Have a pound of Red Dot that I plan to use for .38 Special. Going to get a Hornady Single Stage press, and Hornady is offering 500 free bullets with purchase. But the Alliant manual only lists 148 grain and 158 grain bullets with Red Dot, and the free bullets are 110 grain HP HXP. Can these bullets be safely loaded with Red Dot?

Check at Handloads.com

They are showing a load for 110 gr. jacketed bullets & Red Dot.

Yes there are loads but the reason you don't see it much are that faster powders generally do better with big, slow bullets like a WC or SWC than a light, jacketed bullet that needs to get a higher velocity to work well.

I was once curious (before the internet) about using Bullseye with jacketed loads. The data wasn't real easy to find, but it is there. I had Unique powder as well but curious me just HAD to know how fast powders worked with fast, light bullets. It's nice to know I can make these loads if I want, but slower powders do much better.

Red Dot is a fast powder, equivalent in burn rate to Bullseye and usually listed as either just faster or just slower depending upon the charts publisher. As such it is good for target loads however if I was going to get 500 free jacketed bullets from Hornady I certainly wouldn't waste 20+ cents a piece JHP's putting holes in paper when I can get 8 cents a piece lead bullets that perform that function very well using Red Dot. Save the jacketed bullets to use with a slower powder to produce hunting or self defense loads. BTW you'd be better off with 125gr XTP's if you have that option than 110gr bullets which are very light for use in the .38 spl and .357 mag. The other option if you don't think you'd use all 500 jacketed "free" bullets for Self Defense or Hunting is see if you can find someone who would trade some of your XTP's for lead 148 or 158 gr bullets at 1 for 2 or better and save the rest for more important uses.

4 grs. red dot with 110jhp 1000fps on handloads.com

Thanks. I don't hunt and would never use reloads for self defense especially since I am just beginning. I plan to load 9mm also. I can get 500 115 grain instead. Better choice?

As for hand load.com, is it a reliable source or is it a place where people post their own recipes? Always been told to stick with published data.

Here's a link to an alliant reloading manual, it has red dot load data for most handgun calibers in it including a 110gr jacketed bullet for the 38spl.

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Fre...liant_2003.pdf

You did not state the length of your barrel......

Here is a picture of red dot in my snub nose with a 110 and 125 Jhp bullets.
Not the best accuracy, however the same load out of my 6" 686 at 15 yards averaged under one inch to 1.12" with a rest.

Learning how to use "Paint" on the PC.... excuse my "Dust".

4 inch barrel. Alliant just sent me the 2014 manual and it only lists 148 and 158 grain

That's why I posted a link to the 2003 alliant reloading manual, it has the same loads as the 2005 manual the the 2003 manual is easier to print/read. The next time alliant printed a manual was 2008 but they changed their format & were down to 4 bullets for the 38spl in thier 2008 manual.

The 2008 manual.

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Fre...liant_2008.pdf

The 2014 manual has 110gr bullets listed for the 38spl, just no red dot loads. You can cross reference the 2003 data with the 2014 data listed & see their loads data hasn't changed for the bullets they list.

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Fre...liant_2014.pdf