New love for Green Dot

[Tony k]

A few months ago I tested charge variance with a few powders in my Lee pro auto disk. Green Dot and the Pro auto disk was a bad combination, especially charges applicable to 380. Pretty significant bridging was the culprit.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/pistol-powder-variance-in-lee-auto-disk.821124/

I've since switched to the pro auto drum and found that I get less than .2 grain variance with Green Dot. I can now safely use it in .380 to throw a 2.9 grain charge. It is a really nice powder under a 100 grain Xtreme rnfp.

Alliant makes a lot of great pistol powders, and it's easy to overlook Green Dot. Give it a try, especially if you have an auto drum.

 

[joneb]

I am glad Green dot works for you.
I can not get large flake powders to throw consistently, which makes me nervous with so little case volume in the 380 acp.
The best powder I have found so far for 380 acp and 9x18 Mak is W-231.

 

[Tony k]

I am glad Green dot works for you.
I can not get large flake powders to throw consistently, which makes me nervous with so little case volume in the 380 acp.
The best powder I have found so far for 380 acp and 9x18 Mak is W-231.

I saw a few others--notably BDS--saying they like w231/hp38 in 380, and also seeing people say Green Dot produces similar results. https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-close-powders-under-different-labels.797388/

I found it to be a smooth, clean shooter that functions well at all the charges tested.

It was terrible in my pro auto disk, but good in my new pro auto drum.

 

[hdwhit]

Tony k wrote:
...it's easy to overlook Green Dot.

Yes, it is.

I got into reloading 9mm when I was given (what ultimately became) 991 rounds of fired brass. I didn't have dies. I didn't have a pistol to fire them from. But, I couldn't turn my back on hundreds of cute little cases begging to live again. But, because I didn't expect to load any more than those cases, I didn't want to spend more on the caliber than I had to.

I had several powders left over from the time before I was forced to stop reloading by a medical condition. Green Dot seems to be at the right place on the burn rate charts to produce a decent load and while data was not as readily available as it was for some other powders, it was out there.

Still, my 20+ year old Green Dot still smelled right and didn't have any brown in it, so I loaded up some rounds with a suggested starting load and went off to the range. The results were dismal. I was getting velocities on the chronograph that were only about 40% of what they should have been per the load data. Clearly the Green Dot had deteriorated and would need to be replaced. It was, in fact, the only one of my "legacy" powders from the 1970's and 1980's that had significantly deteriorated.

This was during the recent powder drought and when I went looking for powder, there was no Green Dot to be found, so I ended up with 800X and HP-38. By the time I once again saw Green Dot, I had all the 800X, HP-38 and Bullseye that I will need for the rest of my life and so passed it by. I still think it has a lot of potential in 380/9mm, but with my other powders, I longer wanted to invest the time in developing a load for it.

 

[Tinybob]

I have an old Lyman drum style powder thrower. With the right adjustment on the drum it will throw Trail Boss at +/- .2gr tolerance. It's a huge flake that looks like a doughnut.

 

[Dudedog]

Cool, glad the Lee drum measure is working out for you.
I really like AA#2 for .380. Flows thru meter like water
HP38/W231 flattened balls look big in comparison.

http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=34

http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=184

of course we know Green DOt is rather large flakes
http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=194

 

[Tony k]

Cool, glad the Lee drum measure is working out for you.
I really like AA#2 for .380. Flows thru meter like water
HP38/W231 flattened balls look big in comparison.

http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=34

http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=184

of course we know Green DOt is rather large flakes
http://www.ilrc.ucf.edu/powders/sample_detail.php?powder_id=194

Hey that's a cool website!