Blue Dot and .38 Special

B

Back Woods Bowman

Inactive
Hi, I am looking for advice and experience here. I have a 1lb tub of Alliant Blue Dot to use up. There seem to be some very mixed posts regarding its suitability for .38 special.

Some seem to love it and some think it’s dangerous. The Lee reloading manual gives a starting load of 5.8 grains for a 158 grain lead bullet giving 919 FPS.

Has anyone actually loaded Blue Dot in .38 and what did you think?

Many thanks in advance for your two cents worth.
 
Yes, and I didn't like it.

Dirty and inconsistent. To be fair, that might have been more the crimp than the powder.

But, I think Blue Dot is just a tad slow for the .38 Special.
 
Only times I've seen people try Blue Dot they had miserable results. They had lots of unburnt powder, wild velocity variations, occasional bullets would barely clear the barrel and would fall to the ground 10 to 20 yards out. Even saw one friend have a bullet stuck in the barrel. I think Blue Dot is too slow for any .38 Special loads. Your results may vary. Won't hurt to give it a try but do be aware of the recoil and sound of the gun and cease firing and check your barrel IF you get one that doesn't sound right. my opinion only
 
Blue Dot is an older magnum powder. It likes heavy crimps and heavy bullets in heavy loads. It is not a good choice for reloading 38 Special.
 
Blue Dot is my favorite 357 powder. I've found it requires a light crimp and is pretty easy to light.

For 38 Spl my favorite powder is Unique. I found a good load with Unique after finding Blue Dot doesn't work as well as it does in 357.

Blue Dot also works pretty well in 9MM. I haven't tried it in 40 yet.
 
Blue Dot is an awful 38 Special powder. Extreme spreads of hundreds of feet per section show that it is not appropriate for use in this cartridge.

It only worked well in magnums with jacketed bullets. It leaded badly with lead bullets in magnums.


Code: 
4" S&W M10-5						
						
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 4.0 grs Bullseye Mixed cases WSP 						
9-Apr-06	T = 59 °F	 Elevation at least 4" low		Windage centered		accurate
						
Ave Vel =	863.4	 				
Std Dev =	30				 	
ES	70.78				 	
High	907.5			 	 	
Low	836.7			 	 	
N =	6				 	
						
						
						
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 4.5 grs Bullseye Mixed cases WSP 						
9-Apr-06	T = 64 °F	 Elevation at least 4" low		Windage centered		accurate
						
Ave Vel =	945.6	 				
Std Dev =	27.28				 	
ES	75.21				 	
High	995.2			 	 	
Low	920			 	 	
N =	6				 	
						
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 6.5 grs Blue Dot Mixed cases WSP 						
9-Apr-06	T = 64 °F	 Elevation Point of aim		Windage centered		accurate
						
Ave Vel =	734	 				
Std Dev =	63.53				 	
ES	260				 	
High	829.6			 	 	
Low	569.5			 	 	
N =	18				 	
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 7.0  grs Blue Dot Mixed cases WSP 						
9-Apr-06	T = 64 °F	 Elevation Point of aim		Windage centered		accurate
						
Ave Vel =	788.2	 				
Std Dev =	63.3				 	
ES	241.3				 	
High	926.7			 	 	
Low	685.3			 	 	
N =	12				 	
						
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 7.5 grs Blue Dot Mixed cases WSP 						
22-Apr-06	T = 68 °F	 Elevation low 			poor accuracy	

Ave Vel =	867.3	 				
Std Dev =	53.06				 	
ES	235.6				 	
High	959.7			 	 	
Low	724.1			 	 	
N =	25				 	
						
						
125 Valiant BBRNFP 8.0 grs Blue Dot Mixed cases WSP 						
22-Apr-06	T = 68 °F	 Elevation all over the place 		very poor accuracy		loud at times

Ave Vel =	990.2	 				
Std Dev =	56.55			 	 	
ES	236.1				 	
High	1093				 	
Low	857.5				 	
N =	25
 
Blue Dot runs well at 35kpsi with 223.
Burns very clean, accuracy very good, barrel stays cool.
Velocity not as good as rifle powder, but not the much is needed for ground squirrels, that are so small, they are hard to hit past 250 yards.
I used up 8 pounds this way.
It meters poorly and does not fill the case, so each load must be checked.

Blue Dot is peaky and can make trouble in 223 past 55kpsi.

Blue Dot is peaky and can make trouble is super hot loads for 357mag/38sp and bent the Aluminum frame Colt Agent in a work up.
 
I talked to Alliant and they do not recommend Blue Dot in the .223.

I believe this trend was started by Seafire, and I have met people who load Blue Dot in the .223 for varmits.

When I pressed Alliant for why they don't recommend Blue Dot in the .223, I was told that pressure would drastically increase with little changes. This I understood to be the variables such as case weight, primers, bullet seating depth, etc. Overall Blue Dot is too sensitive to varible changes and is not appropriate for this application.

I have also read of accounts where people have blown their rifles up with Blue Dot.

This is highly risky, though it may give good accuracy, low cost, and does not heat up the barrel.
 
There are lots of claims that Blue Dot is a magnum handgun powder, and this is not at all correct. It's a magnum shotgun powder, and it helps to view it in this context to understand its idiosyncrasies.

This is a powder that was designed to operate at heavy shotshell pressures, and when taken outside of its optimal pressure range it does show erratic behavior. It works better in cartridges with high expansion ratios like .45 ACP and of course, shotshells. .38 special would be one of the worst applications I could think of for it.

I tried using it in .357 magnum at 10.2 grains with a 158 grain cast SWC with ho-hum results. Accuracy was fine but those blue color flakes don't burn well in a handgun barrel, and more often than not I ended up with one or two under the ejector, tying up the gun. Also, going up just .2 grains to 10.4, velocity spiked almost 100 fps and I got sticky extraction. This wouldn't be a problem at .38 special pressures, but the unburned flakes tying up the cylinder certainly would.

Avoid Blue Dot in .38 special. There are far, far better powders to use.
 
I would agree with most here that Blue Dot is a very poor choice for loading the .38 Spl. Early in my reloading career, I also tried it in the .38, and I had very poor results. Lots of unburned powder all over my gun and my hands. Blue Dot is too slow to burn efficiently at .38 Spl. pressure levels. There are many more suitable powders available.

Blue Dot did work well in my .357 Magnum loads at around 1400fps, under a 125 grain JHP.
 
Used to use it in 357. Also tried to do some 38 +P with it. Didn't work very well for me... I use 2400 for both now, usually, and occasionally Unique.
 
.38 special powder

Try some Titegroup or W-231. Pretty hard to go wrong with either one, and there is plenty of supporting data.:)
 
From what I can remember (I tried it back in the 80's) I wound up using a heavy crimp and magnum primers to get BlueDot to shoot clean in my 4" .38. I went back to about 4.0 gr. Universal...
 
The Alliant reloading data site does no show Blue Dot as a recommended powder for .38 Special.

My Lyman 49th Edition however does show Blue Dot loads for .38 Special using hard cast round nose and semi wadcutter bullets in the 158-160 grain range.

The loads in the above manual seem to be consistant with what you found in the Lee manual.

I personally prefer Bullseye or Unique in my .38 Special loads.
 
To be a broken record, Blue dot is not good in .38spcl(I know from too many times trying). However it is decent in .357 magnum.(but not my favorite!)

In .38spcl, for me, it gives too much unburned powder, that was using 158gr. bullets.
Also don't forget there is a recall/notice about blue dot and 125gr. bullets, RESEARCH ON THAT!
I have about a half pound left of Blue Dot I will use up but I don't care too much for it. It is dirty and their are much better options.
It works much better in my .357mag and .40s&w than in .38spcl!
 
Use a pistol powder

Bluedot is a mag shotgun powder with several mag pistol applications. I have tried BD many times but the accuracy and consistance is just is not there in a 38 spl. It is hard to beat Unique, W-231, Titegroup, or Universal when it comes to 38 spl cast or swaged boolits. HS-6 and Power Pistol are my favorits when shooting 125 jacketed in 38spl. Save the BD for your 357.
 
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