Ignorant Bullet Question

What's the difference between Ignorance & Stupidity?

Ignorance is curable!!

As usual, I'm looking for a cure...

Disclaimer: I load ONLY Black Powder Cartridges so you might say I'm new to reloading smokeless.

I decided that since I have 38 Special dies, I would reload plinking loads for my Taurus SS revolver in smokeless. The part that I didn't expect was where I am currently at in AZ it is almost impossible to find reloading components. I did find a shop in Lake Havasu City that sells some though. I purchased a box of 500 RNFP 158gr bullets made by Bear Creek Supply. When I got home and opened the box I was surprised to find that they have no lube grooves or oglive and are just smooth with no apparent bullet lube. They also appear to be about as hard as cast iron.

Having NO experience loading anything but Black Powder Cartridges this doesn't look right to me. Do I need to hand lube these things?? Is there supposedly a "Dry" lubricant on them maybe?? Or...are they so freaking hard that no lube is necessary??

Help me out here guys, I'm not going to start reloading anything else other than these 38's in smokeless but it appears I need somewhat of an education regarding bullets.

Thanks,

So then my assumption that they need not be lubed is correct.

I thought the GS guy might have just handed these to me to get rid of them.

Good input guys, I'll answer some of the questions above.

I loaded up 50 and will probably do another 50 this morning. As a Black Powder loader, I have no reloading data for smokeless. I'm simply using the data contained in the Lee die box for 38 Special, these are just for plinking rounds in a gun that wasn't designed to shoot the right powder.

I know Dillon is in Scottsdale, they were in fact the only place on earth that I could find 44 Russian a couple of months ago. Unfortunately Scottsdale is 200+ miles from my location in AZ. The bullets I'm using are indeed .358's as labeled on the box and measured by my less than expert hands.

And lastly since I did shoot some of these yesterday and I am still around this fine Christmas morning to write this, YES I have a scale, but thanks for being concerned. The gun by the way is a 38 Special not a .357 Mag.

Okay, I took my chrony with me yesterday but was having problems with the sun for a little bit and getting some wild readings. But basically loaded with 3.5gr of Universal a CCI SPP and those cast iron hard .358 RNFP's we're talkin' 400-500fps and good accuracy at the ranges that the pistol was intended to shoot. Nothing that I would use for self defense but just right for killing paper. I also took my '94 Marlin lever gun and a box of 44 Specials for that loaded with 26gr 3f Swiss and 205 RNFP's, those are impressive loads!!

I'll probably up the charge in the 38's to 4.0gr Universal just to see if I can get the MV up a little bit, but that's about as far as I'll take that load. I am curious though. I seemed to have powder that didn't ignite. As I'm unloading spent cartridges there always seemed to be some unburned powder on the gun that spilled out of the empties. I've heard that smokeless doesn't completely combust but it kinda surprised me that I could actually see it on the gun.

FROGO207 said:

Not having a crimp ring on the bullet might be allowing your crimp to be light and resulting lower pressure when burning in there not letting the propellant be used up completely. Upping the pressure or a firmer crimp will most likely help but you may still have some unburned propellant in there anyway.

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The starting load that Lee recommends for Universal powder is 3.5gr with a max of 4.5gr. I of course used the starting charge of 3.5 not wanting to have to learn how to use my left hand should I screw up. I'm used to thumb seating bullets with Black Powder cartridges so my impression with the 38SPL's was that they fit in the brass pretty tight (I couldn't thumb seat them at all) as I used the press to seat and a light roll crimp on the brass. The box I loaded up yesterday I took the charge to 4.0gr and we'll see if it makes any difference, if not I'll probably take it back to 3.5gr just 'cause I'm cheap.

Since these loads will only be used to kill paper and they're coming out of a 2" barrel, I'm not so concerned with muzzle velocity or accuracy past 10 yards. I did shoot a few at a 25 yard target the other day and noticed that a couple of them "keyholed" the paper. Quite obviously, if you're using a SS Taurus with a 2" barrel for self defense, you should probably let your target get closer or find a better hiding spot.

velocette said:

You can check with Missouri Bullet Co. They will mail you
all the bullets you can shoot. Their quality is high, their service is better.
I use their bullet in .380s .38s, .40s & .45s

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I emailed MBC and got a reply almost instantly on a Sunday no less. That speaks good of their customer service. Unfortunately or fortunately whichever works best, I bought a box of 500 of these Beer Creek bullets and those should last for a while.

My email to MBC was to find out if they lube for Black Powder on any bullets and their reply was that they do not. Too bad. Currently I'm using Dash Caliber for BP bullets and I'm quite happy with my results, but I'm always lookin'.