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45 ACP and Bluedot Issue

Everything has been fine with my 45 reloads until I tried to shoot the Blue Dot.
I will agree that more crimp is in order, the brass has been loaded many, many times, so we will be shooting some factory Remington up to get once fired brass.

Yes, I have a good assortment of powders, Bullseye, Red Dot, Unique, W 231, Autocomp, so there is no reason the be using the Blue Dot in the .45.
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Everything has been fine with my 45 reloads until I tried to shoot the Blue Dot.
I will agree that more crimp is in order, the brass has been loaded many, many times, so we will be shooting some factory Remington up to get once fired brass.

Yes, I have a good assortment of powders, Bullseye, Red Dot, Unique, W 231, Autocomp, so there is no reason the be using the Blue Dot in the .45.
Remington and TZZ are my go to brass brands. However they also have the thinnest walls by .002-.003. A tighter than normal crimp is warranted.

Since you have some Bullseye, the standard factory hardball reload replacement with jacketed 230 gr was 5.0 gr. I shot hundreds of these with Sierra 230's when I was still chasing Distinguished points.

Good luck.
Al
 
Have you tried this same canister of Bluedot in another cartridge, I have old !!! powder that is still good and some relatively new powder go bad, Poured out my share in the last 50 years of reloading, I have 10 pounds of HS-7 that I bought 15 years ago that was 20 years old then still works as expected every time , Anything questionable age wise gets a quick sniff test
 
Worked in S&W 645. Use 200gr lswc, 10gr BD, WLP, range brass.
Did put a kink in the recoil spring.

A 1911 type gun would need a heavier recoil spring for a 10 gr loading.
I would never fire a load this Hot in MY Colt Gold Cup 70.
20250102_111853.jpg
 
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I only shot the 45 ACP for a few years with reloads as a civilian, more with Factory Winchester Target Master on an Army Pistol Post Team.

But I found 231 to be outstanding accuracy and performance wise, creating sharp and reliable slide functioning.

The only time I ever used Blue Dot was in the late 80's in the 357 Magnum but was never impressed with it accuracy wise, not like 2400 in full power loads or 231 for mild target loads.

The Lyman (47th Edition) has load data for Blue Dot for the 45 ACP for bullets 185 to 230 grain. Lyman does a good job of testing their data, so I suspect it is a viable powder for this cartridge. However, they recommend Bullseye, 231, and Unique as their preferred powders for this cartridge.

Your functioning problem may be due to something other than Blue Dot. Since you have 231 on hand, why not try it and either rule out / in Blue Dot as the cause agent of your malfunctions.
 
Back during my "more velocity" phase, I fiddled around with Blue Dot quite a bit in .45 with 230's. It is notoriously finicky. I (and much of the internet) found it best at the upper end of the range. But a quarter grain in either direction and it gets weird with velocity swings, inaccuracy, etc. Great when you get it figured out but I gave up and went to N320. I have no need for 950fps even in my self defense loads.
 
I generally do load Bullseye, 5.0 or 5.2 or W231, so I doubt I will be using Blue Dot in the .45, probably load up some 10mm with it.

I did take a box of the Blue Dot loads, increased the crimp, which might be a contributor to this problem. But when we were shooting New Years Eve, after shooting the first shot of the Blue Dot load a factory Remington round would not chamber.
 

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