Red Dot! what to use instead!

Striker33

Striker33

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Hey guys,

I can't find red dot anywhere online or local, and I need to look at a replacement powder for 9mm, and cast lead 308. I had been using red dot very successfully, but now I need a replacement. I was looking at hodgdon universal. Does anyone have any experience with it in 9mm? I know people are using it with cast lead
 
The equally hard to find 2400 for rifle. For 9mm cast loads I'm using titegroup

Universal confuses me. I never know if the data means universal, universal clays, clays, or if its one and the same. I'm afraid to touch it... Hodgdon branding fail.
 
Unique will work well in both. I don't have a nine now but reloaded for a 39 Smith and a Luger in the past. Unique was the powder I used most. These were cast plinking loads.
Also used Unique with cast bullets in a FR7 until I moved on to 2400 and 4198.
 
Mark-II said:
The equally hard to find 2400 for rifle. For 9mm cast loads I'm using titegroup

Universal confuses me. I never know if the data means universal, universal clays, clays, or if its one and the same. I'm afraid to touch it... Hodgdon branding fail.
Click to expand...

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who feels that way. And that's unfortunate because I'm sure that I'm missing out on some good loads.
 
Striker33 said:
Hey guys,

I can't find red dot anywhere online or local, and I need to look at a replacement powder for 9mm, and cast lead 308. I had been using red dot very successfully, but now I need a replacement. I was looking at hodgdon universal. Does anyone have any experience with it in 9mm? I know people are using it with cast lead
Click to expand...

If you can find Alliant Promo it is a direct, weight for weight replacement for Red Dot. The best part is that it is also cheaper than Red Dot. The only down side is that if you're looking for small quantities it only comes in 8 pound kegs.

I use it in 9mm all the time. 3.5-3.8 gr. functions all my 9mm guns.
 
Armored Metal said:
I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who feels that way. And that's unfortunate because I'm sure that I'm missing out on some good loads.
Click to expand...

And I felt foolish for posting that. Phew!

I've not found out whether the clays powders are ball or flake either. I don't like running flake stuff through my measure - too inconsistent. Unique irritates the heck out of me, which is unfortunate since its so useful. If there's a ball or short stick powder available in the data for a given cartridge, that's what I go with.

Still I drove an hour to buy the last pound of red dot at a lgs just to try out the Harris load in some rifles.
 
Universal Clays, aka "Universal", is a flake-type powder, but I find it to meter well in my Dillon powder measure. It is functionally similar to Unique. I have used it successfully for 9mm with cast, plated, and jacketed bullets.

Clays is also flake, but is much faster burning.
 
Thanks for the info on Universal. I'll probably try it one day, especially. If I can't find my preferred powders.

Oddly enough, for Unique, I find my charge weights decrease as the powder continues to settle in the measure (Lyman 55).

For a progressive I use a lee press, and that auto disk measure is better with fine grained powder - that's the one that I run titegroup and bullseye through.
 
Rusty Wood in the sponsor forums has red dot in stock according to their website. $24/lb. They are pretty good to deal with, I have bought stuff from them a few times.
Kristian
 
I use Red Dot/Promo in rifle cast loads but I found that Green Dot and Blue Dot work very similarly to RD and difference in weight of charge is +/- 10% depending on cartridge.

Green Dot seems to be actually better in 7.62x54R than Red Dot.

Above note is working in RIFLES as I don't load for handguns so treat it accordingly.
 
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