Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shot The Vintage Airweight Bodyguard S&W Model 38 No Dash

Made in the good old days, so has a pinned barrel and hammer mounted firing pin.



Man, not pleasant to shoot with the handloads I put together. It was the Speer Manual's recommended starting load for 148 grain target wadcutters (4.5 grains of Unique), so I figured they'd be, at least, not punishing, even in a tiny aluminum J-Frame .38. Banged me ups pretty good, though. Nothing like the factory target wadcutters I remember from years past. I got through fifty of them before quitting from the pain.

There was a guy at the range who also tried it, and agreed my load was punishing from such a light gun. He handed me five of his handloaded cowboy loads to shoot, and it was about a quarter the felt recoil. Almost like shooting a .22. He said it was only 3 grains of Unique under 125 grain cowboy bullets. I'll have to get some of those and load them up like that for this gun.

Here's my 7 yard group, off hand, using the Spear Manual's starter load (using Unique) for 148 grain target wadcutters. They make nice cookie cutter holes.



PS Any reason not to use the load this guy was using? Safety issues?

No reason not to I can see. A lighter bullet with less powder do tend to recoil less.....

41

How light can I go on the 148 grain wadcutters without safety concerns? Many years ago, I used to shoot a lot of factory 148 grain wadcutters, and remember them being pussycats, recoil-wise.

They are under 2.3 grains of 231 .`

Very nice!

TRH, as far as I can tell 5.0 of Unique is close to a max load.
For comfort's sake, I'd drop back to 4.0 grains in an Airweight J frame.
The 5.0 gr load is not recommended for hollow-base wadcutters, BTW - 4.0 may even be pushing their limit.
I don't know what bullet you are using.

A quick look at Hornady data for their 148 gr HBWC, shows 2.4 gr Unique @ 570 fps, and a max of 3.5 gr @840 fps.
Both from a 4" barrel.
My Speer manual (#10) doesn't show any data for Unique with wadcutters.

Winchester 231?

Not hollow based. Same on both ends.

So, even though I'm not using hollow based wadcutters, I can drop down to 2.4 grains of Unique safely?

Looks good👍

Yep. Just checked my Hornady Manual, and it has the starting load at 2.4 grains of Unique. I wonder why the Speer Manual has the starting load so stout.

I see loads with DE wadcutters as low as 3.2 gr of Unique, and even down to 2.4 under the HBWC version.
I don't see why the 2.4 wouldn't work with DEWC's - but I'd sure be on the alert for a stuck bullet, for a little while.
Light, they would be!

Good posting; Hawkeye.

Guess Speer didn't want anyone sticking a wadcutter in their barrel with a marginally powered starting load. Thats my best guess.

WW 231 is what I use with my 38 Wadcutter loads, very clean burning stuff if you ever want to try something other than Unique.

41

Thanks. If I go that low, I will watch for stuck bullets. I will probably go with 3 grains, though, just so that's less likely.

I'll likely shoot out the remainder of the Speer starting loads in a K-Frame.

Somehow I sold a stainless 38. I keep my eye open in gunshops, but only see the safety models.

You talking about the Model 60?

For a double ended WC deep seated, 3.5 of U is about right & used to be pretty popular. Bump to 3.7 for a button nose WC with a crimping groove. 4.5 is a bit stiff. Sounds like ithat load came out of an older Speer manual.

At least 4 styles of a 148 WC & each has a different bearing length or shank style. They each need to be treated differently as far as min. or max loads.