So we should take loading advice only from nameless, faceless people on internet forums, such as yourself, rather than those who make their living developing load data? I'll pass.
To answer the OP, I very much trust any data published in Rifle and Handloader magazines and the load you state should be fine.
You bring out a very interesting issue: Just how much trust should one have in profit maximizing corporations? Should they have our complete and utter trust?. Are they to be given 100 % trust, or should we have somewhat less faith and trust in the words of these entities. Gun Magazines are profit maximizing corporations. So, just how trustworthy are they? And do they provide full and complete product information?
Here is a recent example of a profit maximizing corporation not providing full and complete information on their product:
Volkswagen Engineers are so virtuous that they sprout Angelic wings!
I am of the opinion that Gun magazines are not independent or objective, rather, they are media for Corporate advertizing bureaus. A yearly subscription (six issues) of Rifle is $19.97. I rather doubt that subscriptions pay the full cost of the magazine, instead, the majority cost is covered by Corporate advertisers. When these guys pay the remainder of the cost of putting a magazine out, you can expect they make certain editorial demands on article content. I have zero faith that there are any barriers between the articles and Corporate marketing departments. If you the reader, have never figured out the product placements in the articles, then you must not aware of the media saturation that exists all around you. To the subscriber, Gun magazines provide enjoyable entertainment. As long are you understand that there is advertising masquerading as content then you understand their game.
As such, I have a certain level of skepticism when evaluating Gun Magazine recommendations. While the data may be “safe”, I don’t believe that their recommendations are optimal. Based on my data, I am convinced that Blue Dot is a poor choice for the 45 LC. I trust my data. I have put out in the public domain the average velocity, the extreme spreads, standard deviations, and the number of shots fired. I was satisfied with my data strings enough to provide what I consider to be, an informed opinion. I also am of the opinion, that given the number of posters who have less than stellar recommendations, that Blue Dot is not a good recommendation.
As for trusting Gunwriters on technical matters, which apparently you do, just what are the qualification of gunwriters? Is there an industry standard, such as certifying boards, educational requirements? I am not aware of any. Based on what I have read, no current Gunwriter has a technical degree. I have not read one claim that he/she has a degree in Math, Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, etc. How many Professional Engineers are or were Gunwriters? The very best of the bunch have Literature or Journalism Degrees. None of the them actually work at a ammunition plant or manufacturing plant. A large majority of them seem to have their jobs because they enforced justice with a gun on their hip. Or they kill things in entertaining prose. Why should I consider them authorities on much of anything beyond killing creatures and men?
Is the reason you take their recommendations seriously because of their Celebrity status? It is amazing how people consider so highly the choices of Celebrities. These celebrities don’t even have to be alive. I recently saw a 007 movie and the brand of the watch James Bond was given was predominantly displayed. If you don't know, this is called product placement. It is an ad. A percentage of people will rush out to the store to buy that watch, because a fictional character wore that watch in a movie they saw. I recently saw a perfume ad. The post mortem career of Elizabeth Taylor is doing quite well. She is selling lots of perfume. Amazing how many people take seriously the recommendations of a dead woman. But she is a Celebrity. People join Scientology because Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. Within the shooting community, gunwriters have a high celebrity status. While I consider their technical background slight to non existent, because these guys are celebrities, their star crossed fans take these guys very seriously. But, how do you know that the Blue Dot recommendations in gun magazines are there because of the merit of the load, or are there because it is a product placement? Given the paucity of information gunwriters put out, averages and three shot groups, their data is not extensive enough to sort out good from bad recommendations. I think that is deliberate. And when I go out and test, in my guns, over my chronograph, what learn is that I would not recommend their loads to anyone who was looking for a good load, never mind “the best”.
I loaded Blue Dot in a recently acquired 5 1/2" Uberti Bisley in 45 Colt. I'd never used it before in that caliber, but upon reviewing load data found it seemed to strike a nice balance between Unique and 2400, two of my favorites. I tried one load and never had to look further. 13.0 grs. of Blue Dot, a Wolf LP primer and a 265 gr. SWC bullet cast from an RCBS 45-255 mould. Velocity averaged 986 fps. Extreme spread was.....what difference does it make? The load consistently grouped 4" - 6" @ 50 yds. when fired from a seated, back rested position. Being as this revolver was to be my primary deer hunting iron this season, I fired lots of this load, and was/am extremely confident in it. I would've used it for deer, but I was bound and determined to kill one with a cast HP. In fact the bullet I used was cast from a mould that duplicates the bullet in the OP. Worked like a charm!
Statements like the above just show the failure of the American public education system. Back in the day of Deming, Total Quality Management, I read
Guide to Quality Control by Karoru Ishikawa. I did not read the original in Japanese, I am quite illiterate in Japanese, thankfully the text had been translated into English. But the original book was written for Japanese factory workers, guys who had the equivalent of high school educations. It was interesting to observe the statistics that Ishikawa put into his book. Terms like mean, median, mode, frequency, distribution, etc. There was one diagram that showed how data would form a normal distribution. Amazing that Japanese with only a primary school education could follow this, when it takes two years of College for an American to get to that level.
So, what do extreme spreads and standard deviations tell you that averages don’t: consistency. Averages do not provide any meaningful information about consistency. I suppose many remember Statistics class and the example of a person having one foot in an ice bucket and the other foot in a bucket of boiling water. The question to the class will be “is the average temperature in this situation meaningful?” It turns out, not really. Just how often does your bullet go 986 fps? I think that is a very meaningful question, and one that averages will not answer. Assuming that measured velocity follows a normal distribution, both the extreme spreads and standard deviations provide good measures of consistency and you can make predictions about just how often the bullet will actually go 986 fps.
Four to six inch groups are very good at 50 yards. How about shooting two inch groups at 50 yards, and do it offhand Bullseye style? The ten ring on the NRA Bullseye target is 2 inches in diameter at that distance. I have seen 97’s and 98’s shot by Master Class shooters, I am lucky to shoot in the 80’s slow fire. The top shooters have very consistent loads, they have to shoot tight groups at that distance. For them, consistency is important. I really like precision, predictability. Maybe it is obsessive compulsive behavior but I want accuracy, I want consistency, and I want the best choice, not just any choice.
And why should I take your nameless, faceless advice seriously? You proved that you could push a bullet out your barrel (something I don’t dispute) and you went out and killed something. If that is all you want, than you met your expectations. I want better. And should anyone trust me? Not a chance. What people should do is go out and test and then use their best judgment after evaluating their data. They should trust their test results over anyone’s authority. Gunwriters included.
