loaded too light

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coondogger

coondogger

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I loaded ten 38 special cartridges yesterday. It was only afterwards that I realized I had the scale set wrong. All are loaded at 4.3 grains of (Universal) powder while the recipe calls for a starting weight of 4.7 grains. I'm a little concerned about squibs. But I hate to have to pull the bullets on ten cartridges, but if the concensus here is that these aren't safe to fire, I'll pull them and start over.
 
I don't think you will stick a bullet with that degree of underload.
Just to be sure, raise the muzzle and lower it to the target so the powder is against the primer.
 
MrBorland said:
Personally, I doubt they'd stick, but when in doubt, be on the safe side. And pulling ten bullets would just take a few minutes, so what's the problem?
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I was just wondering the same thing.

It seems to me that the choices are either pull the rounds, or mark them clearly and fire one and see what happens. Unless I'm mistaken, either it'll fire fine or will be a squib. If the later, then it's a matter of clearing the round and then taking the rest home and pulling them. If it fires, then repeating.

But I might be mistaken so this isn't advice or suggesting one should do this. Just my thoughts.
 
As someone who has spent time exploring the sub-start-load world, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot them... but I wouldn't shoot them rapid-fire. Shoot at something close enough to see each bullet hole, and, if in doubt, unload the gun and use a flashlight or cleaning rod to check for a stuck bullet. You're not going to blow up the gun (a straight-walled-cartridge revolver - things may be different in rifles) because of a slightly-lighter-than-start load unless you stick a bullet and send a second after it.

Suggestion: IF you plan to keep them and fire them (which might be educational for you), first mark them all with a big slash across the case head with a sharpie. You don't want to get these mixed up with other rounds. Second, start with the powder-back position (tilt gun up, slowly lower into alignment with target, pull trigger). Then shoot a couple in the recovered-from-recoil position. Then shoot a couple powder forward (reverse of powder back procedure). (BUT ONLY AT A DISTANCE AND PACE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO CONFIRM A BULLET HOLE FROM EACH SHOT.) You might learn something, especially if you happen to use a chronograph.

But pulling 10 rounds is no big deal.
 
Doublehelix said:
"When in doubt, throw it out" (or in this case, pull 'em).
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I agree with this in general, but ATLDave gave an in-depth response for this case.

As I posted above I would mark them (like Dave agreed) then take them to the range and SLOWLY shoot then. In this case the danger of blowing up the gun is low if shooting the one at a time, and OP said he'd prefer not to pull them if possible. Given the low risk, IF CAUTION is EXERCISED why pull them?
 
I would have to shoot at least one of them. You never know, it might be a perfect low powered plinking load that is accurate. One nice thing about playing around with loading for revolvers is that you can really play on the low end.
I do it all the time. Some of my favorite loads are below minimum.
 
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