There's no handgun category in the reloading section here, so I'm posting this here.

I'm just beginning to handload for the 38 Special, and am wondering about some of the better powders to use, as well as good "all around" bullets.

I picked up a box of Hornady 125 grain bullets (can't remember the exact variety) and a pound of Unique (because that's all Walmart had on the shelf at the time).

But I'll be buying some more powder and bullets, and just thought I'd collect some ideas from you guys as to which bullets and powders I should try.

I want an accurate load, standard pressure... (I have two airweight Smith & Wesson J frames). I want the load to work well for self defense as well.

Thanks for any help and ideas...

Dan

The best standard pressure load for target and defense in a J-frame Airweight is a 148 gr SWC. These are light and easy to shoot. Bullseye or Titegroup cover 90% or more of my .38 Special loadings. IIRC, I used 4.5 gr of Bullseye under a 125 gr lead bullet for a light plinker, and 5.6 gr of Bullseye under a 148 gr wadcutter (~815 fps, 4" bbl, probably around 750 fps out of a snub). Alliant also lists 3.3 gr of Unique with the 148 gr wadcutter for a velocity equal to my preferred Bullseye load.

To get good JHP terminal performance out of the short tube of a snub you've really got only one choice, and that's Speer's 135 gr Gold Dot JHP +P loading. According to Speer's website, you can duplicate factory ballistics with 4.8 gr of Unique and a C.O.L. of 1.450".

I carry my snubs loaded with standard pressure 148 gr WC's and carry a Bianchi Speed Strip or two with factory Speer 135 gr +P GDHP's. Reloading those flat-face WC's in a hurry is not easy to do, hence the GDHP's.

Doc, appreciate the reply.

Doc, is that 5.6 gr of Bullseye your load for sure for a 148 gr wadcutter? Seems higher than what I have read. I apologize for this question if I am out of line.

I thought the same thing. The two "classic" loads for the .38 with a 148 wadcutter are either 2.7 of Bullseye for hollowbase wadcutters or 3.5 for double-enders. More powder gets you very little with these bullets, and can blow out the skirt if they're hollowbase wadcutters. Double-end wadcutters don't have that thin skirt and can be booted a bit harder. But neither wants to be launched at much over 700 fps.

My own favorite loads are built around 158 cast SWC bullets, cast soft. I use 3.5 grains of literally any powder from Bullseye through GreenDot and all of them work just fine. W231, RedDot, 700X, Solo 1000, Nitro 100, American Select, Clays and AA-2 have all gven me between 800 and 900 fps with these bullets in any gun I've tried.

Just my personal thought in this, but I think loading jacketed bullets in a .38 is just silly.

I did find this page, with a good write up and some load data at the end of the article...

http://www.sixguns.com/tests/tt38spcl.htm

Guys, I haven't been home to check my data yet. But 3.5 sounds better to me... I just had a box with a label in my trunk and 5.6 gr is what it LOOKED like... after riding around in the dirt and crud for the past year or so. I'll recheck when I get home, promise I'll post the confirmed numbers tomorrow.

A Lyman #358429 powered by 231, HP-38, Bullseye, Unique, Universal Clays, Titegroup or just about any fast to med. fast powder has done well for me. When I was casting them for my 38 I used scrap wheelweight metal and my last lube of choice was LBT Blue Soft.

mathman

I use the LEE double ended wadcutter cast of wheelweights and lubed with either the Lyman or the Lee soft Alox over 3.0 of 231.
I used to shoot in the mid 290's regularly in Police L Bullseye with no problem.
Lee makes a six cavity mold that enables you to cast literally thousands in a few hours.The mold and handles cost less than $65.00 when I bought them several years ago.Every thing you need to cast will probably cost less than $200.00.
If you shoot a lot,you'll save that much in one or two casting sessions.If you shoot just occasionally,it's probably not worth the trouble or the investment.
The flip side is that when you have a constant and cheap supply of decent bullets,you tend to shoot a lot more.

Ever shoot that load at 50 yards? We've seen where the skirt seperated from the bullet giving you a double hole with that load. We ran less that 2gr of either Bullseye, 231 or 700X for our match loads. The NRA rules require the bulet to go through the target and backer, sometimes I think we were flirting with disaster.

I have been using the following two loads for probably 40+ years.
They have proved accurate in a number of different revolvers, and I believe them to be effective.
158 grain jacketed SP, over 8 grains of SR 4756, for about 1000fps with a 4 inch barrel.

Speer 146 grain SWCHP over 10 grains of SR 4756, for about 1200 fps, again from a 4 inch barrel.

OK... I have made it home after a LONG weekend at work. I hate the full moon, and the three days before and after....

Anyway. The load was NOT 5.6 gr of Bullseye, it's 3.6 gr, using a Midway (Remington) double-ended 148 gr wadcutter bullet.

AJ... I agree, I have no doubt that a 5.6 gr load would pretty much destroy a soft lead WC bullet. I did hardness testing on those bullets and they come out at about 8-9 BHN, which means maybe a 1:10 tin/lead mix, if that!

We're all glad you posted the retraction, DocRocket. Inadvertent mistakes like that can cause the unsuspecting a lot of grief.

Also a really great lesson to never accept an internet "good load" recommendation without double- or triple-checking it with printed data first!

Good on ya.

RR... I almost NEVER post load data on the errornet, mostly because I don't trust anybody else's load data myself.

I would not have posted the 5.6 gr load if I hadn't checked Alliant's website to confirm that 5.6 gr was a safe load with this bullet, which it is... but it's a MAX load, hardly what most of us want to be using with our soft-shooting wadcutter loads.

This is also a good lesson for me in not trusting the load data on my cartridge boxes. My handwritten 3's and 5's can look a lot alike if I'm writing labels in a hurry (which happens when you're labelling boxes for 1000+ cartridges...). Nothing substitutes for going back to the reload log and checking the numbers.

My apologies to any who may have been misled by my error.

Thanks for the clarification Doc. Not trying to bust your balls. We were shooting a swedged 148gr HBWC from a manufacture I won't post. Some felt that they were using two pieces of lead (end of one roll, start of another) when swedging bullets was the cause of the base seperating from the front of the bullet. I personally shot a 158gr Keith type SWC I cast from wheel weights. I kept my loads below 3.0 gr of Bullseye.

My favorite 38 Special load for my Taurus 85 is the 125 grain Hornady XTP/HP seated to 1.445" OAL in Remington brass over 7 grains of HS-6. Very good accuracy and velocity.

I have loaded the same bullets with Unique where I used 5 grains. Lower velocity, less accuracy.

I loaded 400 rounds of 38 Special for some friends (I don't have a 38) and when they shoot them I'll PM or post results. Load is 158gr. LSWC (Oregon Trail Laser Cast), 3.5gr Titegroup, W-W cases, RP small pistol primers. This is exactly between Hodgdon's starting and maximum charge for this powder and this bullet. One revolver is 2.5" and one is 2". If I get the chance I'll chronograph these loads but I wouldn't expect a big number. These are the "fun" loads as they're cheap to load and I've found Hodgdon's Titegroup a great powder to use in mild loads for consistancy and accuracy. Not to mention it's fairly clean burnign too. I'll let you know when I know more.

HB

I shoot 3.5 grains of Winchester 231 with a 158 Grain LSWC, Winchester Brass and CCI small Pistol Primer. I own about 20 different 38's or 357's and they all shoot this load well. In fact I got a little behind in my loading and just finished 150 of them today. Ryan

A 148grain HBWC and 2.7grs of Bullseye was my standard target load in my S&W Model 14 and it also proved very accurate in my Colt Python .357mag at both 25 and 50 yards.

1

4.2 gr. 231 under Speer's 158gr. LSWCHPs. Very accurate and about as much velocity as you can get from this bullet without leading. Accurate enough for targets, cheap enough for plinking, a good small game load, and could be used for defense as it matches several factory police type loads.

Those light framed revolvers don't react well to heavy loads. The recoil can be a little sharp. I had a Colt Cobra with the magnesium (IIRC) frame, and +P 38 Spl loads were uncomfortable if I shot any amount of them. Like a lot of others, I found that 2.7 of Bullseye worked well in every 38 Spl I owned -- with velocities around the 750 fps mark when using slugs in the 148 - 158 gr area. For defense, I would likely use factory 125 gr JHP's of some sort, if they shot well in my pistol.