Is there a powder that is equal (or close ) to Blue dot , but cleaner burning?

81 AA-7
82 HS-7

83 Blue Dot

84 N-105
85 W-571

Steve,
Have you found through all your testing , that any of those powders burn cleaner than Blue-Dot? Thanks

"Clean burning" totally depends on what you are loading. Blue Dot, in a shotgun load, is "dirty", but in a over-max (+P+) 9mm load it is "clean".

The powders I listed have the same approximate burning characteristics as Blue dot.

I agree - Blue Dot is pretty clean when you load hot and dirty when pressure is low.

One powder you might want to consider in Hodgdon's new Longshot. I have had very good results with it so far in 38 Spec. + P, 357 Mag., and heavy 45 Colt loads.

Hodgdon's annual manual #1 doesn't have data for Longshot, but if you call them they will send you the supplement with plenty of data.

Good Luck,
Mark in GA

[ 11-19-2003, 20:41: Message edited by: Mark in GA ]

I have heard others state Blue Dot is a dirty powder, however loading it in 223 rifles and a 444 Marlin and a 45 Long colt revolver, I have not experienced this at all.

I load the rifles down to 4 grains of Blue dot with a 55 grain FMJ for a subsonic load and it is not dirty burning in the barrel at all ( 24 and 26 inch barrels.)

Just my experience with it.

Jim - What are you loading? I use Blue Dot a fair amount for medium-warm 357 Mag and 45 Colt loads, which are in the low-pressure category, I'd guess, and had a lot of unburned flakes left over all the time. A switch from standard to magnum primers cleaned that up.

R-WEST

Dirty? Does it matter? The next shot will sweep those flakes out. The only exception I can think of is autoloading shotguns. With heavy loads using blue dot you can gum up your Remington 1100 in a couple of hundred rouunds. Maybe look for a ball powder load??

Scot - When firing a revolver, if enough of them accumulate around the front of the cylinder, it will eventually gum everything up.

R-WEST

Yeah, it can jam up bolt lug recesses and other things mechanically if you get a lot of unburned powder spilling into an action. No problem for following bullets, though.

Accurate Arms #7