Hello,

I have 6 lbs of Power pistol. I am using it for a nice "Keith" type of load for a bit heavier round. Now I am looking for a soft shooting "low velocity" "plinking" load. I am going to use a 200 Gr. LRN coated bullet (for indoor range shooting) ....

I was thinking 5 Grains of Power pistol? I loaded up some 7.75 Grain 240 Grain Lead SWC's and it was stout and good. But then I put in some "cowboy choice" ammo I had to see what happened and it was soft-shooting and I might want to load some of that up for trigger practice and so forth ....

Thoughts? 4 Grains, 5 Grains ????

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J. Hargrave
Humble, Texas

Alliente's reloading web page didn't recommend any bullet Lead or Jacketed with a low charge like you are thinking.

So that gives you two options: 1) Choose a different powder for 44 Special, or 2) Choose a different Cartridge to use Power Pistol.

For 44 Special there are many, I like WW231, and Trail Boss for 204 LRNFP around 700 fps. Both work with 340 Lead bullets too.

Ivan

I know you asked about 44spl, but I love PP and 45acp. People always say Power Pistol is not ideal for light loads. Other than being a little dirty, one of my most accurate loads for 45acp has been a lightly loaded, think starting load, 185 grain bullet and Power Pistol with 45acp.

Power Pistol is not a good choice for "Cowboy Loads"

5 grains is way too little powder in that BIG case. You would be below 25% case capacity and that small amount will not burn properly to achieve decent pressure.

You would be looking at under 5,000 PSI yielding perhaps, 500+ FPS with a 6" barrel. The low pressure will leave lots of unburnt powder

If you can not find a better use for your Power Pistol, offer to trade powders with another hand loader at your range

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"Acta non verba"

When I loaded .44spl I used 240gr LSWC over Trail Boss powder.

Cast and Hi-Tek bullets were from Summers Enterprises.

Primers were Federal Champion LPP

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

Just a thought; they probably don’t call it “Power Pistol” because it’s good for reduced loads. As others suggest, it might be better to swap it off for something intended for target level loadings. Of late, I’ve been using a lot of 231.
I know this isn’t what you were hoping to hear, but sometimes you’ve just got to “bite the bullet” instead of trying something very likely to fail.

Froggie

Thank you all ... I ordered a few more reloading manuals and hopefully will find one. I would love to use Trail Boss ... but I can't find any at anything that resembles a reasonable price. I can get some 231, 244, and Auto comp pretty easily. Would just keep the Power Pistol in the powder magazine for a while until I find a use for it. I will probably load up some of the larger loads to have handy on that one.

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J. Hargrave
Humble, Texas

I use Power Pistol for 9mm and .45acp. I like VV Tin Star for lower velocity .44 mag and .45 Colt rounds. I was lucky my LGS had several pounds of Tin Star in stock.

I like the idea of Tin Star ... now just need to find some

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J. Hargrave
Humble, Texas

Hornady Manual 9th edition lists Power Pistol loads for a 200 grain JHP bullet. The minimum load is 5.9 grains and gives 650 ft/sec. Sounds perfect for a cowboy load. You’ll probably get somewhat higher velocity with a lead bullet.

IMO 5.0gr Power Pistol under a 200 yr bullet is below the min recommended charge weight. I would probably not go below 6.0gr but data is scarce so it's hard to know.

You said you can get W231 and W244, I would go with one of those instead. I have burned a lot of W231 and it is very versatile for cartridge from 25 Auto to the 45 Colt. I would say either will give you soft, safe and accurate loads.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

I suggest pull up the Alliant Powder website, just
an observation, there the quite a few reloads
to give guidance.

The Best to you and you Endeavors.

There is no data for Power Pistol and a 200gr lead bullet for the 44 Special on the Alliant load data site. They only have data for a 240gr cast bullet and Power Pistol.

__________________
Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Go to Products/Handguns/Powder Pistol/view recipes/
44S&W Special/on the chart go down 5 lines/
Desperado 200gr Lead RNFP.

The only problem with the Alliant data is they only list recommended maximum loads, not starting or reduced loads.

As I mentioned above, the Hornady Manual lists 5.9 grains of Power Pistol as a starting load with a 200 grain JHP bullet at 650 ft/sec. This should be perfect for the OP's purposes with a lead bullet. It's a low recoil cowboy action velocity load using Power Pistol powder.

Alliant list the 200 gr Speer HP at 8.6 which works out to 7.7 grs with a 90% load.
they show 7.7 grs with the 225 gr GC cast bullet , at 90% is 6.93 grs.

7 grs might be the lowest safe reduced loading, for you.

I did notice that their "Cowboy loads" only used Bullseye up to Unique powders, in their data. ( Hint)