Picked up a 15 lb keg of Green dot yesterday. Have 1 manual that lists some data for .38 spcl, and .357 mag which I will try. My question is has anybody used it in the .41 mag ? I have a lot of cast 215 gr bullets and am out of unique.

I dont have access to all my manuals, but Lyman's 48th don't show it, but that really comes as no shock.
One of my old manuals shows a few loads for Green Dot in 44 specials.
I took this data and loaded some light 44 plinker loads, and was happy with the results.

I have shot 6 grains in 44 mag cases, and its a nice low recoil accurate loading.
Remember that its faster than Unique, more around the speed of red dot, and should be loaded accordingly.

Green dot is a very predictable, stable powder, and I have used it under cast lead in old military rifles as well.
Some where around 12 - 13 grains works well in most of the old rifles that I have tried it in.

I used to load GreenDot w/ 210gr cast SWC in the 41Mag. Model 57 4".
The load was out of a Speer reloading manual (Reloading Manual #8 ?)

I don't recall the load and won't guess at it. But it was a comfortable load to shoot as I remember.
Green Dot was a popular 'do it all' powder at the time and loads for the 44 & 41Mag. 45Colt and acp were listed in most resouces.
You should be able to find them with some searching.

I still use it to load 45Colt & 45acp w/ lead bullets and it's very accurate.
Makes a good light load powder for 20ga as well. 3/4oz loads.

Lever Gun Performance Studies



I’ve used his data for 45/70 and 308. Might be worth looking at

Here is a shot from an old Hercules pamphlet I have. Use at your own risk.

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Regards,

Tom

I have found that green dot in my 9mm and 38/358 light target loads, gets me very accurate target groups.

A 124 fmj in my one 5" 9mm pistol will do a NATO 1198fps with load data

and a 158 Lwc in my 686 6" across my chrony with load data reached 1281fps.

It should do well in your 41 Magnum, but you might only reach 97%
of a full factory load, with this faster burning powder, but you should get
nice target loads with the lead bullets.

Enjoy all that powder.

Once, and probably still, GD was “The” propellant for 20 gauge skeet loads. Back when I was loading a lot more 9mm than I do today, I always used GD only, as it seemed to perform the best (I was also loading a lot of 20 ga skeet loads at the same time). As it falls in the spectrum between Bullseye and Unique, it can certainly be used to make useful loadings for any handgun caliber you have. I think I may still have about a half-can of it.

The Lyman cast bullet handbook gives no GD recipes for the .41 Magnum, but I wouldn’t be afraid to use Unique data.

I came across this at an estate sale. It was still sealed and for $1 I could not pass it up. I have been trying to use up my older and partial cans of powder so was looking for data just last night. I went through 6 of my books and could not find it listed in any of them for 41. Here is what I found for 44sp. This is from the Speer 1979 10th edition book.

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"Tastes just like chicken"

Call Alliant and ask them.

Used an awful lot of that powder. Just remember the loads listed in the old Hercules pamphlets ARE max loads so definitely reduce at least 5%. It works fine in the 41 as long as you aren't looking for the absolute max loads. Works well in the 9mm from what I remember from the very little loading I did with the 9. I used the GD in 12,20 (and 28)ga skeet loads but discontinued when shooters were blowing 20 ga tubes by Briley and Kolar. The powder was shown to have unknown pressure spikes when they went to the Piezo pressure testing. I was using Remington 1100s back then. Maybe think twice before using Unique data though. 15 lb keg? Wow that has been a few years. I sold a lot of GD

One of my favorite 44 Mag handloads is 8.3gr under a 240gr Jacketed bullet. A nice shooting mild load.

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Regards,

Tom

Exactly my thoughts.

Today, data for the 41 Magnum will probably be scarce if at all available. That is usually considered too fast a powder for magnum loads. Today, Blue Dot is much more appropriate for magnum loads.

I'm sure older manuals can supply data but unfortunately at this time I don't have access to all my manuals so I can't help, sorry.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Yes. I load between 7.5 - 8.4grs of Green Dot with 210 & 215 gr bullets.

7.8gr & 8.4gr grouped the best in my 657.

Alliant 2004 manual showed 8.7gr = 1165mv with a 210gr JHP.

I've always been pleasantly surprised with my Green Dot loads.

Maybe it's a "relative" thing.

.



.

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Waiting for the break of day

I bought a bunch of it a couple years back when unique was impossible to find. It is now my go to lead bullet powder.

From Speer #8, only bullet weight shown (for 41 magnum, not just Green Dot) is 210gr. Nothing for GD in Speer #14.

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IMO Green Dot is a lot like W231/HP-38 but with a much more narrower sweat spot. Since W231 is more suited for the .41 Special than the .41 Magnum I would consider Green Dot similar.

I see you haven't made any further posts since the OP.
Do you load anything else? I'm sure you can use up that Green Dot and make quality .39 Special, 44 Special, 45 Auto, .38 S&W, 45 Colt and a few others.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Arch I load .38 spcl, .357 mag, .45Colt. Its a lot of powder. Need a lot of primers !!!! I gave 4 lbs to a friend of mine. I use H110 for jacketed bullets in my .41 was using unique for cast loads. Now its going to be Green Dot for ever !

A friend claimed that a Hercules rep told him in the 70's that Green Dot was the secret powder for 44 mag. Try for 950-1000 fps. He loves the accuracy he gets with it and cast. I have too much Red Dot to go through to have tried it yet.

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Front sight and squeeze

When you empty out/use up that obsolete old can of Green Dot, send me the empty can. I’ll give you back your original $1 and a little something more for shipping and your trouble!
Froggie

It made excellent .45 hardball loads, IF metered with the chargemaster 1500. It is a large flake and meters very inconsistently.

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Common sense isn't so common.

It looks just like Unique with green dots.

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Where we go one, we go all

Green Dot looks like Blue Dot that hasn't ripened yet.

.

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Waiting for the break of day

It is a larger flake than Unique.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I see Speer has a lot of Green Dot handgun loads listed in their Speer Reloading Manuals ... #8 , #9 and #10 .
Green Dot's burn range looks like it would be very good in several handgun rounds ... slower than Red Dot but faster than Unique ... might be in that Baby Bear "just right " zone for several cartridges .
I'm going to keep an eye out for Green Dot .
Now that it's not "advertised" as a pistol powder ... a can might pop up on a dealers shelf and I can grab it . I hate these powder shortages ...

I had these old loading manuals from when they were newest info ...
I have several cans of Alcan #5 stashed away and these old manuals have the Alcan #5 load data ... got Alcan #5 ... Got Data = no shortage !
Same way with Green Dot ... Got Data = you can use it !
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Those are really neat old cans. I found a pound of BullsEye in one of those style of cans. I was nervous about using it until I opened it up. Smelt as fresh as the day it was made. Amazing how well they seal up

Green Dot is for the most part a shotgun powder. I used tons of it loading trap loads. I looked at the Allient powder website and they have a section called ask the experts. So I would send the question to them. They may have unpublished data? I did see a 240 LSWC 44mag load with 7 grains for 900fps

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

Yesterday I loaded a box of 9mm with 3.8 grs of GD and a 125 gr cast
bullet. I will go to the range in the next few days and see how they do.
leadhead

Handgun data with Greed Dot powder has been published for many decades. Alliant, sometime in the recent past decided to stop publishing dual duty handgun/shotgun data for powders to attempt to sell more powder.

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Where we go one, we go all

In their on line loads if you search by powder you can still find some of them. Search by cartridge and the're not there.

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Front sight and squeeze

With that weight 9mm bullet with that amount of Green Dot powder.............................

make sure that you see dirt fly or a new hole in your target.

Good shooting.

I've used tons of GD. Really good 12 and 20 ga powder. Not as precise powder charges as some other powders. I've actually shot quite a few of those 44 Sp round ball loads. A bit sooty but still a lot of fun plinking. The manual pages listed are great. I have every one of those powders listed. I even got more of that HS-6 in the auction yesterday. Great to see the HS-5 data too. I even have a 2 cavity Lyman 433 RB mold. Time for some fun loads. Other than the time to load 'em I'll have really cheap shooting . I saw my cardiologist yesterday and she wants to learn to shoot handguns.. Only problem was she said "Let's do this soon...real soon!

Are you saying I have an under load? I found it in a older Lyman
manual. It was a starting load I think. It filled the case pretty full.
leadhead

3.8 grs of Green Dot out of my 3.5 to 5" 9mm pistols give very different fps.

Depending on chamber and barrel fit with copper jacket and lead or coated bullets,
one needs to test the "Waters" when first using low loads , in any pistol.

I have a chrony to see what the fps is, per the bullet weight and what
"I" think is a safe fps for the load and barrel length and pistol used.

Plus, the OAL can really mess with the fps of a load, so you do need
to match this to your type of loads, for the first few test, to make sure
every thing is ok, with ejections, holes in the paper, etc.

MY last 125 coated lead bullet test OAL ran from 1.06 to 1.16"
with fps from 916 (CFE-p) up to 1173fps. (HS-6)

Good shooting.

Thanks for the info.... I'm just using this load as a plinking load.
I'm shooting it in Taurus GX4 with a 3" barrel. I've got 500 rds
thru it so far using Titegroup, and 231. It seems to be very accurate
with those loads. I'm shooting at 15 yds. Will see how it goes with
the GD.
leadhead

You should check Castboolits, Larry Gibson did a great analysis there of GD…not the best powder for 357/41/44 in my opinion. Larry noticed some disconcerting pressure spikes with it. Maybe there is a reason why Alliant doesn’t list 357/41/44 loads with it anymore. I would opt for Unique for Mid Range loads and VV N350 for upper mid range.

38SPCL HV
Speer Reloading Manual #9
9mm Luger - 125 gr. Lead RN
Green Dot powder

Start Load : 3.8 grs. @ 869 fps

Maximum Load : 4.0 grs. @ 975 fps .

The book published starting load of 3.8 grs. Green Dot should be no problem ... 869 fps is a decent velocity and there should be no "stuck" bullets with this load.
You should be fine with this one as a plinking load , give it a good testing .
Gary

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NRA Member

Thanks Gary.
I'll be trying it probably this weekend.
leadhead

I just gave you a heads up, due to the different type of recoil springs
that are in a lot of pistols today.

My one C9 3.5" will cycle a 115 gr coated lead bullet using Trail Boss.
The same load, will not eject in my full size 5" 9mm pistol, due to the heavy spring,

and NO, this load will not be posted.

I'm shooting a Taurus GX4 and it does seem to have a pretty strong
recoil spring. Will see.
leadhead