I remember reading once that a mix of sodium chlorate, mixed 50-50 by volume with powdered sugar, could be loaded to capacity in .32 ACP and made a serviceable propellant for same.

I'm not interested in losing any fingers, and probably wouldn't monkey with this stuff even if I did, but does anyone here know more about alternative propellants for reloading?

-AaronB

The only time I've ever heard of "white powder" is when smokeless is called white powder by black powder shooters.

I have an old 20 gauge single barreled shoot gun that we acquired in 1945 used.
The only marking on the shot gun is "WHITE POWER WONDER". I used this gun most every day up to about 57 when I had a town job and could by me one of those Remington 870 Wing Masters.

When my dad was a kid, the only guns in the house were a .22 bolt action and a single-shot 12-gauge. They called the shotgun "Old Pot," because it killed a lot of the game that went into the pot for supper. I think it was an H&R Topper.

My grandfather (who never threw away anything) would one day disassemble Old Pot rapidly in the side yard while shooting reloads he'd found in the trash at Fort Ritchie. We later determined that a squib load had left a wad about halfway down the bore, and the next shot took the old single-shot apart. Luckily all he suffered from it was a few pieces of shot and some wood splinters in his left forearm.

Pappy used words that afternoon that my older cousin Dan didn't realize that Pappy knew. Everybody there learned a lesson that day about understanding the provenance of one's ammunition.

-AaronB