Blue Dot and the 41
Magnum
By Gunner
A few years ago I read an article by Paco Kelly about the 41 Magnum. In
it he stated if there ever was a powder and cartridge combination that
were made for each other it was the 41 Magnum and Blue Dot.
I always wondered if the combo would fill my needs for a 41 Magnum
powder! Would it give me the flexibility to load up or down to meet the
velocity range I wanted and do it with accuracy and a range of
different bullet weights and types. The only way to find out was to
test the combination.
First step in the planning the test was a guideline, to map out the
testing procedure and goals for the test. Next was research on loads,
starting and maximum charges with each bullet type/weight, I read
through a dozen reloading manuals and reference books and then searched
the Internet resources of bullet manufacturers for load information.
Once the loads with which bullet combos were decided, supplies were
gathered.
The biggest roadblock in the whole test happened before the first round
was loaded. How many rounds of each powder charge/bullet type should I
load for testing? What was the number of rounds needed for accurate
results? Doing more research, I combed through magazine articles for
answers. What I found was that most do not give the total round count
per load tested. So…when in doubt, go to the man himself and ask. In
this case that was John Taffin. In his “Taffin Tests” reports over the
years John always included a large number of loads per cartridge so I
asked him for guidance with this issue. His advice “load 5 to 10 rounds
per load”. The ones that showed good accuracy or promise were the ones
to work further with.
I decided 10 rounds of each load were enough to start with. This would
give me 5 for accuracy and 5 for velocity testing. A total of 410
rounds would be loaded for testing. I would load an extra 10 rounds of
the middle load from each type/weight for barrel fouling and setup. As
I began the reloading process the second problem came up. The RCBS
Uniflow powder measure would not throw accurate charges of Blue Dot!
Back to research again. After reading through reloading articles,
catalogs and internet sites for information to solve my problem I found
the answer; the Redding 10X powder measure. Designed for throwing
pistol charges very accurately, it worked well, but took a little more
concentration on my part to be consistent in throwing the charges.
Problem three; one of the bullets I choose, a lead SWC design, would
not chamber in the test gun. I tried a couple of different ways of
loading the bullet (more crimp, less crimp, and seating depth) in the
end I had to discard all 110 test rounds and pick a different style
lead bullet of the same weight. The driving band was too long, keeping
it from fully seating in the tight chamber. One third of my 41 Magnums
will not allow this bullet to seat in their chambers. I had this same
problem I had last year with the Leadhead 230gr Keith bullet.
When the test ammo loaded, test guns chosen and test result note sheets
made up, all I needed was some help shooting and a good day
weather-wise. I asked my silhouette shooting partner, Rich Deveydt, to
help out. I knew there was no way I could survive shooting over 400
rounds for groups and chronographing in the same day. I wanted to
eliminate weather becoming a factor if I had to complete the test over
several different days of testing. One bright Saturday morning Rich met
me at the range. I would do the group shooting and he would be
chronographing at the same time. He would keep track of the velocity
readings and noting anything weird or odd about the load. Four hours
later, all testing was finished. I had a pile of empty brass, a stack
of papers with notes, chronograph readings and 37 targets to study.
The test was simple and straightforward; I started with the lowest
charge of one bullet type and weight, shot 5 rounds for accuracy at 50
yards while Rich shot the other 5 rounds over the chronograph at 12
feet. We made notes, wrote down velocity readings, and then shot the
next charge weight. Every four groups we would change targets to give
the guns a chance to cool down some. After finishing all rounds of one
bullet type/weight, we cleaned the barrel of the guns, shot a few
fouling shots with the next type load and started over. The biggest
surprise at this point was the number of accurate groups I had on
paper. I had feared my shooting would degrade from shooting so many
groups at one sitting. The second surprise was the number of very good
groups on paper. And the third surprise was how bad the 210gr lead
bullet did. More on this later.
Test equipment
The gun used to shoot the groups was my 10” TC Contender with a 4X
Weaver scope. I shoot more accurately and consistently with this gun
than any other I own. The chrono gun would be a 7 ½” Ruger
Redhawk. The chrono was an F-1 Shooting Chrony. They are inexpensive,
easy to operate and accurate in their readings. The handgun rest I used
was a homemade wood rest with an adjustable height front and a sliding
butt rest. The final piece of equipment was my Arrow T-15 stapler. I
have owned it for over 20 years and it’s still going strong. Every
shooter needs a T-15 in their range box.
Load components
Bullets- Sierra 170 JHC
OAL 1.558”
Speer 210 Gold Dot
OAL 1.570”
D&J 210 lead truncated cone
OAL 1.620”
Cast Performance 255 WFNGC OAL
1.650”
Case- Starline
Primer- Winchester Large Pistol
All ammo was loaded on a RCBS Rock Chucker using a RCBS die set. The
cases were resized, primed/belled, charged, bullet seated and then
crimped. I feel the crimp is more consistent when crimping in a
separate operation then seating/crimping at one time. Which means I
pulled the Rock Chucker handle 1240 times, plus 410 times on the
Redding lever. I spaced the loading over a few days time to save my
shoulder some pain, but believe I got the best possible ammo using this
procedure.
Bullet
Load #
Grains Velocity
Spread Group Size
170 JHC 1
12.0
1360
65
1" (4 rds= 3/8")
2
12.5
1374
88
1.5" (4 rds=
7/8")
3
13.0
1400
25
15/16"
4
13.5
1433
71
2" (3 rds= 3/4")
5
14.0
1474
35
7/8" (4 rds= 1/2")
6
14.5
1515
23
1 11/16" (3 rds= 3/4")
7
15.0
1514
10
2 1/4"
8
15.5
1529
32
1 3/4" (3 rds= 1")
9
16.0
1557
54
1 3/4" (3 rds=
5/8")
210 GD
10 10.0
986
47
1 1/4" (4 rds= 5/8")
11
10.5
1059
57
1
1/8" (3 rds= 3/4")
12
11.0
1132
57
3/4"
13
11.5
1173
98
1
5/16 (4 rds= 5/8")
14
12.0
1233
75
1
9/16 (4 rds= 7/8")
15
12.5
1266
19
1
1/4" (3 rds= 5/8")
16
13.0
1325
26
1
1/16" (3 rds= 7/8")
17
13.5 1369
16
1
5/16" (3 rds= 3/4")
18
14.0 1387
10
1
11/16" (3 rds= 11/16")
210 LTC 19
10.0
999
74
3.5" (3 rds=
1.25")
20
10.5
1053
41
2 5/16" (3
rds= 7/8')
21
11.0
1102
92
4" (3 rds= 1
5/8")
22
11.5
1163
97
5 1/8" (3 rds=
2.75")
23
12.0
1241
50
6 7/16"
24
12.5
1241
52
6 7/16"
25
13.0
1338
58
6 3/4"
26
13.5
1373
76
3 3/4"
27
14.0
1422
50
6.5"
28
14.5
1458
66
7 1/8"
29
15.0
1493
33
2 1/16" (3
rds= 3/4")
255 WFNGC 30
10.0
1048
86
2" (3 rds= 1")
31
10.5
1091
67
2 1/8" (3 rds=
7/8")
32
11.0
1129
49
1 3/4" (3 rds=
7/8")
33
11.5
1196
45
1 3/16 (3 rds=
5/8")
34
12.0
1252
53
1.5" (3 rds=
3/8")
35
12.5
1270
23
1 3/4"
36
13.0
1303
103
2 1/8" (3 rds= 7/8")
37
13.5
1365
40
2 3/8" (3 rds=
7/8")
Weather conditions- Partly sunny, 78 degrees with a cool breeze.
WARNING-all load data is for
information purposes only, use at your own risk!
Group Notes
Stringing, some groups showed a vertical stringing effect. This may
have been caused by too much downward pressure on the grip of the TC
Contender which will happen with long barreled single shot handguns. My
6.5 TCU 14” barrel will do ½” groups at 100 yards, but will do
2-3” groups with hard contact with the grip during recoil. I’ve just
never seen it happen with a heavy 10” barrel before though.
Load #1- 4 rounds went into a single hole with the 5th shot .3 inch to
the left.
Load #3- 5 shots look like a clover leaf, one big ragged hole.
Load #5- looked like load #1, but tighter group.
Load #10- 4 shots almost touching, pulled shot #3 low to open the group
to 1.25”
Load #12- wow, great group.
Load #34- 3 rounds in one hole, most accurate of the heavy bullet loads.
The jacketed bullet groups raised position on the target as velocity
increased, especially with the 170 JHC.
The 255 WFNGC groups lowered on the target as velocity increased,
moving 5 inches across the target.
The LTC bullet groups grew in size as velocity increased until they
looked like shotgun patterns instead handgun groups. That is until the
last load, #29, which shrank to 2 1/16” from 7”+ of load #28.
Definitely goes in the weird category.
The 170 and 210 jacketed bullets were the most accurate overall, and
the 210 LTC the worst.
So do the results show that Blue Dot is the best powder for the 41
Magnum? The answer is no or is it yes? The results with the jacketed
bullets were great, with the 255 WFNGC good, with the 210 LTC terrible.
The LTC may just not like Blue Dot, or is just a bad bullet and/or
design. This test only showed what Blue Dot could do with the bullets
in this test. To truly answer the question a test would have to be done
using more bullet type/designs and compared to other powders at the
same time. The only sure thing Blue Dot proved is that you can get
great to good accuracy in a wide velocity range with certain bullets.
