key hole snubby

[hancjamk]

Yesterday I was practicing my point shooting at a silhouette target with my SW 340 357 magnum snubby at about 10 feet. I was using 38 special brass with 6.0 gr of Autocomp with 158 gr. Speer SWCHP. I fired about 30 rounds and I noticed that one of the rounds key holed. Is this common with a snubby? I was thinking maybe, the bullet is to heavy a bullet for a 2 in. barrel. I Know 6.0 gr of auto comp 2/10 of gr. less than the min charge for 357 according to the hodgdon web site. Any Ideas?

 

[rcmodel]

No, it's not common. In fact, it's almost unheard of.

The 2" snubby was designed around the old .38 Spl 158 grain lead bullet load.

That's about all there was back then, as JHP hadn't been invented yet.

I'd check the barrel for leading or jacket fouling build-up.

Other then that?
Any chance you threw a wild round into the dirt in front of the target and it was tumbling when it bounched up off the ground?

I Know 6.0 gr of auto comp 2/10 of gr. less than the min charge for 357

Yes it is.
But you are not using .357 brass.
You said you were using .38 Spl brass, and a max +P load for that is 5.0 grains.
Who knows how much pressure you got with 6.0 in .38 Spl brass. Maybe excess pressure caused the keyholing??

rc