By Joe Berk
I recently happened into an 8-pound container of Red Dot propellant, something I had never used before. Powders had been hard to find for the last few years, so I jumped when I saw the Red Dot (not knowing what I would use it for). I knew that Red Dot is a good shotgun powder (Dad was a world class trapshooter and he used it), and I also knew it could be used for pistol cartridges. That was the extent of my knowledge, so I started researching this old school propellant.
What I learned about Red Dot was interesting. The Hercules powder company first released Red Dot in 1932, and it was primarily intended to be a shotshell powder for trap and skeet shooters. It’s a flake powder and it’s distinguishable by the red-dyed flakes mixed in with the black ones. It’s been updated at least a couple of times (one of the updates was to make it burn cleaner), but its kept its place as a relatively fast powder with a burn rate just slightly slower than Bullseye. For that reason, it also makes a great pistol powder, and most load manuals include recipes for practically everything from .25 ACP up to .45 Colt. I’m going to try it in .38 Special and .45 ACP, and maybe .44 Special. I think I can use it my old Star reloader, which is set up to throw 2.7 grains of Bullseye. I’ll check that out at some point in the future.
It turns out that among rifle cast bullet shooters (a space I inhabit), Red Dot is a preferred powder, so much so that 13.0 grains of it is informally (and apparently widely) known simply as “The Load.” The conventional wisdom is that 13.0 grains of Red Dot behind any cast bullet in any .30 caliber rifle (.308, .30 06, 7.62×54 Russian, 7.65 Belgian, .303 British, and more), the .375 H&H, and the .45 70 is a reliable and accurate load. With my 8-pound bottle of Red Dot and “The Load” (i..e, 13.0 grains of Red Dot), I should be good for something north of 4,307 rounds. That should keep me busy for a while. I’ll be playing with cast loads using “The Load” in a Mosin-Nagant, a Springfield 1903, a Modelo 1909 Argentinean Mauser, and probably the .45 70. When I do, I’ll share the results here.
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