Thinking about a change

[hornady]

I have always used IMR 3030 in my cast 30 cal rifle bullets, but I am thinking about changing over to Red dot, has anyone used Red Dot loads and what do you think of it. Just looking for accurate paper punchers, Red dot is about 3 bucks a can cheaper than the 3031,
And the loads listed in the Lyman cast book use less of the Red Dot to achieve near the  same velocity. 

[Nobade]

Red Dot is great in lots of rifle cartridges, and usually produces good accuracy. It is real fluffy and takes up a lot of space. It is also extremely powerful and pressures peak up quite fast. In a 30-30 you use about 7 grains, and it doesn't take much more than that to cause an overload. You can not generate even close to the speed you can with 3031, but as long as you want to shoot at around 1400 fps tops it should work well for you. Just don't try to lean on it for more speed or you won't like what happens.

[BCB]

I have used 8.5 grains of Red Dot with an ~125 grain cast boolit for a velocity of 1550 form a Model 94...

Nothing great about accuracy at all...

But, you will get at or near the same velocity as your 3031 with about 30% of the charge.  THIS PERCENTAGE IS NOT TO BE USED AS A STARTING LOAD FOR RED DOT...

Good-luck...BCB

[hornady]

I have used a boat load of Red Dot in Shot gun and pistol loads over the years, I gave up Shot gun reloading a couple years back, and with the few pistol rounds I still load with Red dot, they are not making a dent in my 8 pound keg . I all ready shoot the cast. And thought this way I could save the 3031 for the jacketed stuff. just need to play arond with it, and see what i can come up with. I shoot the cast in 3 rifles, 3030 , 308 and 3006, so i should find one of the three thats a keeper.
 This is my new favorite You tube vidio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3kUD6W8QaQ&feature=related
 

[Nobade]

Well, Red Dot will certainly work in all those. IIRC 12.0gr. works best in my 30-06 and about 10.0gr. in the .308

[res45]

I like 8.0 grs. of Red Dot in my 150 and 170 gr. cast 30-30 loads,I don't even use a gas check with those even though the bullet is designed to take one accuracy is great and no leading.  My 30-30 loads cost me about 8 cents each to shoot.

The Load by C. E. Harris  http://members.shaw.ca/cronhelm/TheLoad.html  I use this load in my 54r with 160 gr. GC bullets it's plenty accurate with the irons in my old Mosin.

[mauserand9mm]

Gotta be careful of fast powders as reduced loads, especially in straight wall cases, in regards to chamber "ringing". Fillers are a good idea but won't always prevent this.

I have a friend who has produced these rings in his 458WM whilst using cast projectiles and Unique, but it hasn't otherwise hurt the rifle. I have also been told that this has happened in a 38/55 even with a filler (don't know the powder used).

Apparantly what happens is that with empty space in the case, a pressure wave will travel backwards and forwards through it and will sometimes peak (or "pile") at the ends - either at the case web which will absorb and recover from the spike, or the chamber behind the proectile where is will actually dent the steel (circular dent = ring).

This phenomina has been around for a long time and a french guy did some tests with a strong walled pipe and pressure measurement equipment. He found that if the powder sat at either end of the tube (with large spare space) the pressure spikes at the ends were high. If the powder were distributed evenly or piled in the middle the pressure spikes at the ends were minimal.

[Lloyd Smale]

i prefer unique for pop gun loads in bottle neck cases.

[bilmac]

I have used all the old Lyman suggestions,Red Dot, Unique and 2400 and they all worked pretty good for me. A few years ago a guy was really pushing blue dot, he even had a web site. I tried it and it worked very well. Seemed like I couldn't find any loads that didn't shoot pretty good, so instead of testing for accuracy and choosing whatever shot best, with blue dot it was more a matter of just choosing what velocity I wanted.

I don't think the web site is around any more, I haven't run into it, but maybe I'm just not doing the right search.

[.22-5-40]

Hello, hornady.  Have you thought about  IMR 4227?  I have had very good accuracy in an 1898 Krag rifle & carbine, and a 1903 Springfield.

[hornady]

Thanks for the suggestion, but my main goal was a use for the Red Dot. I use IMR 3031 and Varget in all my Jacketed rifle loads. I use 4 different powders in pistol Jacketed and cast. So another powder is not something I want to do, if I can get the Red Dot to produce decent loads.

[3leggedturtle]

I've used 4-8 gra of Red Dot with the Lee 113FP or 170 FP in my 30/30 for small game loads.  You could "eat the bullet hole" havent chrono'ed them yet but is on my to do list. They were/are accurate too.