I want to recover a few bullets from my 338 and 243 without causing them to become damaged from impact after being fired. How much powder is required to get a bullet through the barrel without creating excessive velocity? I was thinking about trying 5 grains of blue dot in my 338 with a mag primer and 200 grain NBTs. Has anyone tried this and had any success? I was going to fire it into some fine river sand to stop the bullet. Should I use more or less powder than that for the 338? How much powder would be necessary for the 243? I was thinking about trying 3 grains of blue dot but maybe I should go higher. I would be trying that with 95 grain SST bullets. Is there any danger of detonation with blue dot or does that only happen in slower powders like RL25?

After applying the SWAG Factor to your question, I would suggest 5 grs of Unique for the 338 and 4 grs of Unique for the 243.

Blue Dot is pretty slow by comparison.

I wouldn't worry about detonation.

If I may ask, why are you wanting to do this? There are easier ways to slug your barrel if that's your objective.

I just wanted to get a few bullets that have the rifeling engraved on them but no damage to the tips, is that called slugging? If so what are some easier ways?

No, that's not slugging, Furor. Try the Unique if you want some engraved bullets. Keep in mind the sand will "etch" the bullets somewhat when you fire into it.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you will push the bullets down the barrel with a cleaning rod. You cannot imagine the actual force required to get a jacketed bullet down a barrel from A to B.

When you do this, make DAMN SURE the bullet exits the barrel.

I also have some bullseye powder. I know thats faster than the unique, would it work better for this application than the blue dot? I dont want to have to purchase powder especially for this little experiment.

I have tested Blue Dot down to 5 % of total case capacity and it works in getting the bullet down the barrel.

However my recommendation would be to try 10% for that margin of safety. To find out what the case capacity just fill it until it overflows the case and then measure it, on your scale.
That is what I refer to as case capacity.

The 243 should hold about 40 grains of blue dot, so I recommend 4 or 5 grains.

I don't have any notes handy for the 338 Mag.

Good luck, and I hope you accomplish whatever it is your are attempting to accomplish.

Cheers,
seafire

I just want to see what my rifling looks like on the bullet is all. When the bullets are shot at full velocity I never am able to find them and if I do they are usually so damaged they are just about worthless. If I get it to work I will snap a few pics and post them. Have you cronod a 243 with like 5 grains of blue dot? Ideally I would like to recover the bullets undamaged or as close to it as possible.

I don't know where you live but if you live some place it snows just wat for winter and shoot them into a big snow bank then pick them off the ground in the spring. I have recover many a bullet this way that look like they could be shot again. Even from full power loads.

How about an 8ft. deep swimming pool with those recommended reduced loads. deeper if you are nervous. roger

I tried them in sand. loaded from .4 grams of blue dot down to .2 grams in .05 gram increments. .4 worked fine but after that they bullets started sticking in the bores. I would probably go with .5 grams if you are wary. They bullets were easy enough to get out, I just loaded a case with 1 gram of blue dot for the 243 and 1.5 grams of blue dot for the 338, plugged the opening with a wad of toilet paper and fired it, popped those stuck ones right out. One thing was kind of interesting, when the bullets stuck, on the 338 the pressure must have leaked out, but on the 243 when I opened the bolt it sounded like when you open a soda with the gas escaping. It held the pressure in, or some of it at least.

I was going to put in my 2 cents, but I'm at a loss right now....

R U really using a GRAMM scale? They don't have one of these GRAEMlins scratching his head. roger

yeah I picked up a little gram pocket scale off ebay for like 30 bucks shipped. Its accurate enough for what I need, only thing that kind of sucks is the tare tends to wander a little so it needs to be retared occasionally. I created a conversion chart in excel that has all the grain to gram conversions up to 100 grains.

You think thats funny, I also preffer measuring in milimeters instead of inches, and I live in the US, how bass ackwards is that?

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yeah I picked up a little gram pocket scale off ebay for like 30 bucks shipped."

That great buy possibly could be an expensive trip to the hospital. A .1 gramm error by you or the scales resolution = 1.54grains. With fast powders this really could be a recipe for pain. 47 years ago I was trying to discern the difference between 3.4 gramms and 3.3 gramms. Been there screwed up. Spend what you must but get a good scale. The scale is the largest controlling piece of safety equipment in a hobby that will bit you hard in the ass if you don't use your head. roger

its accurate to .01 gram which is like 1/6 of a grain. I have some weights for it and they confirm that it is consistent. I hope I dont have a blowup, I wouldnt use it if it didnt seem to be accurate.