Blue Dot loads, revisited
 

I had a chance to load up Rocky's .223 Blue Dot load this week. I used 45 gr. Remington HP bullets with 11 gr. of Blue Dot. They worked as advertised - nice, tolerable muzzle blast, and they have excellent "whompability*" on the local jackrabbits! I am mostly wanting a "quiet" round, so I see no need to go hotter than 11 gr for this load. I'm shooting a T/C Contender .223 Rem Super 16 carbine barrel. Unfortunately I have no chronograph, so I don't have velocity data.

Here's my question (perhaps to Rocky): I have a few hundred 55 grain bullets (some FMJ and some PSP) I'd like to use with a similar load. I note that your testing only went up to 50 grain bullets. I was thinking of starting with 10 grains - do you think this would a good starting point, and can you think of any safety issues using a 55 grain bullet with Blue Dot? In general, how small a charge can you go with Blue Dot before some trouble appears?

Thanks!

* thanks to another HuntChat poster for this excellent word...

Riff, my goal was to suplicate a Hornet or Bee load in the 223. Since those two rounds usually don't use bullets heavier than 50 grains, that's as high as I went.

There are two issues with heavier bullets: one is the obvious pressure increase you noted, and two is the stability of the bullet.

Eleven grains of Blue Dot should work just fine in the 223 (pressure-wise) with 55s. But the velocity might be low enough that bullet stability would be marginal. Only some testing would show the answer.

Rocky, I use 10 gr. of Blue Dot behind 55 grainers for my kid's trainer loads, no problems whatsoever. I haven't looked up the velocity, but it's a little over 2000 fps, IIRC. HTH, Dutch.

Thanks, gents. I've put together some 10 grain loads with 55gr FMJ's to try tomorrow...

Good shooting!