Oal for 38 spl

Hello,
I'm going to start working on a DR load with Magnus swagged 158 gr swc. There are no crimp grooves on these, so what is an OAL to shoot for? Powder wise, I plan on starting with 3.1 gr of BE and working up to 3.5 gr.

Thanks,

Corey

Try 1.46". You can start as low as 2.8 gr of BE.

I think that 158 swc has a crimp groove, the small one above the two grease grooves.
It usually fills up from the greasing operation.

james r chapman wrote:I think that 158 swc has a crimp groove, the small one above the two grease grooves.
It usually fills up from the greasing operation.

Yes crimp grove unless you are loading wadcutters 

Some cases have a little ring on the outside, don't load beyond  the ring for some reason, should not be an issue for SWC. 

Wadcutters you load flush with a nice roll crimp enough to hold the bullet in place. 

Must be flush for a wad gun but the bullet cannot be allowed to sink into case. 

If its for a revolver a hair above the rim is ok. 

I like 2.7 Bullseye or even better 2.7 WST, best powder for the 38 special I have ever tried.

I really love the Magnus LWSC's--they do have a crimp groove, right under the shoulder. I just set OAL to the crimp and got a perfectly acceptable OAL. I was running 2.8 of Bullseye (a load that I used to convert a few arthritic old-timers and carpal tunnel sufferers into reloaders), but then I tried 3.0. The recoil isn't much worse at all and they grouped much better out of my K-38, with much less smoke and dirt to boot. When the weather gets better, I'll have to load up a few 2.9s and bust out my shiney new chrono to get some numbers.

And then promptly work out a load for Vihtavuori, and probably Universal, Clays and/or whatever other powders I can scrounge up as the Bullseye can is getting mighty low. Reloading's rapidly growing into a hobby all by itself.

Not that I'm complaining.

Just a random thought... has anyone tried trimming .357 max brass to just fit into a  .357 mag cylinder then loaded  148 hbwc???

I've had excellent results in my S&W 14 using 158 gr LSWC bullets from Penn Bullets.