I've been loading Blue Dot for at least 30 years. I started with the 44 magnum (thanks to Dirty Harry...) and then with 357 later
I used to buy boxes of 1000 or 2000 125gr. 357 jacketed soft point from Midway. Back in the good old days when they were cheap, and the shipping was free.
I loaded almost all of the 125 gr. JSP with Blue Dot. My old Speer #9 manual lists 14.5gr of Blue Dot as max for the 125gr. slug. BUT that's with a regular small pistol primer; NOT a magnum.
I never use magnum primers. Standard small primers are fairly consistent between the big four American manufacturers. But The small magnum primers seem to vary a LOT from CCI to Rem. to Win. to Federal. I stopped using them early on.
I loaded 13.5 to 14.5gr. with the 125gr slugs. I never had a problem.
Blue dot doesn't deliver the top velocity that, say H110 can, but I get 'nearly' the same velocity, with much lower charge weight, and without having to use magnum primers.
I don't understand this 'change' for Blue Dot. I've used my loads in 2 inch, 4 inch, and 6 inch 357 magnums. And I've never had a problem.
I wonder if Alliant turned out some 'bad' batches of Blue Dot?
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