Short Ten Blue Dot Load: Test Results
 

I just received test results for a Blue Dot waterfowl load (using bismuth). The load has: (1) a 10 gauge Remington (green) hull (cut to 2 7/8''); (2) a Winchester 209 primer; (3) 35.0 grains of Blue Dot; (4) an SP-10 wad; (5) 1/4'' 16 gauge fiber filler in the wad cup; (6) 1.25 ounces of #4 bismuth; and (7) a 6 point fold crimp. The average velocity was 1143 fps and the average pressure was 6317 psi.

i use blue dot in all my duck, goose and turkey loads.
thanks for the info

Thanks. I've got everything to make these. But were the powder charges weighed or just dropped from a reloader? Lots of differences in the velocity is why I ask, up to 200 fps.

Each load was hand weighed (powder and shot), not metered. Green Dot showed better consistency than Blue Dot, but Blue Dot is clearly much lower pressure.

-Victor

Victor did you get a clean burn with the Blue Dot load ? By clean I don't mean perfect just reasonably clean

William

I have not yet shot this Blue Dot load (or any Blue Dot load for that matter). Was looking at the powder burn rate chart, saw Blue Dot was slow, happened to have an unopened can, so decided to send in a load for an initial test. Plan to explore Blue Dot a bit more when have the time.

-Victor

Thank you Victor for sharing this and other short ten load data. It's useful and valuable information in keeping the 2 7/8" 10ga going. Most of the powders used by Sherman Bell are now out of production, having information like this for powders that are available on the shelf today is gold. Thanks again.

thanks for another set of loads to chose from

the short ten loads that you boys had tested is great news for all of short ten shooters...thanks charlie

The inconsistency in that load is because Bluedot is not the right powder for that load combination . A primer change to a Fed209a or CCImag may help straighten things out but will increase the pressure some .

I suspect that Longshot or 800x would work better and still keep the pressures down .

Just when I things where looking good. I would love a good bismuth load for my parker 10

Doowah

there are bismuth loads in the 10ga spread sheet - some use longshot which is available

My question would be is could lead be substituted for bismuth equally for clay shooting or upland use and still maintain the same pressures? Might have to adjust the wad column to make up for the difference in shot density, but that may be minor. Thoughts?

no

absolutely not a straight swap

I figured such. I do have nice target crushing load data for the short 10, however, my supply of 7625 will not last forever and I'm always looking for other choices for all my reloads.

Mike

have you looked the spread sheet in the sticky on this forum?

there is no shortage of lead target loads in there that use available powders

And Craig posted some lead loads made up with red dot

i expect that replacing bismuth with lead would end up with less pressure - but i am not an adventurous loader- i like tested data

Blue Dot is way too slow for the light shot loads that the original poster mentioned. 1 1/4 ounce ten gauge loads are better served with Unique or another powder faster than Blue Dot.