Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading .38 SPL 158 Grain LSWCHP Advice

After years of dithering I finally made the jump today and bought a Lee Precision classic turret press reloading kit and .38 special dies. Now comes the hard part for a newbie!

I am looking to you experienced guys for some loading advice. I would like to reproduce the Remington 158 grain LSWCHP +P I have been using, for use in a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum with a 2 1/4 inch barrel.

I have a ton of once fired brass, but need your help choosing the powder, primer, and how many grains to load with.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment you can provide!

Steve

I'd try and get some Win 231 or Alliant Unique!

Also Hodgdon HP-38.

Primers any you can find in small pistol, CCI,Win,Fed.. these are more preferable, but there are some others showing up lately !

5 to 6 grains of Unique is a good place to look. Accurate No5 is a good one too. As is PowerPistol.

For the bullet, I highly recommend the Rimrock 158 grain SWCHP gas check. It is cast soft at 5 bhn and it will expand at these velocities.

Unique for the powder. 4.5 grns gets me 830 fps, 5 grns (a +p load) gets me 885 fps, in a 4 inch barrel S&W 67. These are for use in 38 Special cases.

I prefer using magnum cases with loads of this type in a 357 Mag revolver. 6 grains of Unique in a magnum case gets me between 1025 and 1080 fps depending on barrel length in a magnum revolver.

Regards,
Manny

Fantastic advice, thanks guys!

Now, when you say Unique is there a specific (for lack of a better term) model number I should use? Or is Unique Unique?

4-4.4 gr hp-38/win 231

Thank you Sir!

I use Unique for my every day loads in 357mg with cast lead 158gr bullets. 2400 launches my heavy loads with the same bullets.

I'm unfamiliar with the SP101 but my GP100 has a cylinder that's slightly shorter than my S&W's of the same chambering. COAL may be detail of importance.

12grs if 2400, I'm assuming you are using 38 special brass? Avoid the double crimp wadcutter brass.

6grs of Unique in a 38 special case would work fine for his purposes

I would suggest picking up a manual or two and searching through there for loads rather than using data from unknown sources on a website. At the very least you could compare the suggestions with actual tested data to help weed out any loads that might be problematic. The Lyman Cast Bullet manual would be a first choice. A manual can also help one troubleshoot any problems that one may encounter.

As for myself with various 158 gr lead SWCs, I have used Alliant Unique, Herco, Blue Dot, and 2400; Winchester 231, WSF, and WST; Hodgdon Universal, HP-38 (same as Win 231), Titegroup, HS-6, and H4227; Accurate/Ramshot True Blue, No 5, and Solo 1000 to get +P type loads.

Powders I haven't tried yet but hope to soon would be Hodgdon CFE Pistol; Winchester AutoComp, W244, and W572; and Alliant Power Pistol.

The 38 Spl is a pretty easy cartridge to load for and like many, it would be far shorter to list poor loads than good ones.

Well, the OP wanted to replicate the factory Remington load, which 4.5 to 5 of Unique would do, in my experience. 6 of Unique in 38 Special cases while safe in his 357 revolver, would be fairly high pressure in a 38 revolver if it ever happened to get in one. It would be considerably hotter than the factory load he was trying to replicate. Since the OP stated he was new to reloading, I thought that was a better, safer, route to go. I do agree with Woodmaster above, obtaining a recent reloading manual and following it is good advice.

Regards,
Manny

5.5 gr Unique under Rimrocks 158 LSWC-HP

Remington +P load is not impressive in a short barrel, I'd want to reproduce 4-6" Remington +P speeds in my 2 inch barrel.

Agree 100%.

Since the OP is new to handloading, I'd also start by assembling and shooting several boxes of standard-pressure loads first. That will help you ensure that your dies are properly adjusted and that you know how to execute each step properly before you try to load high-pressure ammo.


Okie John

Yes, get a manual or two. Lyman would be a good start. And remember, you'll need to roll crimp these .38's. Light to medium, depending on the load.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for your advice and insight!

I am going to order another loading manual as you suggested and get my mind "right" about this project.

Last time I took something like this on was a few years ago when I built a still and began making high grade vodka (that took a lot of reading and some experimentation as well). I enjoy the learning part, but having a great finish product is the goal!

Thanks again.

There should be info about that FBI load available on line in abundance. I may have read specific info in Handloader magazine. I can't recall for sure

Also there's an article penned by a writer named Skeeter Skelton and published by his wife after his death titled "My Friend the 357." It has some good info about heavy loads in 38spl cases. The data should be compared to modern data in recently published manuals for verification of safety, but the information is still good, even though it was written a long time ago.

Best of luck with your project.

In recent years I've been using Universal powder for all of my lead bullet loads for my pistols in .38 Spl, 9 mm, .45 acp, and .44 Spl.

My every day .38 Spl loads are 155 gr lead SWC bullets cast from Lee 6-cavity molds ahead of 4.0 grains of Universal powder.

For the load you’re trying to duplicate

HS-6 would be my first pick

Power Pistol would be my second

After that it’s a crap shoot

Good luck!

This works for me.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/18020059/1/6-shots-one-hole

A bunch of them have gotten in my K frame .38s.

You’ve received some very good advice in this thread. About all I can add is make sure you put a good crimp on them.

Speaking of crimping, I've found that my RCBS .380 seating/crimping die will put a very slick taper crimp on a .38 Special cartridge. I'm certain that my RCBS 9mm seating/crimping die will work also.

You have to back the die out quite a bit, of course.

I seat the bullet to the crimp groove with a typical .38 Special seating die, then to finish up I install the .380 die in the press and taper crimp the case so that it "leans into" the crimp groove instead of rolling the mouth of the case over into it.

If you load for the big boomers you probably need to use a heavy roll crimp to keep the bullets from backing out under recoil. But a good taper crimp into the crimp groove of a cast or swaged bullet in the .38 holds everything in place even with fairly stout .38 Special loads.

I’ve tried several powders in the 38 special. I’m with Bristoe on Accurate #5. I’ve found this works real good. I’m around 6 grains with the Missouri or Bayou coated 158 LSWC bullet. I use this to punch paper and shoot steel plates. Hasbeen

I've been shooting cast bullets through .38s for a long time. But I've been surprised at the accuracy that swaged bullets provide. I didn't know how fast I could push a swaged 158 bullet in a Model 10. But I've loaded them up about as fast as I care to shoot *any* 158 in a .38 and they shoot clean as a whistle up to 1000 fps.

Of course, barrel leading depends on many things,...the smoothness of the barrel,...how hot the powder you're using burns,..the design of the bullet.

But it's been my experience that they can be pushed faster than most people think.

Like you, I started out at 6 grains of AA#5 with 158s in the .38. Then I took it up to 6.5. Now I shoot them with 7.

At 7 grains in the .38 special with 158s, AA#5 burns very clean and consistent.

I first started using AA#5 in top end loads in the .380. Industry standard for the .380 is 21,500 PSI and those .380 loads shoot good.

The Speer book calls for 6.6 grains of AA#5 with swaged 158 bullets for a +P load in the .38 Special and says that it's just below 20,000 PSI. I would guess that rounding them up to an even 7 grains puts their pressure right at 21,500 PSI,...same as the industry standard pressure for the .380.

So I've found two chamberings that AA#5 works very well in at that pressure. It seems to me that 21,000 to 23,000 PSI is the sweet spot for loads with AA#5 regardless of what cartridge you're using it in.

Of course, it's too fast for optimum velocities in magnum chamberings. My book shows an 8 grain starting load with AA#5 and 158s in the .357 magnums,..and 9 grains as a maximum load.

That tells me that AA#5 pressure starts spiking pretty fast if you get much above 9 grains of it in a .38 or .357 case. But it's still behaving properly down at 7 grains,..and that's where I keep it.

I've read his article. Great reading and info.

mannyspd1
unless I read their site wrong, they are wanting $.40 each for those! That's way more than I am looking to pay for cast bullets. There does not seem to be much availability in a LSWCHP bullet other than Rimrock.

Look up GT Bullets. They have numerous HP bullets.

I’ve bought from GT . Both 38 special and 9mm. Hasbeen

4.0gr HP-38 with 158 LSWC been plenty accurate for me

Agree with the post that suggests using .357 brass.

Also, I’d avoid any of the swaged lead HPs like the Hornadys as I had leading when I pushed them a bit. Gas checks seem like a good idea.

Titegroup has worked good for me in the 38spl and meters well.

The swaged Hornadys are pretty soft. They tumble in my little Taurus 605 2". But cast bullets shoot great in it. For some reason though, the Hornadys shoot good out of my Security Six.

So I run thousands of Hornady swaged 38s out. A couple of observations… first they are .357” dia, I think they can benefit from being 358 but they are not. Most likely if they are leading it’s your throats. You can run them up to 1k + if everything fits right. You can add a gas check to them if you want.

Zero brand bullets are better, are sized 358 and are absolutely accurate AF. All of them… LSWC, LSWC HP, WC, LRN. Buy them by the thousands.

I like the Hornady swaged bullets, and have had great accuracy and no leading issues. But I use them for light/low speed loads. Like between 700 and 800 fps. Paper targets don't need speed much.