Red Dot, Green Dot, Blue Dot, what?

[Mgderf]

I picked the right, or the wrong time to start reloading, depending how you look at it.
I've been reading, and accumulating dies,trimmers, a press... until early this year I decided it was time to jump in the pool. I had cases, primers, and bullets, but powders, besides Trail Boss, were proving hard to find.

A friend traveling then called and asked me what kinds of powders I wanted. He said he was standing in a Cabela's out east and said there was this powder and that...I didn't know what I wanted or needed. I wasn't ready for the call.
Long story short, I ended up with 8lbs of Red Dot, 8lbs of Green Dot, and 1lb of Blue Dot, to go along with my Trail Boss.

My question is,
What is your favorite uses for Red Dot and Green Dot? I have a bit of it you see

I'm just getting into reloading, but I have dies to load most all common handgun cartridges.
So, what's my best use for Red/Green Dot?

 

[billybob44]

A place to start..

Alliant Powder - Reloader's Guide

^^^Here's the place to start..I know, you want Our Tried+True loads, but you REALY need to begin here..Bill.

 

[Mgderf]

Alliant Powder - Reloader's Guide

^^^Here's the place to start..I know, you want Our Tried+True loads, but you REALY need to begin here..Bill.

While I appreciate your caution, I was more looking for optimizing what I have.
I have 4 different manuals and I've read them all. I have a good understanding of the basics of reloading.
I already have the Alliant powder page bookmarked, as well as the IMR page, and a couple of others.

I'm not looking to push any envelopes.
I'm more trying to keep from wasting my time and powder.

I see some loads listed for both powders, some with different bullets, some with the same bullet.
I would like more opinions on which powders work best for different calibers, not necessarily load data.

 

[Leadeye]

5 grains of Red Dot was my cast 230 grain RN load for years, I got a deal on a lot of the powder back in the 80s and used it until I ran out in the 90s. Green Dot will be somewhere in that neighborhood. Blue Dot was go to for 357 magnum revolvers, 125 or 158. When the first Desert Eagle 357s came out in the early 80s I made 357 FMJ loads that required filling the case and tamping it with a pencil eraser then filling it again and crushing the bullet on this with a tight crimp. They would go through 3/8" hot rolled steel targets at 25 yards.

 

[billybob44]

While I appreciate your caution, I was more looking for optimizing what I have.
I have 4 different manuals and I've read them all. I have a good understanding of the basics of reloading.
I already have the Alliant powder page bookmarked, as well as the IMR page, and a couple of others.

I'm not looking to push any envelopes.
I'm more trying to keep from wasting my time and powder.

I see some loads listed for both powders, some with different bullets, some with the same bullet.
I would like more opinions on which powders work best for different calibers, not necessarily load data.

Just pulling your leg a little...

Of the powders you listed in the OP, the only one that I currently use is the BlueDot..Makes for some GREAT 10MM loads, and some use for .40 S&W and .357Mag.--If you look you will find reduced loads for the .223 using BlueDot and light (40-50gr.) projectiles==A Nice HOT .22Magnum type load..

I have seen in "This Day and Age" of short powder supply, a lot of RedDot used in most all pistol+revolver loads-NOT- the best, but will work.

I have not used or seen GreenDot uused for anything other than shotgun loads...Bill.

 

[Mgderf]

I have seen in "This Day and Age" of short powder supply, a lot of RedDot used in most all pistol+revolver loads-NOT- the best, but will work.

I have not used or seen GreenDot uused for anything other than shotgun loads...Bill.

O.K., this is the kind of stuff I was looking to hear.
I see a lot of listings for pistol loads and Green Dot, but not near as many as Red, and Blue outdoes them both in listings.

I guess that should have told me something

I thank you for that insight.

 

[warthog]

Yo have a good one at least. You will find the Green Dot to be a good choice for a variety of calibers. I use a fair amount of Green Dot for things like 9mm. I have to look up what I used to use the Red Dot for but Blue Dot I have only used a few times for magnum loads.

 

[dtkw]

I picked my powders by what the reloading manual suggested from the Speer reloading guide. I used Blue dot for my 9mm and used a little less than the guides.

 

[Sirshredalot]

Green dot is one of my favorite powders...although there isnt a whole bunch of data for it(like unique).

It is actually my preferred 45acp powder....wish I could find 8lbs of it.

God bless
-Shred

 

[Leo]

Green dot is a good standby pistol powder as far as heat range. Red Dot is on the fast side for most pistol work other than cast bullet target loads in low pressure cartridges.

Green dot is like a lot of shotgun powders that are suitable burn rate for pistols, in that the flakes are pretty large, making it a little tricky to meter small volume loads out of most target measures. As long as you are careful and watch what you are doing, you will have a lot of good pistol shooting with green dot loads.

 

[Sagamore - One]

7 to 7 1/2 gr of Red Dot in 44 mag with a 240-250 gr lead bullet will get you 1000 to 1100 fps and is very uniform and very clean.
One of my favorite 44 mag powders.

 

[Slow Hand]

I have no experience with green dot, but it looks like you have some good advice on it already.

Blue Dot is is good for what I'd call 3/4 tilt magnum loads in .357 amd .44. It has other uses as well, but I'm not super familiar with it. I do believe there was a warning about trying to download it. Just be sure to use current data, and double check any older manuals you have, as always.

Now, Red Dot... Oh Red Dot! It's one of my most used powders! I have loaded it in .32/20, .38 special, light .357, .40 S&W, .44 Special, .45 acp, and .45 Colt. It's very close to bullseye as far as burn rate amd load density. Honestly, I have been using more Promo powder lately. It's a bulk packed, 8 lb jugs only and it advertised by Alliant as "Red Dot without the dots". It's for bulk shot shell loaders and is considerably cheaper than buying one pound jugs of red dot.

I belive you you can also load lighter practice loads wit cast bullets in rifle calibers. You might have to look in an older manual or the Lyman cast bullet handbook for that data.

In all, you got some good powders and good job stocking up when you could!

 

[Fullmag]

I picked the right, or the wrong time to start reloading, depending how you look at it.
I've been reading, and accumulating dies,trimmers, a press... until early this year I decided it was time to jump in the pool. I had cases, primers, and bullets, but powders, besides Trail Boss, were proving hard to find.

A friend traveling then called and asked me what kinds of powders I wanted. He said he was standing in a Cabela's out east and said there was this powder and that...I didn't know what I wanted or needed. I wasn't ready for the call.
Long story short, I ended up with 8lbs of Red Dot, 8lbs of Green Dot, and 1lb of Blue Dot, to go along with my Trail Boss.

My question is,
What is your favorite uses for Red Dot and Green Dot? I have a bit of it you see

I'm just getting into reloading, but I have dies to load most all common handgun cartridges.
So, what's my best use for Red/Green Dot?

Thanks for the post. Your questions were along the lines of what I've been looking for since it's good to try new powders. What calibers are you loading for?

 

[bigretic]

Man, you are lucky. I've been trying to find a keg of Red dot for 6 months... I use it for shotshell reloading.

 

[Mgderf]

Thanks for the post. Your questions were along the lines of what I've been looking for since it's good to try new powders. What calibers are you loading for?

As I said, I just started reloading.
I started out with some .45Colt. Then I ran a few .357mag, then a handul of .44mag, and I'm now delving into .45acp.

I believe I now have dies to reload 17 different calibers, most are common, but a few are obscure.

I don't know many people that load for .32S&W, .32H&R mag, .454Casull, 7.7Jap...

 

[swmp9jrm]

No experience with Green or Blue Dots, but when I started reloading, I used Red Dot for EVERYTHING! 12ga trap shells, 9mm, .45ACP, .38 Spl, and .357 magnum. Certainly not the best choice for the lot, but it worked just fine for me.

 

[Fullmag]

As I said, I just started reloading.
I started out with some .45Colt. Then I ran a few .357mag, then a handul of .44mag, and I'm now delving into .45acp.

I believe I now have dies to reload 17 different calibers, most are common, but a few are obscure.

I don't know many people that load for .32S&W, .32H&R mag, .454Casull, 7.7Jap...

If you like to shoot them obscure guns then it would be a good thing to reload them, I think. My obscure one is 357sig and used to to be 222rem that I sometimes wish I still had.

 

[Fullmag]

Oh BTW Mgderf what did you load in 357 mag? Blue Dot?

 

[Mgderf]

Oh BTW Mgderf what did you load in 357 mag? Blue Dot?

Sorry, I guess it was .38spl I loaded, not .357mag.
I loaded 158gr LRN over 3.3gr 0f Green Dot, and the same bullet over 3.0gr of Red Dot.
Both loads I believe I found in Lyman's 49th edition.
I have yet to take them to the range, and I still don't have a crony yet.

 

[sparky32]

I really like Red Dot. Have loaded several 1000 9mm plated, jacked, and lead and they went bang every time.
I use it for tons of 45 acp loads. Always had good luck with Red Dot its been around for a long time.