tells aanything.

[ih772]

It seemed to be a bit difficult finding reloading data for it.

[fcvan]

I knew a lot of guys who shot hot blue dot loads with 125 JHP in K Frame S&W revolvers. 9 years ago, I spoke with a factory rep regarding blue dot. He informed me that due to a slight change in the powder they no longer recommended blue dot for 125 JHP. He said the pressure spike from the then new formulation caused excessive flame cutting of the tops strap which led to failures. I never bought into the 'new blue' and haven't bought any blue dot in 30 years. I also haven't loaded jacketed for .357 or 38 SPL for longer than that.

I shoot the heck out of 38 SPL with a 125 RN or RF and occasionally .357 158 RF at 1200 FPS. It turns out I only have about 250 .357 cases and buckets of 38 SPL. I haven't carried the K Frame M13 for many years but still enjoy shooting 38s for a good range day.

I carried the SA 1911 for many years until they wouldn't let me qualify with that for EDC. Some silly person at HQ 'banned' single action pistols when they meant to ban single action revolvers. It took someone to point out that our Mini 14 carbines were single action to get it through their heads. By then, my Wife had bought me a G22 which became EDC, and later my service weapon. Now retired, I mostly carry a G43 in 9mm, it goes with my shoes

[trapper9260]

From my understanding when the IMR dot powders came out was to help with the short of the Aliant dots at the time. I only seen one place around me that sold the IMR dots, I did not got any since I had what all I wanted with the Aliant dots. Like is stated it was a short life for the Blue. what is next .

[rockrat]

And here I just bought two pounds of it last week!!!

[BrutalAB]

I bought 10 pounds of it and have been waiting for data before i started using it.

Disappointing.

[megasupermagnum]

I bought 10 pounds of it and have been waiting for data before i started using it.

Disappointing.

There is some. What are you looking for?

[BrutalAB]

I was waiting on 357 mag, and 10mm. But now i will for sure use it on some shotshells when i get around to it. Id hate for it to turn out to be more accurate than my normal loads.

[megasupermagnum]

As hypocritical as it sounds, I doubt you are going to get into serious trouble if you use Bluedot starting loads for those calibers, then work up from there. The link below I'm guessing you have seen, but shows a good comparison on what he got for velocities and accuracy from each powder. I have yet to see anyone have IMR blue shoot as good as Bluedot, but who knows? Some people even claim Power Pistol shoots good, and that is by far the worst powder I have ever encountered, and I've tried that in every handgun I own.

https://www.glocktalk.com/threads/bl...r-fmj.1720190/