• Winner! Quick Shot Challenge: What’s the dumbest shooting myth you’ve heard?

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new to the forum

destroyer_85_golf

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Minuteman
Jul 8, 2013
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Hillsdale Illinois
Hello everyone I'm new to this forum, I've been reloading for a couple of years for my .308 and smith and Wesson 500 mag. great site and can't wait to get yelled at by the wife for spending to much time on here reading! also if anyone could point me in the direction of some blue dot loads in .308 I would be greatly appreciative !!
 
Welcome to the forums, hope you enjoy yourself.
I know there are loads floating around out there using Blue Dot in rifle cartridges. I know a guy who used them in IHMSA. I highly recommend you leave that idea alone. If you are determined you could end up asking someone to point you to the emergency room...if you are lucky.
 
I have already worked up about 20 rounds and shot with good accuracy about .60 inch groups at 75 yards, just interested in seeing what everyone else was doing. I think I will start looking at trail boss for the reduced loads. thanks for the input though!
 
I have a savage model 10 in .308 and I'm trying to work up some plinker rounds to work on the basics of marksmanship and to let my 9 year old brother shoot them. I would be interested in any info I can get, I was using blue dot because I had it laying around and found a few people online who were loading it in the .308 and 30-06 with good results. I have heard plenty of people discredit it, but all for different reasons. the one I heard most was position sensitivity. I let a buddy shoot 5 rounds of it after I shot the first batch, as I was watching in the spotting scope, you could actually see the bullet on it's way to the target.
 
I think he's trying to tell you that it is a inappropriate choice, not that somebody somewhere has used it and lived to tell about it.

Generally speaking, Blue Dot is considered a suitable choice for some handguns. I have been around a long time and have never heard of somebody loading a 308 with Blue Dot unless, (perhaps) when fireforming cases for use in a wildcat.

So, in the first place, most people understand that the place to start is with published data. In this case, you decided to work up a load with no data whatsoever. I am not surprised that you had difficulty in locating application data for 308 using Blue Dot, and further noting that the bullet used, has not been identified.

Two years is a relatively short history, as far as handloading experience. You should probably be careful using fast burning powder in a large case with no data, but the question I have is why? Is it because you use Blue Dot in your S&W500, or maybe because you happen to have it on hand? BB
 
BB and I resemble that statement :) But now I see we are loveable assholes.
Sorry Destroyer I forgot to look up that data when I got home from work this morning. I will get it on here I promise.
Welcome to the hide - lots of learning offered up here.
And if you ask my kids, I'm just an asshole. But rules is rules.

If you can see the bullet fly, you're doing ~1100 fps or less. Short end of the story, you're not doing yourself any benefit but wasting slugs at 15¢-30¢ a pop.
Recommend getting a cricket or something for your little brother so he masters iron sights and the like. Then move him up to your properly loaded 308.
 
Sigh. My apology, for assuming our members have survived boot camp, and have therefore been exposed to unvarnished truth without respect for their delicate sensibilities. Sorry destroyer, no offense intended. BB
 
If you want to use those low and slow loads, really consider cast bullets, yours or purchased. Going slow like that means that it is possible, if not probable, that you'll eventually stick a bullet in the barrel. Not too difficult to tap a cast bullet out...jacketed bullets can be damn near impossible to get out without harming your barrel. And if one sticks, and you don't realize it, a jacketed bullet fired into a already jammed bullet can ruin your barrel. Having said that, I've killed a few deer with the 110 grain Carbine bullet ahead of 12 grains of Unique. Quiet, and no real recoil. Your Blue Dot should work at about the same charge. JMHO
 
first off, I have survived boot camp and two deployments. So you are going to have to try a little harder than that to hurt my feelings!! second, There was published load data in many calibers, I cant find my notes I took but I think it was a lyman book??? not sure on that one. My brother has a cricket my dad and I got it for him on his fifth birthday!! He shoots my 17HM2 very well and I figured it was time to let him shoot one of the " big guns ". I do appreciate all the input I am willing to take advice, if I thought I knew everything I wouldn't be here. I was shooting 13.5 grains behind a 130grn nosler. it was shooting about .60 inch group at 75 yards. but the drop when i stepped back to 125 was almost unacceptable. I will have to look in my book but i don't think my hornady book shows any 500 magnum loads with blue dot. it also gives no load data for the 700 grain cast bullets that I should be receiving any time !!
 
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