.357 loads with shotgun powder

[mjbgalt]

anything i should know about this? i loaded some up already, 7.5 and 8 grains of Longshot powder under a 158 grain hollowpoint. i want to use it for plinking and paper punching. is it dirtier powder, or is it best to use a powder specifically made for pistol ammo? i have used 2400 almost exclusively until now, when someone pointed out that pressures are lower in these loadings (easier for my fiancee to shoot).

what do you guys think?

-Matt

[stimpylu32]

Matt

Are these jacketed or cast HPs ? If jacketed the Longshot will work fine , if their cast you may be better off with Green Dot , Bullseye or even Trail Boss .

stimpy

[mjbgalt]

these are jacketed bullets...i'm not crafty enough to make my own lead bullets...yet...

does the shotgun powder have a better burn or more accurate? is it a "this powder will WORK but to get real accuracy you need pistol powder" or???

-Matt

[stimpylu32]

Matt

What i have found over the years is that Shotgun powders work best with cast bullets and pistol powders do better with jacketed bullets . The shotgun powders thrive on the slower speeds and heavy crimp that cast bullet shooters use , they also tend to have lower pressures than the jacketed bullets and pistol powder combos due to the burn rates .

stimpy

[mjbgalt]

well shoot. guess i should have bought H110 or something else. I thought maybe this would be a good way to keep recoil down for her and velocity up where I want it, at the same time.

-Matt

[Ranger J]

“You can’t repeal the laws of physics”.  Scotty.

RJ

[cattleskinner]

Longshot is what I used when I first got into reloading, mostly because the charge I wanted coincided with the dipper that came with the lee loader.  I used it in a 44 mag. and jacketed bullets, and if I remember right, it kicked about like a mid-range load, and burned pretty clean, it was alot cleaner than 2400 at least.  I'm not sure how it works in a .357, but I will try it out when I go home in August.

~~Amos

[mjbgalt]

not trying to repeal the laws of physics...just wanted to see if i could get the same speeds with lower pressures. it appears that i can.

just curious if it's a good fit or whether it just "will work."

i like that it is cleaner burning...hopefully it will shoot accurately. if so i can get about 750 shots to a pound of powder. that's pretty economical.

-Matt

[BCB]

First of all, what is a shotgun powder?  There are thousands and thousands of loads for many fast burning powders for handguns as well as shotguns.  Probably the best example would be Unique—shotgun or handgun powder?  Who cares, it works for both…BCB

[Tom W.]

Blue Dot will work well.....

[Lone Star]

i have used 2400 almost exclusively until now, when someone pointed out that pressures are lower in these loadings (easier for my fiancee to shoot).

You are confusing pressure with recoil - two often unrelated things.  If you want lower recoil, then faster burning powders, like many of the shotgun powders, will work great at reducing recoil.  This is because the weight of the powder charge is lower with the shotgun powder.  But if you want the same velocities as you got with 2400, pressures will be higher with SG powders and you may not be able to reach the same velocities safely.

Traditional shotgun powders like BlueDot, RedDot, etc. work very well with jacketed bullets - loading manuals list scores of loads for them.  And they do not need heavy crimps or tight bullet pull - it is the slow powders like H110 and AA1680 that need those loading parameters.  Most SG powders are very easy to ignite and are often used in cartridges which do not allow heavy crimping, like the .38 Super, .45 WinMag and .45ACP.  Some SG powders will even give velocities approaching those of slow "handgun" powders like H110 - but their use is usually driven by a search for a low recoil, low cost load.  There is nothing wrong with your choice of Longshot as long as you follow proven loading guidelines.

BTW, cast bullet loads usually have lower pressures due to the softer bullets which have much less bore friction than jacketed bullets.  It has nothing directly to do with burn rates.....

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[mjbgalt]

not burn rates...for instance, a 6.5x55 has less recoil than a .270, even when using the same bullet weight. the difference is the pressure, no?

-Matt

[Graybeard]

NO.

There is no direct correlation between pressure and recoil. Recoil is totally dependent on velocity and weight of the ejecta and weight of the gun. Pressure is not a part of the equation in computing it.

[Lone Star]

Actually pressure does have an effect on recoil - although usually a minor one.  The velocity of the gas ejecta is dependent upon the muzzle pressure of the load - although the normally used figure is ca. 4500 fps.  This is why reaching bullet velocities above 4500 fps is generally not possible - except with very high muzzle pressures.  But for our use here pressures can be disconnected from recoil - the biggest factor is the weight of the gas, which is equal to the weight of the powder.


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