Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading 158gr for 38spl

4.5-5.0gr Unique with cast 158gr swc's in my Blackhawk. That is a fun .38 spl round.

AA#5 has become my handgun powder of choice. It falls about halfway between Unique and Blue Dot. I tend to load .38s on the warm side for my model 10s and the vast majority of my .38 handholds use cast bullets. I load 6.5 grains of AA#5 with 158 grain cast bullets. That's more than the books call for, but I've never had any problems with it in K-frame 38s. I would consider it a fairly stout +P load. The books call 7 grains of it a starting load for 158s in the .357 magnum. So 6.5 grains of it is below the start for a .357 but up at the top end (or a little bit over) for a .38 special +P.

Don't know about original poster, but I want to shoot the 158 gr bullets out of my 4" G100. Probably buy the 158 gr swc from Xtreme so they'd be copper plated.

PS I would be using Unique powder

For many years, I've had good results in a number of .38 Special revolvers using the original .357 Magnum bullet, a 158 grain SWC cast from a Hensley & Gibbs #51 mould, wheelweight alloy, about 12-13 BHN and either 4 grs. 231 or 3.5 Bullseye. Accurate standard pressure load with a muzzle velocity of around 825 fps from a 4" barrel.

Can't go wrong with 158 gr. I've loaded and shot a few thousand. Mostly cast SWC and RN. Unique, Herco, Titegroup, 2400, American Select, HS6.

Question for you guys use SWC. I seen RimRock has hardcast 158gr swc at decent prices. Thinking about ordering some. Has anyone order from Rimrock and/or use their bullets? Any feedback on them? Any place else I should look to order 158 gr swc? Thanks for the help and feedback!

Depends on how "hard" their hardcast stuff is. If it were over bhn 15 or so I would consider it to be generally too hard for .38 Special use, likely to lead more than a soft one will, bhn 8-12 is A-ok. Do commercial casters advise customers as to the bhn hardness of their bullets? Do they maintain strict quality control over their alloys? I don't know, never having bought a commercially cast lead bullet in my life.

I would be equally concerned if a store-bought lead bullet was the correct diameter to fit the throats of my revolver. That'll have a huge bearing on accuracy as well as leading the barrel or not. At, or even a RCH over, throat diameter is desired. You should feel slight resistance when you push a bullet through the throat.

gnoahhh,

According to RimRock's website, the 158 swc that I was looking at says their BHN 12 for this bullet, sized 0.358"

Missouri Bullets has SWC in .358 diameter, powder coated, hardness for 38 loads (12 brinell) and harder for .357 loads.Prices were pretty good when I bought a thousand last year

Thank you, saddlesore!

Same load except mine is Red Dot. I shoot it out of a Colt Diamondback or model 19 Smith.

kwg