Reloading with 22 cal gun powder

lone ranger

lone ranger

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I love reloading AND experimenting. So I took the powder out of some 22 cal Blazer ammo. Looks alot like 231 powder only grayer in color. My test gun was a CZ85 combat 9mm. I loaded 5gr. of 22powder 124grain 9mm bullet. It was accurate and cycled 100%.
My findings- 5gr of 22 is equal to4gr of 231 powder.
6gr of 22 is equal to 5gr of blue dot.
It seems 22 powder is a little weaker .


THIS WAS ONLY MY EXPERIMENT...DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS OR TRY TO DUPLICATE IT. OTHER BRANDS OF 22 BULLETS MAY HAVE DIFFERENT POWDER. you might shoot your eye out.
 
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how many grains of powder in 1 x .22lr cartridge? (how many did you need to open up to get 5gr for 1 x 9mm)

I don't think i'd do it, I've just never opened a .22lr to see what was inside.
 
'Boo said:
Yes, it'll work right up to the moment it doesn't.


Note to self: Add another name to the "do not buy guns from" list.
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Get a grip..It was for fun informational purposes, and of course it works, why wouldnt it. Its a weaker powder, never gonna damage the gun. Add note to self..dont sell any guns to Boo.LOL.
 
fred0000 said:
how many grains of powder in 1 x .22lr cartridge? (how many did you need to open up to get 5gr for 1 x 9mm)

I don't think i'd do it, I've just never opened a .22lr to see what was inside.
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The Blazer ammo was VERY inconsistant. Some had less than 1 gr and some were 1.3gr . This didnt surprise me because the ammo cycled very poorly in my 10-22 and was just going to toss it in the trash. So, about 5 22bullets per 1 9mm. Just having fun.
 
You are playing with fire doing that little experiment!
22 rimfire powders are specifically formulated for very tiny charges,
and is very fast burning. [not "weaker" as you put it]
Glad you are two provinces away.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
weaker powder can actually cause the round to not escape the barrel fast enough or at all and cause very unsafe pressures, you don't use unknown possibly weaker powder like that for the same reason you don't go under the reloading specs for known powders it just isn't at all a smart thing to do.
 
I don't see the degree of extreme danger that others do. Taking the powder from a tiny round in 22 cal and substituting it incrementally into a much larger cartridge with a much larger bore can be done safely, or unsafely. No harm came from this, so it seems like the experiment happened to be done safely.

The use of a chrony was not mentionned. I would not do it without one, so I don't know how the OP determined: "My findings- 5gr of 22 is equal to4gr of 231 powder. 6gr of 22 is equal to 5gr of blue dot."
 
Andy said:
I don't see the degree of extreme danger that others do. Taking the powder from a tiny round in 22 cal and substituting it incrementally into a much larger cartridge with a much larger bore can be done safely, or unsafely. No harm came from this, so it seems like the experiment happened to be done safely.

The use of a chrony was not mentionned. I would not do it without one, so I don't know how the OP determined: "My findings- 5gr of 22 is equal to4gr of 231 powder. 6gr of 22 is equal to 5gr of blue dot."
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I have to agree with you. I have been reloading for 30 years, "not new to this". Have also tried the powder out of other cartriges over the years. Start small. have always used a "lead projectile" in my tests. My father use to do this in the 1950's "out of necessity" money was tight, and the Dear was our food on the table.They did what they had to do back then. A little pioneering and impervising went along way. There was alot of "303 machine gun ammo" around , but couldnt be used for hunting,..it had hardned Steel projectiles,..they were removed and replaced with lead, then it could be used. The pioneer spirit is obviosly gone...I will still do what I like to do.
 
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Eagleye said:
You are playing with fire doing that little experiment!
22 rimfire powders are specifically formulated for very tiny charges,
and is very fast burning. [not "weaker" as you put it]
Glad you are two provinces away.
Regards, Eagleye.
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I know you feel there is no danger here Lone Ranger but there very well could be. This is great advise in the quote above. I think it is fine if you want to do this and possibly I mean possibly ruin or damage your gun and also maybe hurt yourself, but I am not sure this is a good thing to post like you did. A new or less experienced reload might think it is ok to put any kind of powder in any other cartridge to try it out and we all know what that might leed to. Just my two cents worth.

Graydog
 
graydog said:
I know you feel there is no danger here Lone Ranger but there very well could be. This is great advise in the quote above. I think it is fine if you want to do this and possibly I mean possibly ruin or damage your gun and also maybe hurt yourself, but I am not sure this is a good thing to post like you did. A new or less experienced reload might think it is ok to put any kind of powder in any other cartridge to try it out and we all know what that might leed to. Just my two cents worth.

Graydog
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Your right..I never considered a newbie trying this. I guess i figured everyone else was an old fart like me, LOL. Will fix originol post, thanks Gray.
 
I thought the vast majority of 22lr ammo used faster shotgun powder? If so it is pretty much pistol powder anyway.

I wouldn't do it personally. Not because I'm worried it'd explode but because I don't want to have to pound a bullet out of a barrel because it only made it half way with the powder charge. I'm just lazy like that ;)
 
I know of one 22 rifle that came apart quite dramatically because some youn'uns decided to
remove a bullet stuck in the barrel by adding extra 22 powder. Didn't take a huge amount either.

I'm an "old fart" myself, and have experimented plenty over the years, using pulldown powders, etc.

But as has been commented....lot of newbies on board here, and they could be led astray easily.

You take care, LR. :)

Regards, Eagleye.
 
I greatly admire the OP for his experimenting and posting the results.
I am so sick of reading the results of all the experts on here who have gained all their knowledge from reading what someone else has written, and scared stiff to make the slightest variation, on their own.
The age the OP talks of, about surviving on the wild game of Saskatchewan, was an age of common sense. We approached everything with a common sense attitude, figuring out what would work and what wouldn't, instead of being bound by someone else's unproven theory on every thing.
Google has completely replaced common sense. Google is the new bible. If it is on Google, or some expert repeats what he has read someplace, it must be right.
I dearly miss the good old days.
 
Using a powder when you have no idea what it is, it's burn rate or anything, is dangerous. Many people have done it over the years and usually without serious consequence.

Posting about it here is irresponsible, lets hope others that read this thread read the WHOLE thread. That powder is used to launch light, lead, small caliber projectiles, not heavy projectiles in a much larger caliber.

We all love to experiment, and read about others experiences, but in this case it might be better to use a little more discretion.
 
"...AND experimenting..." Good way of blowing up your firearms. Or worse, like losing fingers or your hand.
"...Looks alot like..." You can't tell anything other than the colour and size and shape of the granules by just looking at it.
"...the Dear was..." The what?
"...couldnt be used for hunting..." A lot of stupid thing were done to use it for hunting just the same. Like cutting crosses in the jackets and cutting the points off. None of which did/does anything.
"..."303 machine gun ammo"..." No such thing.
 
H4831 said:
I greatly admire the OP for his experimenting and posting the results.
I am so sick of reading the results of all the experts on here who have gained all their knowledge from reading what someone else has written, and scared stiff to make the slightest variation, on their own.
The age the OP talks of, about surviving on the wild game of Saskatchewan, was an age of common sense. We approached everything with a common sense attitude, figuring out what would work and what wouldn't, instead of being bound by someone else's unproven theory on every thing.
Google has completely replaced common sense. Google is the new bible. If it is on Google, or some expert repeats what he has read someplace, it must be right.
I dearly miss the good old days.
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Hi H4831

I really like reading your posts as you always put a lot of good information out. I as well miss the old days but that was then and this is now. As to changing powders years ago it was probably way safer as there was probably only 20 different kinds of powder anyway. Heck a few years before that remember there was only three or four different grades of the same powder (black) Now we have hundreds of different kinds. No matter what anyone says here this is not and never has been a safe practise and for that matter never will be. We all have done and will do things that are not safe in everything we do. The lucky ones live to tell about it. Have a great day.

Graydog
 
sunray said:
"..."..."303 machine gun ammo"..." No such thing.
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Oh yes there was.
It was made and marked as, "For use in synchronized guns." For use in machine guns that shot through the moving propeller of a fighter aircraft in flight.
 
H4831 said:
I greatly admire the OP for his experimenting and posting the results.
I am so sick of reading the results of all the experts on here who have gained all their knowledge from reading what someone else has written, and scared stiff to make the slightest variation, on their own.
The age the OP talks of, about surviving on the wild game of Saskatchewan, was an age of common sense. We approached everything with a common sense attitude, figuring out what would work and what wouldn't, instead of being bound by someone else's unproven theory on every thing.
Google has completely replaced common sense. Google is the new bible. If it is on Google, or some expert repeats what he has read someplace, it must be right.
I dearly miss the good old days.
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X2 - beat me to it H4831, and I post this after reading all of the contrary opinions.

I have done this kind of thing many times and will continue to do it, and to post about it, e.g. developing loads loads for surplus WC-735, pulled surplus Swedish 8X63 powder (two "unknown powders"), for Reloder 17 and Superformance (two relatively new powders with few published loads), for wildcats and obscure rounds, etc. Doing so is not irresponsible. There is a methodical process that I follow that I've shared in the past and people are free to use it or reject it. If I had chosen the "safe" path I would have learned much less and enjoyed the sport far less.

There are far too many people here who have never had an original idea in their life - these are the people who make statements like: "use only Trailboss -it's impossible to make an unsafe load"; or "dump it in your garden for fertilizer". The last thing we need is for the few who are willing to venture outside of the load books to be shut down.
 
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