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rlc323 · February 28, 2013, 09:44 AM

Alliant no longer lists Red Dot in their current online handgun data for 9mm or .380.

Back about 2006 or so Alliant changed the formula of Red Dot to make it cleaner burning because that is what shotgunners wanted. They raised the price of the "new" Red Dot and came out with Promo, that is said to be the formula of "old" Red Dot.

I am not sure I would use the new formulation of Red Dot with the old data without speaking with Alliant first. If you compare their current pistol data with Red Dot in .38 Special the charge weights listed are similar but not exactly the same as with the old formula. Usually the only way to make a flake powder burn cleaner is to make it burn faster, so that is likely what they did. Then to cover their rears they said no more 9mm or .380 data for new Red Dot.

If you have a supply of "old" Red Dot (I do) you can learn a lot from the old Hercules and Alliant manuals that go into better detail regarding OAL than the more recent Alliant booklet or the online source. Link below:

http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Fre...M/Alliant.html

Personally I would not buy Red Dot for use in 9mm for the reasons Misssissippi Dave notes. There is not much room between minimum and maximum charge. I use old Red Dot because I have it left over from shotgun use and have not touched the stuff since Clays came out. Plus my barber gave me 2 pounds of it sealed in the 1lb cans a few years ago that a fellow just wanted to be rid of.

That said, I get good results with 4.3 grains of vintage 1979 Red Dot in 9mm with 115 gr FMJ Winchester hollow base bullets, seated 1.160. CCI 500 primer. They crono around 1080 fps average.

February 28, 2013, 09:44 AM	#6
rlc323 Senior Member Join Date: January 23, 2013 Location: Forgottonia, Il Posts: 217	Alliant no longer lists Red Dot in their current online handgun data for 9mm or .380. Back about 2006 or so Alliant changed the formula of Red Dot to make it cleaner burning because that is what shotgunners wanted. They raised the price of the "new" Red Dot and came out with Promo, that is said to be the formula of "old" Red Dot. I am not sure I would use the new formulation of Red Dot with the old data without speaking with Alliant first. If you compare their current pistol data with Red Dot in .38 Special the charge weights listed are similar but not exactly the same as with the old formula. Usually the only way to make a flake powder burn cleaner is to make it burn faster, so that is likely what they did. Then to cover their rears they said no more 9mm or .380 data for new Red Dot. If you have a supply of "old" Red Dot (I do) you can learn a lot from the old Hercules and Alliant manuals that go into better detail regarding OAL than the more recent Alliant booklet or the online source. Link below: http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/Fre...M/Alliant.html Personally I would not buy Red Dot for use in 9mm for the reasons Misssissippi Dave notes. There is not much room between minimum and maximum charge. I use old Red Dot because I have it left over from shotgun use and have not touched the stuff since Clays came out. Plus my barber gave me 2 pounds of it sealed in the 1lb cans a few years ago that a fellow just wanted to be rid of. That said, I get good results with 4.3 grains of vintage 1979 Red Dot in 9mm with 115 gr FMJ Winchester hollow base bullets, seated 1.160. CCI 500 primer. They crono around 1080 fps average.