Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns loading for the .38 S&W

Does anyone here load for the old .38 S&W?

From the reading I've done it looks like bore diameter varies from .359 to .361. I've seen both mentioned. There don't seem to be any bullets in that size. The two ideas I have so far are to hope lead wad cutters are soft enough to obturate and seal and to swage down 9mm Mak .365 bullets in a cheap bullet sizer.

Lookin' for other notions or for sources of proper diameter bullets.

Tom

If you have one, be sure to slug it; they DO vary all over in bullet diameter.

Lots of guys load soft lead SWC or RN .358" bullets through them, and apparently they slug up fine. But if I had one, I think I'd feed it cast 100-gr RN Mak bullets, as you mentioned. I'd size them to slip-fit the cylinder mouths, regardless of the bore diameter. Lee will make you one of their sizers (which are great) in a custom diameter for a nominal fee.

Thanks.

I'm basically trying to find a better option for my aunt to shoot in her old j-frame. Partly to save her some bucks practicing, partly because I don't feel like any of the available factory ammo is really suitable for personal defense. I think something like a nice target wadcutter which is only 3 grains off (148 vs 145) at factory-ish velocity but with a real blunt nose may be as good as it gets for both uses.

I was sort of hoping for a light JHP but when you come right down to it, sub 700 fps is probably not going to expand anyway.

Tom

I probably wouldn't shoot jacketed bullets through it at all, but limited use probably won't matter much except to boost pressures a bit. You may find that a swaged lead bullet might be best of all. Speer and Hornady sell them in SWC shape. They're very soft, intended for low speeds, and dry-lubed.

I've got a couple of old .38 S&W revolvers that I load for occasionally.

I use a .357" diameter 148 grain hollow base wadcutter, but seat it about halfway out of the case instead of flush with the case mouth,..as is usually done.

There's only about .003" difference between the bullet and the groove diameter of the barrels and the hollow base of the soft, swaged wadcutter will easily obturate enough to fill the gap.

I usually push them about 750 fps with Bullseye propellant.

Lyman cast bullet manual states that .360 is correct.
When you load for the .38 S&W this is what you shouldn't do. It was the first handgun I ever reloaded for and I used a Lee Loader, the original, time consuming and my mom didn't like it when I stuck the rod in the ceiling. I had that same problem with my .30-30 Lee Loader, too. Later a friend and I found that the 9mm dies he had would 'work', sorta. We sized them in the 9mm die and it tapered the case. After that we belled the case mouth to accept the lead 148 HBWC bullet and crimped it very lightly, I suspect, just because we could. Picture a wasp waisted cartridge here. The sticking point was that when we bought the bullets, primers, and powder, we couldn't afford the reloading manual so we just memorized the load. My Lee had a measure so I hadn't needed to know before. It turned out that there is a difference between the .38 S&W and the .38 S&W Special...who knew? We didn't. That old British Enfield took it for a while but later the cylinder started bulging for some reason. The brass would bulge and we would still reload it again, and again... until the extractor broke. Years ago I ran across another Enfield and loaded it with the lead 158 SWC and it worked just great. (I had a manual by now). I never tried loading it with jacketed bullets, except for the 146 gr HP and that worked great too. Ever since I learned that the first purchase should have been the manual, I've had a soft spot for the.38 S&W and hope to find one again to play with. It was a mild round and cheap to load for, when using Bullseye. I think I paid less than $10 for the bullets, primers, and a pound of Bullseye which certainly shows my age. The total would have been $17 with the manual, including tax, and I only had $15 at the time. I mention this in a half-hearted defense of my poor decision. My last load was 2.2 gr. Bullseye, (after I bought the manual) Suggested range is 1.8 to 2.6 gr Bullseye, with a lead 158 SWC. Every lead bullet I recovered (many) showed at least some obduration, regardless of style. This suggested to me that bullet diameter wasn't critical, not that I would have known about it in those days. I just remember thinking it was neat how the bullet looked.

I've owned 1, but it was a break top single shot S&W. Some previous owner had replaced the rear sight blade with a peep sight. I had a near identical .22 rimfire at the time, the only difference was the grips. I wish I still had them.

But this is for my aunt's revolver. I think I'll play with 148 grain WCs and some 158 grain SWCs and see what is most accurate and hits nearest point of aim. I see Midway carries dies and Starline brass. Looks like what, 3000 - 3500 rounds from a pound of powder?

Thanks for all the input. I appeciate it.

Tom

Here's one that I enjoy shooting. It's a S&W Regulation Police from 1918.

Ok, first, slug the bore. This is useful because many of the US manufacturers simply used a .357" bore instead of a .360" later on in production. Second, when was it made? Anything in the WWII era and beyond should be fine with jacketed bullets. The British military load was changed from a 200 gr LRN to a 178 gr FMJ to comply with the Hague Convention prior to WWII. So any military guns from that era should be fine with JHPs, which I would HIGHLY recommend if you are ever expecting her to use this for self defense.

Try loading it with regular .358" lead and .357" jacketed bullets with appropriate amounts of powder to see how it shoots. If it is accurate enough, you should just stick with those. If you want to try a larger bullet diameter, either cast your own and size them to the diameter you want, or go to Bear Tooth Bullets and order some .360" bullets if you prefer. I got some .360" 200 grain lead flat nosed bullets with a gas check from them a while back. I was trying to duplicate the British .38/200 military load so that it would shoot to the point of aim with my S&W Victory model. It worked, but I could get almost the same results with a 180 grain LFP for much less than the custom bullets, so I went that way after I used up the other ones. I also got decent accuracy with a 125 gr JHP, although it shot a bit low. My personal advice to you is to track down Ken Water's article on reloading the .38S&W. It is in his Pet Loads book, and gives very good information.

Oh, as a final note, don't dick around with any of the old US top break revolvers or similarly weak guns. Don't even think about hot rodding them unless you want a new nickname. Something along the lines of "Lefty" or "Stumpy". I only use light loads in those guns. That is all they can handle.

-Mb