With the primer and powder shortages most of us are facing, I imagine it is pretty common to resort to powders we don't normally use for certain calibers and loads. My normal load for a 180 grain tek-coated 40 S&W load uses Bullseye. However, since I shoot way more 9mm loads than 40's, I decided to conserve my Bullseye and seek another load for the 40's I shoot. I had a can of Blue Dot that I've had for a long, long time, so I looked up a load in 40 and sure enough, Alliant published a load calling for a maximum of 8.9 grains of Blue Dot over a 180 grain bullet.
I use a LEE turret press with the auto-powder drop. It calls for a .71 cavity to drop 8.2 grains of Blue Dot, so I figured that would be a good place to start. I put it in my powder drop and it only dropped 7.0 grains, which was a bit surprising that it was that far off. But what the heck, I loaded up five rounds with the 7.0 grains and picked up my Springfield Armory EMP 40, which I thought would have the strongest spring (and therefore be the most likely to FTF) of any of my other 40's (a S&W Shield, Glock 22 and FN FNS) .
I honestly didn't think the "light load" would eject the rounds properly. Holy moly, was I wrong! I shot the five rounds and honest to goodness, the recoil was worse than a full bore 45 ACP hardball. "Snappy" ain't the word for it. I shot five rounds in each of my other 40 S&W's and they all felt very heavy.
While there weren't any signs of overpressure such as flattened primers, I can't imagine what 8.9 grains of that powder would do!! I dang sure don't want to find out either. I have a call in to Alliant, but I was wondering if any reloaders out there on TFL might have any thoughts on this?
I use a LEE turret press with the auto-powder drop. It calls for a .71 cavity to drop 8.2 grains of Blue Dot, so I figured that would be a good place to start. I put it in my powder drop and it only dropped 7.0 grains, which was a bit surprising that it was that far off. But what the heck, I loaded up five rounds with the 7.0 grains and picked up my Springfield Armory EMP 40, which I thought would have the strongest spring (and therefore be the most likely to FTF) of any of my other 40's (a S&W Shield, Glock 22 and FN FNS) .
I honestly didn't think the "light load" would eject the rounds properly. Holy moly, was I wrong! I shot the five rounds and honest to goodness, the recoil was worse than a full bore 45 ACP hardball. "Snappy" ain't the word for it. I shot five rounds in each of my other 40 S&W's and they all felt very heavy.
While there weren't any signs of overpressure such as flattened primers, I can't imagine what 8.9 grains of that powder would do!! I dang sure don't want to find out either. I have a call in to Alliant, but I was wondering if any reloaders out there on TFL might have any thoughts on this?