Winchester WSF - 9mm, 45 ACP and????

[retread]

In quest for pistol powder I stopped by my local gun shop. As usual they only had rifle powders but I notice three large jugs of something on the bottom shelf. Pulled one out and it was Winchester WSF. I looked up load data but they only listed two of the caliber I shoot, 9mm and 45 ACP. I have never used it and wondered if anyone here had experience with it. Any posiblity for use in 38 spl, 45 Colt, 44 spl, or 44 Mag? Price was not the best but at $130 for a four pound jug with powder being so scarce I thought I had better investigate the possibilities.

[wlc]

IIRC lots of folks with 9mm and suppressors like it for 147 grain suppressed loads. I've only used it (years ago) in shotshells. Wish I could be more help.

[Ford SD]

Its a good powder for the few that you can use it for

you can use it for mag type loading in shotgun loads ---- I have used it for Lyman style slugs

and it is used in a few handgun loads
38 Super
9mm
40 S&W
10mm and
45 acp

I have used it in 9-40 and 45

not a powder for light loads
used for IPSC loads in the 40 and made 175 pf in a short barrel by only loading to published data plus 1/10g =180pf usinf 170g lead
reloaded brass several times no problems

[bobthenailer]

I have used quite a bit of WSF in the past in 9mm & 38 super with excellent results , i am now out of WSF . A few years ago i bought a jug of Powerpistol it is now my go too powder for those two , never tried WSF in other cartradges .
IF you ever find some discontinued WSL ? its very accurate in the 45 ACP and is my go to powder for it ! IMO = or better than Bullseye or Tightgroup.

[Petrol & Powder]

WSF is an outstanding powder for 9mm. I've burned many pounds of it in 9mm casing and it is my powder of choice for that cartridge. I tried other powders but always came back to WSF and finally just settled on it. I've never looked back. I used it in 45ACP and it works but it seems to do better in the smaller 9mm casing.
If you can find WSF, consider yourself lucky. As for using it in 44 Mag, 44 Spl and 38 Spl., it could work but it wouldn't be my first choice. There are better powders for those big cases. I've used WSF in 38 Spl. and it was accurate but only when close to max. loads and I found 231/Bullseye/CFE to be better in 38Spl.
At $130 for 4 pounds, it is decidedly high priced but I would consider buying it even at that price. If you had to pay shipping & hazmat fees it would likely be higher these days.
So to re-cap - WSF is an EXCELLENT 9mm powder!

[18Bravo]

Have loaded with WSF but, as others have mentioned, have only used it in a 9mm. I’ve had excellent results with WSF behind a 124 gr lead truncated cone. I really liked it, however it has very limited applications in other handguns. I’ve found more available powders that do the job equally well that have a much broader use in several calibers. If I’m shooting lead in a 45ACP my go to would be another shotgun powder, Solo 1000. With all that said, if you can score a few pounds of WSF, I wouldn’t hesitate!

[retread]

Thanks to all. I think I had better pick up a jug. The more 9mm and 45 ACP I can load with WSF the more of my other powders I can save for the larger ones.

[RobS]

WSF will work with the lower pressure rounds as long as you are loading heavier boolits to build pressures that the powder likes. It will also work very nicely in the higher pressure rounds too. The big thing is this power starts to clean up and work well around 15K pressures and gets better as you go from there. Make sure to load to the middle or upper end of reloading data and you should find some good results. Probably won't find best accuracy at max loads but then again most of the time a person doesn't anyway no matter what the powder/boolit combo.

[Alan in Vermont]

IF you ever find some discontinued WSL ? its very accurate in the 45 ACP and is my go to powder for it ! IMO = or better than Bullseye or Tightgroup.

Bob,

I have a pound of WSL and want to use it up. Virtually no data can be found for using it in handgun applications. Do you have a data source or did you work up loads from scratch? I started working up loads by treating it like Bullseye and increasing from low charge weights in 38 spec. cases with Lee 140 gr SWCs.

[fecmech]

Do you have a data source or did you work up loads from scratch?

I have found that in the 38 spl and 9MM WSF tracks Herco data exactly(i.e. identical velocities with identical powder charges.)