Can you reload pistol rounds with rifle powder?

[Religious Shooter]

I'm gonna buy 32 lbs of A2230-C for .223. It works out to about $8.60/lb delivered.

Can I use this stuff in reloading 9mm or .40 S&W? Is there any danger (in general) in using rifle powders in pistol rounds?

From my own experience and knowledge, rifle powders are a lot slower than pistol. And in general (AFAIK), slower means safer.

Anybody actually do something like this?

[DogmaDog]

Hmmm. Your reasoning sounds plausible, but unless you can find published load data in a reloading manual, you should not attempt it!

What would your starting load be? What would your max load be? Would a rifle powder burn so slowly that you'd have a bunch of unburned powder flying out the muzzle, or a huge fireball? Would it even be possible to make major?

In my opinion, too risky to attempt to answer those questions unless there's some basis to start out!

DogmaDog

[Reload'n' Lizard]

The question is, "Why?" Because it is cheap?

Buy a jug of Tightgroup or Universal Clay and load your pistol stuff.

Slower is NOT safer. Slower is just slower.

LIZARD OUT

[sargenv]

Let me tell you a little story about this.. One time I inadvertantly used rifle powder in my 357 magnum. At the time I was using WW 540 for loading in my Ruger GP-100. I was at the time looking for something as an alternate to Blue Dot. Anyway, I was at the time loading on a Rock Chucker using an RCBS powder measure. I thought what was in the measure was Win 540. It turns out that what was actually in it was Hodgdon H335. So I measured I think 11 grains or whatever the load was for 357 magnum for 540. I loaded about 50 rounds to try out. Well, first shot was a big poof! Powder everywhere, bullet stuck in the barrel, and me scratching my head asking wtf? Now I label all my measures and make sure what I'm using the right powders.. But in one word, no, you cannot use most rifle powders for pistol loads. There are a few exceptions where you might use the faster burning rifle powders in large capacity magnum calibers (4227, 4198, H110, 2400, etc). I think IMR actually had data for some faster burning rifle powders listed for 44 magnum in a rifle configuration, but the pressures were really low and the charges were compressed, they didn't do that good on velocity and I imagine they were really inefficient. Also you don't ever want to get a case full of pistol/shotgun powder into a rifle. We're talking hand grenade here.. I've heard instances of people using bullseye in a 30-06. Not something I want to be near..

Vince

[Carlos]

I agree - keep seperate. Good news is that you can do most of your USPSA pistol reloading with only one powder: Titegroup. Should also work for Shotgun. Find a decent rifle powder & you have 3gun covered with only 2 powders.

[TBF]

I also agree with the above.

It would be doubtful you could build enough pressure to get the powder to burn properly, even with a compressed charge.

Dirty , smoky, and slow are not good qualities to have in any load.

Safety wise it might be bad too.

Travis F.