International Clays Not For Handguns?

[BBQDawg]

I am thinking I wasted $21 when I thought I had purchased Clays, only to get home (from out of town) and realized I had International Clays? I'm a newbie and was wanting to try a few of the powders I had read people using. Was out of town for a seminar, and checked with a local guy who told me of this place that carried reloading components. They had a section for powders that said handguns and I bought 1lb containers of WSF and what I thought was Clays. Got home tonight and looked more carefully and partially blocked by the price sticker, it said International at the top. Have done some researching on the Internet, and though there are some who swear by it, there are also some saying to avoid due to pressure spikes. Also noticed that new bottles of it at Midway clearly say "Shotgun Powder" on front of bottle, but mine does not. Most of the posts about the dangers I found were several years old, but I'm thinking if the new bottles now clearly say "Shotgun Powder" there still must be problems? I had hoped to try it with my .45, 9mm, and .38 special loads. Unfortunately, I know no one loading for shotguns.

[juan]

running shotgun powders in a pistol isnt all bad

i run wst

funny I thought your topic was about doing some annie oakley type shooting

[Steve RA]

Many of the best pistol powders are also shotgun powders. Look for loading info, it's out there.

[jmorris]

Clays, international clays and universal clays, is likely the dumbest way to name different powders.

In any case they are all shotgun and pistol powders.

Clays falls in between N310 and titegroup.

International is a tad faster than N320.

Universal is about the same speed as Unique.

[Boxer1]

You can find load data for international in a lot of popular calibers. That being said they may not get you the desired velocities in some calibers. Clays is known to have spikes in pressure at the top end of the loads so little things like OAL and crimp can make a max load go over max pressures. This is a concern with most any max loads anyhow. Just be safe.

[trodrig]

Looking at the data on Hodgdon's website there are ZERO entries for International Clays for any of the popular calibers used for USPSA/IPSC/Steel/3-gun. I.E., 9mm, 40s&w, 38 super, 45acp. I didn't look at 38 special or 357 mag loading data but I suspect there will not be any entries for International their either. The product description for International also makes no reference to its use in any handgun cartridges. Product descriptions for other dual use (shotgun and pistol) powders like Clays and Universal Clays DO specifically call out pistol cartridges that those powders are useful for. International Clays is a shotgun only powder.

[wide45]

Search is your friend.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=588

[BBQDawg]

Search is your friend.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=588

I did search, but as I pointed out above in my original post, the most recent searches were several years old. I wanted to see if someone has since then figured out a safer way to utilize it in handguns.

Edited July 17, 2013 by BBQDawg