Pistol cal carbine loads

[WestKentucky]

I was wondering what people have found when loading for pistol cal carbines. I load a lot for revolver, and have recently picked up long barrel weapons in similar caliber. The normal ammo works, but there is always an optimal load and that will be different from your 2-6 inch handgun and the same chambering in a carbine or rifle. I specifically load 357 and 44 mag for revolvers and am building both calibers into the long arm. What common conclusions have been reached? Good powders? Do I need to ditch the traditional pistol powder and move to a crossover rifle/pistol powder? Should I just build loads based on data for a TC contender???

 

[JamieC]

Hmm, interesting thought, pistol powder vs some type of rifle powder. I'd ASSume that you might want to compare faster pistol powders to slower ones, Blue Dot would be one I'd like to try. I do know in a Kel Tec Sub2k, one can expect approx 200 more fps. I've been wanting to try Blue Dot out in my pistols, you've got me thinking.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

H110/W296 and 2400 both work well in my 44 mag lever action.

but this past weekend i tried 7.0 gr of Trail Boss under a 240 gr Berry's plated HP. that was a very fun plinking load. my wife and i had a blast shooting them. they were surprisingly accurate as well. just a little over an inch at 50 yds, which is pretty good by my standards for that rifle. this was my first experience with Trail Boss.

 

[buck460XVR]

You're using the same case to load your powders and bullet. Case capacity dictates that using a slower rifle powder is not going to give you as much velocity as magnum handgun powders because you can't get enough of it in the case. I've found my most accurate revolver loads were also some of the most accurate carbine loads in both .357 and .44 carbines. This is levers and bolt guns. IMR4427 is as close to a rifle powder as you are probably gonna get in a magnum handgun powder and it works very well in my carbines. Besides, velocities produced using handgun powders in carbines is about all those bullets available can handle.

 

[leefan]

I load the same for pistol and carbine, 9mm and 40 S&W and 357 magnum, because I don't want to have to keep track of different rounds for different uses. Especially for those shared between the mags of a 5906 and a Sub 2000, and between the mags of a PX4 and a CX4. An unnecessary complication IMO.

 

[Schwing]

I load for a .357 revolver and lever action. My experience has been that I gain about 300 FPS when shooting rounds from my carbine vs my 5" revolver. I have also noticed that the powder does not seem to play into it as much as I would have thought.

For example, my 158 grain LSWCs run about:

5.6 grains of Unique=870FPS out of my revolver and 1175 out of the 16" Carbine.

13.7 grains of 2400=1230fps out of my revolver and 1600 out of the 16" carbine.

7.5 grains of 800x=1130fps out of my revolver and 1400 out of the carbine.

I also ran some tests with 300 mp but I didn't write those in my spreadsheet for some reason. They were 158 grain JSPs. They too were something like 1200fps from the revolver and 1500 from the carbine.

While there is obviously some slight FPS gains to be had from slower powders out of a longer barrel, my experience is that it is not enough to really make it an issue. I no longer make separate loads for my revolver vs carbine.

 

[Swampman]

For .357 and .44 Magnum carbine loads you're unlikely to beat H-110. It was developed for the .30 Carbine round and will give excellent results out of revolvers as well.

The only issue I've had with it in shorter barrels is muzzle blast/flash.

From a four inch barrel t looks sorta like a Cessna hitting a set of high tension power lines.