Question on Blue Dot Powder

[jgedmond]

I made some loads using this powder and noticed a lot of flakes on the shooting bench around the rest. The flakes looked like partially burnt powder. Anybody use this powder and notice similar behavior? Is this the nature of the beast or am I doing something wrong? I never saw this with any other powder. Load details below:

WIN brass

CCI#500 SPP

7.2, 7.4. 7.6, 7.8 gr, Blue Dot

REM 124 FMJ

OAL 1.150"

[SLM]

Blue Dot is a slow burning powder. I've seen the same thing in both 9mm and .45acp with loads less than book max, especially in the .45 loads. Heck, I've even found the little blue ones in front of me. You aren't doing anything wrong, it's the nature of the powder.

I will say that at the old max loads Blue Dot cleans up quite nicely and punched some really tiny little groups out of my Sig 226 with Winchester 115's and CCI primers.

[jgedmond]

SLM, thanks for the quick reply. I ran these loads awhile ago before I had a chrono. I will plan to repeat and chrono the loads to optimize.

Edited May 5, 2010 by jgedmond

[CrankyCrash]

I use a Lee LoadMaster progressive press. The gun powder measure DOES NOT like BlueDot at all. I have used it a couple of times and ended up manually checking it every time.

Other than that, the few batches I've made with BlueDot shot pretty good, nice groups, cycled the gun (Glock 17) really well.

[jgedmond]

I use a Lee LoadMaster progressive press. The gun powder measure DOES NOT like BlueDot at all. I have used it a couple of times and ended up manually checking it every time.

Other than that, the few batches I've made with BlueDot shot pretty good, nice groups, cycled the gun (Glock 17) really well.

Same here with my Hornady powder measure. I chose Blue Dot and VV 3N38 as two slower powders to try. The 3N38 meters perfectly every time, does not stick to the plastic or metal parts like some other fine grain powders do. So far I have not seen a big difference between Blue Dot and 3N38 as far as accuracy goes.

[gng4life]

I use Blue Dot for my .38 Super loads and it runs great! It is a little messy sometimes and isn't the cleanest powder but when shooting major loads, it is great on felt recoil, on major loads, and the wallet. I use it in my D 550 and no problems with it sticking or metering at all. When I chrono a group of 10, I usually only vary by about 20-25fps.