Blue Dot Notes : COOLER Barrels!

Recently I have been testing several other powders for reduced loads for varminting in the 223.

Some of the powders tested have been

SR 4759
Unique
Tite Group
700 X
800 X
5744
SR 4756

Even with all the above powders usually having a less charge at max, that Blue Dot,
An important thing I have noted,( being a varmint shooter … translating into high volume shooting in short periods of time ).. is that ALL the above powders STILL heat up the rifle’s barrel at a much quicker rate that Blue Dot does.

Another important thing is that, I have also noted, that these powders also take much longer for a barrel, (once heated ) to cool down!

Not being a chemist, I don’t know what they are putting in Blue Dot to also make it burn evidently much cooler than other powders.

The above powders are once again, being tested to stretch out the shooter’s budget.
But I thought it was highly important to note that Blue Dot is seeming to burn much cooler.. and in a varmint rifle for high volume shooting, this is a very important feature!




cheers
seafire

I am inerested in trying this powder out. Love my .221 Fireball on the prairie dogs and it looks like I can duplicate my .221 load with Blue Dot and 40gr V-Max's in a .223 Remington. I Just purchased 5lbs for $66 and have a couple thousand Remington 7 1/2primers.

I have three .223's I can start on. What about barrel length? It seems from what I have read that a shorter barrel won't hurt my velocity and might even help some. I have one barrel that needs a recrown and have thought about cuting it back to 22" or even 20".

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Chris

Had a chance to do some shooting today. Hot and humid 90 degrees with a 12 mph crosswind.

CZ 527 .223 Varmint Laminate stock.

40 gr V-Max

Started at 11 grains Blue Dot and worked up to 14.4 grains. No signs of pressure although this may be too hot in someone else’s rifle.

3221 fps
no reading
no reading
3218 fps
3214 fps

Five shot group of .650 inch.



Think I will quit and think I will be happy with this load.

Blue Dot doesn't seem to measure very well in my RCBS Uni Flow so I think I will throw them light and trickle up to 14.4

I visually check every case with a bright flashlight before seating bullet.

Can't comment on the barrel heating as I was taking time between shots.

Hawkeye58

hawkeye58 Did you notice your group opening up any in the mid-range loads, say 12-13grains ??

Also did you notice any powder left in the chamber?? Did it burn clean ??

quote:

I visually check every case with a bright flashlight before seating bullet.

Seafire - Are there any advantages (accuracy-wise) to filling the rest of the case with some kind of buffer material? It would at least help to alleviate the worries of a proper charge...

Following John's recommendations I tried Blue Dot for quite a lot of calibers, precision was always great and more than sufficient for my purposes. This is logical since most handgun cartridges contain VERY little powder in big case columes, just figure the .38 Special with 3 grain Bullseye which is still very precise.

The reason is that handgun powders are much easier to ignite than rifle powders, this even seems to apply to relatively slow and not so easy to ignite powders like H110 where I used 13 grains for the .222 Rem and got good precision, too.

OTOH, there MIGHT be still some potential for further improvement using a buffer material.

quote:

Did you notice your group opening up any in the mid-range loads, say 12-13grains

Yes I did. My groups weren't under an inch untill I reached 14 grs.

Didn't noticeany more fouling than any other powder.

Hawkeye

Hummmmmmmm same here on the groups, but I stopped before getting above 13 grains.

Heavy Rains stop the show, so I'll have to keep tring.
Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by 1 Shot Hunter:

quote:

I visually check every case with a bright flashlight before seating bullet.

Seafire - Are there any advantages (accuracy-wise) to filling the rest of the case with some kind of buffer material? It would at least help to alleviate the worries of a proper charge...

Nope it lights easily and burns cleanly.. in fact short barrels don't loose much velocity if any.. and also is not position sensitive within the case... this has been tested down to loads yielding only a 1000 fps...

So a filler would do nothing but potentially increase pressure...

For the 223 gang,
I list the max recommendation on powder volume for Blue Dot to be the following with these bullet weights....

40 grain bullet 14.5 grains

45 & 46 grain bullets... 14.5 grains

50 grain bullets.... 14 grains of powder

52, 53 grain bullets... 13.8 grains of powder

55 grain Bullets.... 13.5 grains of powder

60 grain bullets... 13 grains of powder...

don't recommend over 60 grain bullets as I haven't tested them....

with the above data, still work up in your firearms.. these have proven safe in my 223s, and that was in Bolt Action rifles...

Blue Dot loads reduce recoil enough that it will not cycle an AR or M 16 bolt...