Minimum Lead Load .38 Special...?

[charliemopic]

I want to load some minimum charge .38 Special loads with non-jacketed, non-plated lead bullets. Bullets I have are sourced from MAGNUS Bullet Company, USA and are...
158 Grain RN-BB or Round Nose-Bevel Bottom with .357" diameter.
and...
148 Grain DEWC or Double Edge Wad Cutter with .358"dia. All bullets came lubed.
The only powders I have right now are:
-TiteGroup,
-Universal and
-Blue Dot.
All the loads will be fired from a Taurus Tracker 7-shot .357/38Spl. revolver with 6 inch barrel.

Any suggestions for any of the above?
Please include over all Legnth.

Thanks For Your Time
charliemopic

 

[Walkalong]

Titegroup is the best powder you have for minimum loads in .38 Spl. There are better choices IMHO, but of the powders you have, that is your best choice.

Seat the 158 to the crimp groove and crimp. That is your O.A.L. for it. Seat the 148 WC flush with the case mouth or just barely above flush. You can roll a crimp over the edge of the WC, or not crimp at all.

Check for data at Hodgdons Reloading Data Center

I have shot plenty of Magnus bullets. They shoot well.

 

[RidgwayCO]

You might want to keep a lookout for some Trail Boss. It's hard to beat for light, lead-bullet, loads in the .38 Special.

 

[rcmodel]

I would load the DEWC bullets as long as you can without exposing the grease grooves in .38 cases for use in your .357 revolver.

The reason being, it will get the bullet closer to the cylinder throats in the .357 chambers, which will give the bullet a better alignment.

If you seat them flush with the case mouth in .38 cases, as is usually recommended, they have to jump the 1/8" gap between the .380" chamber and the .357" chamber throats

rc

 

[Jim Watson]

The Magnus DEWC has a clearly defined crimp groove near each end.
I guess you could seat it longer and taper crimp into the band between the lube groove and the crimp groove but don't know how much it would help.

I always loaded DEWCs like a muzzleloader ball, sprue up. I don't know how much that really helped, but a flat smooth base can't hurt. Of course a commercial loader doesn't care and is probably using a feeder that just throws them in either way, which is the point of the DEWC in the first place.

 

[ChristopherG]

Ridgway rings the bell here. Trailboss is the champ of light lead loads. If you look at Hodgdon's reloading data available at

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

you'll find that Trailboss's starting load with a 148 WC plinks out the end of a tube at an estimated 625 fps--and its max load is only 675 fps. That's pretty gentle.

And of course, for OAL, Jim Watson is right. Use the crimp groove.

 

[jjohnson]

TiteGroup

I agree - TiteGroup is a great powder up to the medium velocities. It's very fast burning, so it builds to its max pressure very quickly. This will give you a relatively clean burn. It does burn so fast that trying to get to max velocity will get you max pressures. For the higher velocity, you can use the Blue Dot. I doubt you'd be able to get it to all burn in a 6-inch barrel, but you might get some nice blue/orange flame at the muzzle. TiteGroup's a top choice for those minimum loads with your wadcutters. I'd keep the other bullets for hunting.

I haven't worked with Universal. If memory serves, it's somewhere between TiteGroup and Blue Dot in burn rate. The Magnus bullets should be just fine; I liked the ones I have used.

One caution about TiteGroup - the charges are physically small, so it's possible to double charge without noticing that you did it. I like the powder a lot, but be extra cautious with your charges. Hit their web page and stick with their load data - don't go under their recommended charge or you can wind up with troubles you don't want.

 

[Walkalong]

The Magnus DEWC has a clearly defined crimp groove near each end

Forgot about that. I always crimped into the groove, but I also always shot them from .38s & not .357s.

rcmodels suggestion to long them long, but cover up the lube, is a good one. They may very well shoot better that way in the .357.

 

[rcmodel]

Back in the late 60's when I shot with 5th. Inf AMU, there were two .38 Spl wadcutter loads.

The one for the auto pistols (S&W Model 52 & Colt conversion) where seated flush with the case mouth with a slight roll crimp to get them to fit in the magazine and feed.

The ones for the K-38 were seated out about 1/8" if I remember correctly. This was to get the bullet started into the cylinder throats and give better alignment.

Same principal as Elmer Keith's bullet design with the full dia. driving band sticking out of the case. It helps align the bullet in the chamber.

I still load all my .38 Spl wadcutters that way, as I don't have a .38 Spl. auto pistol that requires flush seating.

rc

 

[Maj Dad]

Bullseye

The next time you're looking for powder, consider Bullseye. It is the sine qua non and absolute classic powder for light loads in many cartridges, especially2.7 gr in the 148 gr wc 38 spl - THE original target load. The reason is that it is so good it is really hard to improve on. There are lots of other powders (and I have most of them, W231 in partcular) but in my experience, this one is the best place to start (and usually to finish).
My two cents
Maj Dad

 

[Robby from Long Island]

I also found Bullseye to work very well when loading Valiant 148 gr. DEWC. Using my RCBS little dandy rotor no. 2 gives me 2.7 grains every time. I"m shooting a S&W 686 with an 8 3/8" barrel and it's almost like shooting a .22. BTW, I don't crimp those wadcutters, and so far haven't noticed any problems. The bullet projects out of the case mouth slightly less than 1/8".