38 Special and MG 125gr JHP?

[Shrinkmd]

I am going to be making these up for indoor range use, since they said no to my 158 lswc over 3.5 of Bullseye for being too smoky.

I want to load these 125gr jacketed bullets to approximate factory. I have read that Power Pistol is probably best for 38+P loads, but how about for standard 38 Special? I have Bullseye, Unique, and Power Pistol. I'm hoping for the cleanest, most accurate load.

 

[4895]

5.3 grains of winchester 231 is a max charge of +P load. 231 burns very clean and meters like no other powder (IME).

 

[Walkalong]

Unique will work like a champ.

 

[rcmodel]

As will Bullseye.
That was what the factorys used to load .38 Spl for about 75 years.

Try 4.0/125 for a nice standard pressure load.

rc

 

[gamestalker]

HS6 works very well too!

 

[Shrinkmd]

For jacketed bullets, as opposed to lead, will Bullseye likely smoke more than the "new cleaner burning" Unique?

I will probably work up loads for all three, but I am curious which powder is favored.

 

[Shrinkmd]

Ok, I compared the Lyman, Alliant, Hornady, and Lee data. I measured a seated round, and OAL is 1.440, just like the Alliant data.

Since I'm firing these in 357 guns only, I just loaded Bullseye 4.4gr and Unique 5.7gr in regular Federal cases. For some +P I used Starline +P cases and loaded to Bullseye 4.8gr (Lyman says max is 5.0, Hornady 5.3!) and Unique 5.9 (everyone seems to think 6.0 is max)

Normally I would always work up in more increments, but the +P loads are below some book max and fired in 357 guns only. I am NOT trying to load 357 in a 38 Special case.

Once the rains stop I'll get some data...

 

[Shrinkmd]

Results!

Ok, here we go:

The standard loads are in Once Fired Federal Cases, the +P in new Starline cases (I splurged for some different headstamps) All use CCI SP primers and Montana Gold 125gr JHP bullets. Firm crimp with the Redding Profile crimp die. All shot in my 686 4" barrel. 68 degree day over the CED Millennium 2 chronograph. These are all 25 shot groups at the same target. I tried to keep conditions as uniform as possible (although the gun did heat up a bit over the day!)

The Lyman data all was from a 4" Universal Receiver, which listed Bullseye 4.4 at 860 (I got 827, but I think my measure was dropping closer to 4.3gr) and 5.0 at 920 (my 4.8 got 915), Unique at 6.0 yielding 895 (I got 954 at 5.9gr) and Power Pistol 6.0 at 897 (I got 929 at 6.1) and 6.4 giving 1005 (I used 6.8 and got 1045) So overall my results were pretty close to Lyman's data, eh?

Bullseye 4.4gr
High: 862.9
Low: 805.1
E.S.: 57.8
Ave.: 827.5 857.2
S.D.: 14.8
95%: 6.4

Bullseye 4.8gr (+P)
High: 945.7
Low: 871.3
E.S.: 74.4
Ave.: 914.9 940.8
S.D.: 18.5
95%: 7.9

Unique 5.7gr
High: 998
Low: 847.8
E.S.: 150.2
Ave.: 910.9 988.4
S.D.: 38.2
95%: 16.4

Unique 5.9gr (+P)
High: 1007
Low: 864.6
E.S.: 142.4
Ave.: 954 1001
S.D.: 37.5
95%: 16.1

Power Pistol 6.1gr
High: 956.7
Low: 899
E.S.: 57.7
Ave.: 928.7 951
S.D.: 15.8
95%: 6.8

Power Pistol 6.8gr (+P)
High: 1078
Low: 989.2
E.S.: 88.8
Ave.: 1045 1074
S.D.: 19.7
95%: 8.5

I did my best to keep the loading uniform, although for some odd reason the Bullseye was 4.4 when I was checking my measure, but random tests during loading were coming up 4.3 usually. So maybe they could be a drop hotter and still be within spec. The other powders seemed to be dropping more uniformly for me. Who knows.

I don't have a Ransom Rest, so I can't comment much on accuracy. They all shot well, and center of the target was chewed out. I guess I'll end up loading with Power Pistol to get a little more oomph, with ES and SD similar to Bullseye. Unique is harder to run through the powder measure...