Pistol ammo for long guns

J

Jackapeeco

Inactive
So this is totally just out of curiosity, in Iowa you can use straight wall cartridges for hunting deer for the record I don't hunt and I don't live in Iowa but I've been thinking would slower burning powders be better i would assume a 22" barrel changes everything over say a 6" test barrel for a pistol cartridge
Any way just wondering if my thought process is correct
Have a good day and thanks for reading this
 
i would assume a 22" barrel changes everything over say a 6" test barrel for a pistol cartridge
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Well yes, the question is how? Some pistols cartridges might actually lose velocity with a barrel that long. So the answer is: it depends.

If you want to hunt with a pistol cartridge, (357/44 Magnum are popular in my state) then you need to do a little more research on the barrel and the cartridge to find a good fit to hunt whatever you are hunting.
 
Makes sense to me. I reload 444 with H335 and always wondered if i could load 500 S&W with it too. Im shooting them out of 20 in. barrels so it should work. I am interested to hear replies
 
A lot of it has to do with case capacity and how slow the powder is... You couldn't get enough 3031 in a .357 max case to make an efficient load. Maybe Reloader #7 but it would be a very big maybe...

Tony
 
Four handgun/lever action calibers that I have are the .357, .44 mag, .45 colt and .454 casull but have never chronod handgun against the lever actions with 22 inch barrels. But the Lyman 50th manual is a good place to find handloading differences. The manual has rifle data, handgun data, and contender/encore data, but barrel lengths for comparisons are not at all standard. In general you might say the difference is in the vicinity of 200 to 400 fps between rifle and standard handgun data. In some cases, notably the .45 colt, velocity decreases with a somewhat longer barrel length, but barrel lengths are not standard for comparison.

Lyman manual does not include H335 powder for the 500 s&w. The powders it does show are all slightly faster than 335.
 
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Should have been 44 mag, I bet you knew that. Made correction.
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There is a 45Mag, it is a really hot cartridge, a bit longer than the 45ACP. I think it does well in a carbine but a bit of a rarity.
 
Several few manuals list loads for pistol cartridges used in rifles. Have yet to see any change in the powder recommendations (such as slower powders when loaded for rifle) between handgun and rifle use. And the same powders that produce the highest velocity from handguns also tend to produce the highest velocities from rifles as well.
 
Because the cartridge and bullet weight determine which powder is optimal in any given cartridge changing the powder used to match the barrel length is a waste of time.
You can only get so much powder into a loaded case. A slower powder would require more powder than the case could hold in order to get the same velocity. Barrel length has no bearing at all on the powder that gives the best velocity. That is determined by the case, bullet weight and available powder space.
 
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