Alliant Powder (Blue Dot) Safety Notice

[308Mike]

From the October 2008 American Rifleman, page 24:

Alliant Powder Safety Notice

During a periodic review of published reloading data, Alliant Powder discovered that its Blue Dot should not be used in the following applications:

1) the .357 Mag load with 125-gr. projectiles (Blue Dot recipes with heavier bullet weights as specified in Alliant Powders Reloading Guide are acceptable for use);

2) .41 Mag cartridge (all loads).

Use of Blue Dot in the aforementioned cases may cause a high-pressure situation that could cause property damage and serious personal injury.

[mekender]

thanks, cross posted at carolinashootersforum.com

[Combat Controller]

huh, been using it with 158 gr and 135 gr loads. Thought they were snappy...

[Erik]

Maybe this is a stupid question, since all I know about reloading is what I've read online and seen on YouTube, but how is it possible to make mistakes like this?

When a company like this give out table with different loading data, do they just do some kind of math to get the numbers? Don't they actually try out the loads?
I'd thought it would be more or less impossible to get such numbers without actually trying it (to confirm if nothing else) and if they tried it, you'd think someone would notice.
Or is it just that it seemed ok, but people have been complaining so they reviewed the data?

[Aegis]

Maybe this is a stupid question, since all I know about reloading is what I've read online and seen on YouTube, but how is it possible to make mistakes like this?

When a company like this give out table with different loading data, do they just do some kind of math to get the numbers? Don't they actually try out the loads?
I'd thought it would be more or less impossible to get such numbers without actually trying it (to confirm if nothing else) and if they tried it, you'd think someone would notice.
Or is it just that it seemed ok, but people have been complaining so they reviewed the data?

Might just have been a simple typo by the people writing the manual.

[mekender]

real world and lab testing can also produce drastically different results.

[Netpackrat]

Also, something that may have seemed like a safe load in the past, might have proven not to be when re-tested with modern pressure sensing equipment.

[First Shirt]

Wow! Sometimes it pays to be old-school. I don't use Blue Dot for anything but .45 ACP;

The .357 and .41 Mags get a steady diet of 2400.

[mousegun]

Blue Dot has long been known to be a bit peaky in nature. If you'll note, Alliant reshot their data with Speer bullets exclusively. Of course, that also means that they had to lawer up a lot of loads because of the Gold Dot bullets. Gold Dots and Unicor are Plated Bullets. Why they have load data for 357 110 bullets I don't know but I find it strange that the only loads they had issues with are 357 125 gr. and 41 mag 200/210 gr.
As many of you are aware, plated bullets require that you down load a bit due to the soft center compared to jacketed bullets.
I also find it a bit odd that they have culled out all data for Red and Green Dot as well as Herco. Your choices are Bullseye, Unique, 2400, and occasionally, Blue Dot, American Select, and Power Pistol. Kinda makes me wonder.