Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mild .38 loads

I have an old S&W Military and Police, first change, vintage about 1900 that belonged to Great Grandfather that I have had in the safe for many years and never fired. It is in pretty fair shape but my concern is modern chamber pressures in a hundred year old revolver. I reload for modern pistols and revolvers using Unique and Titegroup but am reluctant to use modern recipes in this old Smith. Usually I load 158 grain XTREME plated bullets. Can anyone recommend a recipe for this that will not over pressure?

I use 3.8 grains of ww231 and a 147gr lead bullet. Very mild, very accurate.

3.5grs of Unique or Universal and 158gr cast bullets.

Light load of bullseye and 148 gr bevel base wadcutter. A pound of bullseye will last forever just be sure to inspect your cases for 2x charges.

2.7 to 2.9g Bullseye for the 148g wadcutters. 3.5 - 3.8g Unique for a lead 158g SWC should work fine. If your pistol was made before 1920 or so it would not have been heat treated the same as the later Smith's. Better to stay with the light loads.

Since you use TiteGroup instead of Bullseye just substitute the same weights; 2.8 to 3.0 grains under a 148 HBWC. That is what I use to duplicate that old classic Bullseye load.

Using lead will be easier on the older gun as most guys already stated

Your Extreme plated bullets are basically lead, so they should be fine. Any load staying around 700 to 800 at the high end should be low enough not to stress your M&P.

I use trailboss. Not sure about pressures though. Dunno if it would be safe for older ones

It would keep you from double charging and I believe the book says 800 fps at most

Yep double charges are an issue, I load for a S&W 52 a lot and I find I have to be anal about checking things. It is very easy to miss a double load in a dirty case. 2.7g of Bullseye is perhaps a fifth of what a 38 Special would hold. I still shoot a Hand Ejector 1903 in 32 Long, as long as the loads are around 700fps no issues with and older pistol. I use lead as the jacketed bullets often require more pressure for a safe load.

Back in the '80s when I shot PPC competition the standard load was 2.7gr of bullseye or 231 pushing a Zero hollow based wad cutter. Indoors-50' we went down to 2.2gr. Double charges are bad...

If you turn those hollow based wadcutters around,they make a hell of a SD load.I use them in my Chiefs Special.

The first thing I would make sure of is that its a 38 SW Special and not a 38 SW. Just an FYI.

If you're sure then disregard...

Standard loads exist for both with either Bullseye and Unique with LEAD bullets.

The 38 SW will run .358 bullets, better if hollow base. Even better at .360.

Trail Boss and 158gr Hornady swaged. Pressure for the top load is 13,700.

One of my pals here pooh-poohs the double-charge business, but he's pretty frugal with regard to powder. I load the top load of 4.2gr and find it accurate and pleasant, and it doesn't lead a bit. The HPs probably won't expand at that velocity, but I wouldn't want one coursing through my innards.

Trail Boss meters well, just don't sneeze over an open bowl-full.

The imagery is amazing!

I've loaded some lead HBWC and lead round nose over book minimum Bullseye, 231, and Unique that were mild and recoil was only a little more than a 22.

this stuff............

Trail Boss.

Trail Boss is "safe" in that it fills up a lot more of the case. On the other hand it has about the worst "bang for the buck" of any powder made. Give me 2.7 gr. Bullseye and I'm happy- so what if I have to take an extra 30 seconds to visually triple check my charged cases in the loading block. You can't beat a penny per powder charge.