.38 Special Load needed

I am looking to reload some ammo for Distiguished Revlover Practice.

I am going to use 158 SWC and Bullseye Powder out of a 6" S&W. Anyone have a pet load they would like to share?

Thanks in advance.

Several friends shoot that same combination. Anywhere from 3.0 - 3.5 gr. bullseye, your gun will tell you what it likes.

I use 3.0 gr Bullseye and 158 gr LSWC bullets from Penn Bullets. This gives excellent accuracy with a S&W K38 target masterpiece, 6" barrel. This is what I've been using for distinguished revolver. I plan to try some N320 loads this weekend to see if they give equal grouping, but lighter recoil vs the BE.

I use 2.8 grains of Bullseye in my S&W Target Masterpiece with a Lyman 356311 lead round nose cast bullet. It also shoots very well with the RCBS 38-150 SWC.

3.5 gr of bullseye with 158gr RN or SWC, I've always had great accuracy with that. Using a Colt Officers Model Match 6", good luck!

ChuckS1 wrote:I use 2.8 grains of Bullseye in my S&W Target Masterpiece with a Lyman 356311 lead round nose cast bullet. It also shoots very well with the RCBS 38-150 SWC.

Chuck, how well does 2.8 gr BE work for shooting DR matches? At less than 700 fps are you getting a lot of drop between 25 and 50 yards.

I tried, 3.0 grns up to 3.8 in 0.2 grn increments at 25 yds. I did not chronograph them, but the 3.2 grn looks very promising.

On Sunday I compared some N320 loads to my standard BE load I've been using for DR matches. The N320 is a faster burning powder than BE and gave a sharper recoil, can of a snap vs. the rather soft recoil of the BE. I plan to load more of the N320, moving down .1 grain at a time to see if I can find a load that is accurate and low recoil. The N320 is much cleaner than the BE.

I'm a little interested in this thread as well since I own a Taurus 65 with a 4" barrel and use a 358311 (160gr RN) mold. I may have to add this into my centerfire portion of the arsenal.

What kind of accuracy are you guys getting at 50 yds from a rest?

3.4 gr of TiteGroup with either my cast bullets or particularly with Zero swaged 158gr SWC. 50yd sandbag rest, 8-Xs, 1-10,1-9 just out which was most likely me. This was in a S&W 14, 6" and the Zero bullets.

Scott

Mike,

I have had good luck with 3.5 of BE and 3.4 of HTG.

does anyone use red dot for .38? if so, what's your recipe?

2

whoops. i should have been more specific. alliant red dot powder for a 148g lwc in a revolver (S&W 14-2 6"bbl).

Everyone has been talking about revolver loads and I need some help with loads for my .38 spl 1911 which I have a frame mount on.
I've tried Bullseye, solo 1000 and win 231.
The bullet of choice is a Percision Delta swaged 148 gr HBWC which I have several thousand of. I also have a good supply of Solo 1000 which I load in my .45 and have tried up to 3.1 grs in the .38 but noticed that the bullets were fish tailing not a full key hole at 25 yards with 3.1 grs of Solo, they also caused failure to feed several times during a match this weekend. The 3.1 grs of Bullseye and 231 worked fine with no malfuctions and no signs of fish tailing. The 3.1 grs of Solo had a little more recoil than the Bullseye or 231.
As for the malfunctions could the slide be traveling too fast for it to pick up the next round and properly feed it into the chamber?
This gun has functioned perfectly with light loads of all three powders only the Solo loads have caused propblems. I should also add that I bump these bullets in my Lyman bullet sizer before loading them, They are more accurate when I do this plus they get a little extra lube which helps decrease leading, the old style Star lube they use is not my favorite. 

Rodger Barthlow wrote:Everyone has been talking about revolver loads and I need some help with loads for my .38 spl 1911 which I have a frame mount on.
I've tried Bullseye, solo 1000 and win 231.
The bullet of choice is a Precision Delta swaged 148 gr HBWC which I have several thousand of.
<snip>

Roger,
I use 2.9 WST w/Remington 148g HBWC.

Thanks Lary when Star dropped out I was looking for a new bullet to load and Percision Delta was recomended so I bought several thousand thinking they were the equivelent to Star. Probably couldn't find any Remington bullets in todays market. I did find that running the Deltas threw the .357 sizing die the accuracy of the Deltas got better.

I know this thread is a little old but if you will permit me; are you guys using roll crimp or taper crimp on the revolver loads you mention?

I use taper crimp into the crimp groove of SWC bullets. My accuracy is good at 25 yards, but I shoot factory loads on the long line.

and I use roll crimp over the bullet on Remington 148 hbwc's, but, I use them for PPC at 50 yds on in..  

mainly to facilitate the reloading stages..

I use 2.9gr of Bullseye with a 148HBWC in my 1911. Reliability is flawless. Due to the long skinny chamber, make sure you keep it clean. 25yd grouping is 1 ragged hole, however 50yds is a different story. I guess because of the nature of swaged HBWCs, they don't fly as well to that distance. It's definitely shoots 10ring, but not Xring like the .45. It likes Remington 148s, stars and zeros shoot the same. Since I'm not going to cast my own bullets, I just live with it. The points I recoup in timed and rapid I make up being a few points dwn in slowfire. My gun is a custom Caspian with a 6" BBl with a slide mounted UltraDot. The gun was made by Floyd Aikman.