Blue Dot and .45 ACP

[JagerDog]

BD, while rather inefficient (amount of powder required for velocity X) works just fine. I've loaded up quite a few for my carbine which can make better use of the slow powder. My carbine specific loads are now Unique.

[Sunday]

Sometimes a powder may not be exactly Ideal but if it works run it. I use 231 in all my handgun loads some calibers its ideal some not so ideal but that is what I have so that is what I run. So I only have one powder to worry about.

[sjg1966]

I've been using Blue Dot for 9mm, and I too have heard it's good in 45acp, which I plan to try with 185s and 200s soon....

[Thanatos2203]

I know this is incredibly overdue, but I've been busy changing jobs and work in general and haven't had much opportunity to get to the range until yesterday. For those still interested, I did about twenty rounds of each load in .5 grain increments from 10.5 to 9 grains at about 1.22-1.23". The weapon was still a 4" XD-45, it should be noted that I am running a Canyon Creek stainless steel guide rod with a #22 1911 style flatwire spring. I apologize again that I do not have a chronograph so this is all based on "feel" and there isn't a lot of scientific data to be had here. I was in a rush and didn't give it the amount of time and finesse it perhaps deserved. I was also shooting fast enough that I thought the range master was going to come over and yell at me.

10.5 Grains: This was overkill. It knocked my Inforce APL off my gun and broke the LED mechanism so it was lying there flickering down range until I could pick it up at cease fire. This is already my second APL so my recommendation is don't buy them, they are junk unless you are shooting 9mm. This load was fun to shoot but recoil was heavy and I had several problems with reliability/functionality having to eject the mag and reload rounds. This could have been partially my XD's fault. Maybe with a 230+ gr bullet this would be a more suitable option but for the 185 it was too much.

10 grain: Still tough but noticeably lighter than the 10.5 grain, I would say it was a little heavier on the recoil than the factory 230 grain target loads I had been shooting. The function issues I had on the larger powder load were reduced but I still had one spot of trouble with a single round.

9.5 Grains: This was the happy medium for me and I am planning on making future loads around this weight. It was the right combination of recoil and function while still allowing me to stay consistent and on target. I had no problem with any of the rounds and recoil was slightly less than the 230 grain FMJ's I used as a baseline.

9 Grains: Perhaps by this point anything felt light, but I felt like shooting a 9mm load. Recoil was very light, making control-ability an easy task. I did have another function issue with one of the rounds but that was it. Overall I felt like this was too light of a set up.

Conclusion: My unscientific conclusion is that in a 4" platform like mine, when loading Blue Dot in 185 grain .45's the best place to start would be around 9.5 grains. Depending on platform, barrel length, primers, etc obviously that could change. For those looking to start their own load that would be the place to start. My experience had mixed levels of reliability which I did not experience with factory ammo so I must go back and make more extensive tests to determine long term usefulness of Blue Dot in a .45 load.

Thank you for reading and all your help!

[JagerDog]

9-9.5 is what the book calls for. Not sure why you worked up high unless you're trying for +p.

[ThatFishGuy]

I've tried some blue dot loads for my 45 as well. Like others, I have other powders that work better, but it's all I had on hand at the time and the loads we're just fine. I'd give you my data but I was using 200gr bullets.

[Thanatos2203]

9-9.5 is what the book calls for. Not sure why you worked up high unless you're trying for +p.

I was going off the "Ken Waters" recommendation from above regarding the accuracy of 10.5 under a 185gr bullet. Think it was pretty clear that there was no one book answer for my question so I wanted to try everything and see for myself what worked and what I liked.