Reloading pistol rounds with stripped shotgun shells

[Wyatt Burp]

Is anyone up to the stage that they are reloading pistol rounds with stripped shotgun shells?

Went around country NSW and dropped into a lot of gun shops stating "I know its a dumb question but I gotta' ask - Do you have any pistol powder"?

Only to be met with -

"Do what everyone else is doing and buy slabs of shells and strip them down and use the powder".

Anyone had to resort to this yet?

[deye243]

Yes I have but 18 odd months ago I managed to score 22 1/2 lb of powder .
For target loads in the 9mm I used the win white box 28g loads very close to as30 and for heavy loads I used the powder out of the eley 42g loads that stuff was very close to ap 70

[yoshie]

I lucked onto some trailboss in a giant container. It's ok for revolver but my 9mm powder is getting low. I'm not sure what I'm going to do soon. Cleavers has bulk 9mm I'll probably buy instead of reloading. The last time I was in a gun shop they had heaps of primers and they guys was complaining that no-one was buying them. Without powder to go with them they're useless

[deye243]

I lucked onto some trailboss in a giant container. It's ok for revolver but my 9mm powder is getting low. I'm not sure what I'm going to do soon. Cleavers has bulk 9mm I'll probably buy instead of reloading. The last time I was in a gun shop they had heaps of primers and they guys was complaining that no-one was buying them. Without powder to go with them they're useless

That's the wrong attitude for sure before I lucked onto the powder I also bought 24 000 primers now I have both .

[bladeracer]

I lucked onto some trailboss in a giant container. It's ok for revolver but my 9mm powder is getting low. I'm not sure what I'm going to do soon. Cleavers has bulk 9mm I'll probably buy instead of reloading. The last time I was in a gun shop they had heaps of primers and they guys was complaining that no-one was buying them. Without powder to go with them they're useless

Buy bulk 12ga field loads. Use the powder for your pistol ammo, probably 4-5 rds per shell. Use the shot to cast your own bullets, one-ounce loads give you 3-5 pistol bullets depending on calibre and bullet weight. Cheap shooting, probably around 1000rds out of a $130 slab of shells, plus 1000 primers - maybe 25 cents apiece. If you're really lucky you might find a shotgunner who is still loading and might be happy to buy your primed hulls and wads for primer cost. What does the cheapest pistol ammo sell for these days for 1000rds?

[deye243]

Cheapest in my local is $600 per 1000 for s&b 9mm 124g fmj followed by federal 9mm syntech at $790.
My local ain't a cheap shop being the only game in a east Gippsland town .

[darklazor]

The Cheapest 12ga I could find was at my local, Trust 1oz 7-1/2 shot was $130 per slab.

So There’s roughly 20gr of powder per round
20gr approx x 250 = 5000gr

9mm = 5gr of powder approximately per reload at 5gr that’s 1000 reloads = 13cents per reload for powder alone.

There is a one significant issue however, what is the powder in shotshells? You could contact the manufacturer but it’s probably a proprietary mix.
So there is inherent risk. so if are going to reload start your at min load and work your way up.

[bladeracer]

The Cheapest 12ga I could find was at my local, Trust 1oz 7-1/2 shot was $130 per slab.

So There’s roughly 20gr of powder per round
20gr approx x 250 = 5000gr

9mm = 5gr of powder approximately per reload at 5gr that’s 1000 reloads = 13cents per reload for powder alone.

There is a one significant issue however, what is the powder in shotshells? You could contact the manufacturer but it’s probably a proprietary mix.
So there is inherent risk. so if are going to reload start your at min load and work your way up.

13c for the powder, the bullet is free if you cast it from the shot, though you might be up for a cent or two for Alox or powdercoat, plus whatever your primers are costing you. If you can sell the primed hulls and wads for primer cost then you're probably even on the primers as well.

Very little risk if you stick to field loads, if you start messing with slug loads or heavy magnum loads then the powders are likely to be different. Probably not dangerous though, more likely they just won't make much velocity, much like using rifle powders.

[Blr243]

This topic reminds me I should make an effort to sell my ap70

[darklazor]

What does the cheapest pistol ammo sell for these days for 1000rds?

Just did a quick search for some 9mm on cleaver’s website these where the cheapest I could find.

PPU 9mm 124gr LRN $485 /PER 1000
PPU 9mm 124gr JHP $529 /PER 1000

From all accounts PPU is pretty reasonable stuff. I do know the 223rem is good for the price.

[deye243]

What does the cheapest pistol ammo sell for these days for 1000rds?

Just did a quick search for some 9mm on cleaver’s website these where the cheapest I could find.

PPU 9mm 124gr LRN $485 /PER 1000
PPU 9mm 124gr JHP $529 /PER 1000

From all accounts PPU is pretty reasonable stuff. I do know the 223rem is good for the price.

At those prices why would bother loading and then doing the chook picking up brass.

[bladeracer]

What does the cheapest pistol ammo sell for these days for 1000rds?

Just did a quick search for some 9mm on cleaver’s website these where the cheapest I could find.

PPU 9mm 124gr LRN $485 /PER 1000
PPU 9mm 124gr JHP $529 /PER 1000

From all accounts PPU is pretty reasonable stuff. I do know the 223rem is good for the price.

At those prices why would bother loading and then doing the chook picking up brass.

Picking up your brass was always part of pistol shooting for me anyway, generally everybody else collects your brass and mags while the targets are being scored and patched, and you do the same for them. $130/1000 compared to $500+/1000 sounds to me like it's still worth loading your own. If you're only shooting the minimums to retain a licence perhaps it'd be easier to buy factory, but if you're shooting thousands of rounds because you enjoy it I'd be loading it.

[bladeracer]

This topic reminds me I should make an effort to sell my ap70

You should've sold it a year ago, might gotten more than a thousand bucks for a kilo. Nowadays people have woken up to using shotshells, or even buying the small imports of other stuff. There's probably still somebody out there willing to pay big for ADI pistol/shotshell powder but I'd just hang onto it for yourself. If/when ADI does release their new pistol/shotshell powders they'll probably be single-base so won't be the same as the old stuff. Might be better, might be worse, might be another APS-type failure, we just don't know.

[wanneroo]

Tons of pistol powder of all types readily available here in the USA, so much so they are trying to flog it in 8 pound containers and get it sold in bulk. Usually they push it on the market more in 1 pound containers. You guys just need someone to import it.

[deye243]

Tons of pistol powder of all types readily available here in the USA, so much so they are trying to flog it in 8 pound containers and get it sold in bulk. Usually they push it on the market more in 1 pound containers. You guys just need someone to import it.

The mutts that dictate over this country have made it very difficult to import propellents .

[deye243]

What does the cheapest pistol ammo sell for these days for 1000rds?

Just did a quick search for some 9mm on cleaver’s website these where the cheapest I could find.

PPU 9mm 124gr LRN $485 /PER 1000
PPU 9mm 124gr JHP $529 /PER 1000

From all accounts PPU is pretty reasonable stuff. I do know the 223rem is good for the price.

At those prices why would bother loading and then doing the chook picking up brass.

Picking up your brass was always part of pistol shooting for me anyway, generally everybody else collects your brass and mags while the targets are being scored and patched, and you do the same for them. $130/1000 compared to $500+/1000 sounds to me like it's still worth loading your own. If you're only shooting the minimums to retain a licence perhaps it'd be easier to buy factory, but if you're shooting thousands of rounds because you enjoy it I'd be loading it.

I'm in a small country town with a pistol club of around 70 members and only about 15 members load as the rest don't have the time or the confidence to load .

[yoshie]

This topic reminds me I should make an effort to sell my ap70

How much you got?

[Blr243]

500 gram bottle. Maybe two bottles. Def one bottle

[Wyatt Burp]

Sooooo happy, just ordered and paid for 6lbs of Vihtovouri N320 and 10k of Federal SPP !!!!

[darklazor]

Sooooo happy, just ordered and paid for 6lbs of Vihtovouri N320 and 10k of Federal SPP !!!!

If you don’t mind me asking how much did the N320 run you?

[yoshie]

Sooooo happy, just ordered and paid for 6lbs of Vihtovouri N320 and 10k of Federal SPP !!!!

Who's selling Vihtovouri? The first powder I started reloading pistol with was N330, great stuff.

[darklazor]

Sooooo happy, just ordered and paid for 6lbs of Vihtovouri N320 and 10k of Federal SPP !!!!

Who's selling Vihtovouri? The first powder I started reloading pistol with was N330, great stuff.

Tigershark are the importers Vihtovouri, they have a shipment going out to dealers next month. I gave them a ring and they told me who my closet dealer is that stocks it. He also said that they have dropped the projectile requirement and it is now up to the individual gun-shop.

[Bugman]

Just out of curiosity. A couple of guys at my club unloaded some 12 g shells and loaded some 357 and 9mm (I think).
The results appeared to be a a bit of a dog's breakfast for accuracy. Is this something others have encountered?

[bladeracer]

Just out of curiosity. A couple of guys at my club unloaded some 12 g shells and loaded some 357 and 9mm (I think).
The results appeared to be a a bit of a dog's breakfast for accuracy. Is this something others have encountered?

Did they do any load development? Maybe try a different brand of shells that use a different powder.

[deye243]

Just out of curiosity. A couple of guys at my club unloaded some 12 g shells and loaded some 357 and 9mm (I think).
The results appeared to be a a bit of a dog's breakfast for accuracy. Is this something others have encountered?

Not this way. but this is not a practice that a reloader should do ...... it should be left to hand loaders with a lot of experience .
When I say reloaders I'm talking about people that just look up a recipe out of a book and seat a pill .
There is a difference.

[Bugman]

Just out of curiosity. A couple of guys at my club unloaded some 12 g shells and loaded some 357 and 9mm (I think).
The results appeared to be a a bit of a dog's breakfast for accuracy. Is this something others have encountered?

Did they do any load development? Maybe try a different brand of shells that use a different powder.

Doubt if they did much if any load development. More likely, due to the powder shortage, they probably just had a go in desperation. You know the old saying: nothing ventured....nothing gained. In this case they didn't gain much by the looks of it.

[Sarco]

While I have adequate ADI powders for probably the next few years, I had a go at doing this.

9mm / OSA 28g Shot Shell.
Loaded 5 x 9mm rnds per shot shell (I actually only did one as an experiment) IIRC approx 18.5gn of powder recovered.
115gn LSWC
3.4gn powder (looked similar to AS30, but not the same)
Using a LabRadar & Glock 17A
Average Velocity: 1071.42fps
Extreme spread: 29.43fps.
25M accuracy was excellent from a rest.

It is however a PITA doing it.

[6878mm]

Wyatt, you have PM