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Practically Shooting

38 special target loads


xtell

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Fellow shooters: I recently got a S&W 586 357 magnum with a 6 inch barrel. I'm looking to reload some mild / accurate target loads using 38 special cases. I have Bullseye, 231, Power Pistol and Titegroup and for bullets I'll be using 148 grain dewc and 158 grain swc cast bullets. I've always reloaded for 9mm and various rifle calibers but never for 38 special. I do have several reloading manuals and info from powder companies but still would like input from revolver shooters. Any help would be appreciated.

xtell

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  • 2 weeks later...

I gave it a while because I haven't done a big serious accuracy work up in .38 Spl in a long time, and was hoping someone had.

All I can tell you is what I've been using.

3.5 grains of TiteGroup with a 158 cast SWC (Saeco 382). It gets around 780 fps from a 4" barrel S&W 19.

My 148 wadcutters are cast from an H&G #50 mold. Although 2.7 grains of Bullseye has been the standard forever, I use a lot more Win 231 in other calibers, so use 3.0 grains of Win 231 with those. It only gets about 680 fps.

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BarryinIN

Thank you for your reply. I loaded up 148 DEWC's with 2.7-3.0 of Bullseye and 2.9-3.1 of 231. My gun seems to prefer the 2.7 Bullseye load (very acurate) with the 231-3.1 load a close second. For 158 SWC I was able to get good results with 3.3 of Titegroup and 3.3 of Bullseye. I shot both weights of bullets at 15 yard and 25 yard targets. I never shot a revolver before and sure was suprised at the soot left on the gun and my hands!!! By chance, would you know of any powders, suitable for use with lead bullets, that would work as well as the powders I listed but be cleaner burning? Or is the soot a result of bullet lube burning after powder ignition and just something revolver shooters live with.

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Barry and Bill,

Thanks you for the replys. I'll just have to make sure to keep up with the cleaning to avoid any lead build up. I can live with the soot as long as the guns shoots as well as it does. I'll give Clay's a shot as a powder choice if I can ever find any for sale in the local area. There are a lot of choices for rifle powder available locally but handgun powder is very scarce (along with 22 ammo).

xtell

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