38 cal 158 gr lswc ?

with a 38 cal 158 gr lswc what is a good load using WST powder. The manuals say 3.3 - 3.7 so I tried 3.5 and it wasn't that accurate and it was fairly dirty. I am  cautious about  going below the minimum load.

Cast or swaged?

Will never be as accurate as WC. 

I found for DR matches the best thing to do is but factory ammo. Zero, or Remington for the long line. 

For the short line zero swagged over 3.2 BE works for me, I use an OAl of 1.456 which is the same as the factory OAl. 

Check your crimp and OAL because 3.5 should be ok.  

For fun I am playing with 105gn bullets  which is a good bullet for plinking

they are cast bullets
how much crimp should I be using ? My Die is a roll crimp.

About the same crimp as in factory wadcutters, a moderate roll.  Your load sounds about right.

would it be safe to load 3.0 of WST ?

The 3.3 is as bout as low as I'd go.  Lower than that and ignition might be problematic which will give erratic velocities.  Absolute lowest without instrumented data is 3.2.  Sorry.

3.0 WORKS IN MY GUN JUST FINE . THE HARD CAST DO REQUIRE A STRONGER CRIMP TO HELP THE BASE OF THE BULLET TO SWELL.

I use 2.7 on the short line and 3.1 is the most accurate on the 50yd line  under the zero 158grn LSWC out of my S&W Model 14

2.7 is a really light load. Will this be safe in my model S&W 19 ? I will try 3.0 and see how that works. Then try 2.7 WST
My bullets are the Penn 158 gr tcbb cowboy action which is softer than a hard cast bullet.

rebs wrote:2.7 is a really light load. Will this be safe in my model S&W 19 ? I will try 3.0 and see how that works. Then try 2.7 WST
My bullets are the Penn 158 gr tcbb cowboy action which is softer than a hard cast bullet.

I have shot 2.7 out of my 19 also with no problems.  Again that is with the Zero swaged bullet.

I'd suggest search for ' Dr loads' lots of good information on this site.

farmboy wrote:I use 2.7 on the short line and 3.1 is the most accurate on the 50yd line  under the zero 158grn LSWC out of my S&W Model 14

Is this with WST or bullseye powder ?

We run 3.3 on THE LL and 3.0 at the SL  of WST.

Never got close to factory Remington though at 50.