fecmech
Member
Waywatcher--If you are getting leading with Unique I doubt it's the powder. What size are your bullets? Are they bigger than the throats on your gun, they need to be. See if a bullet simply falls through the throat( bad) or must be pushed through the throat (good). If the throats check out, are they bigger than the groove size in the barrel(good) if smaller (way bad), this will require slugging the barrel. Attaining 800-900 fps with lead in the 38 spl is not difficult with a 158 gr bullet, the Lyman cast bullet manual lists a number of powders that do it. Just a few, 5.0/231gives 934 fps,5.4 Unique gives 954 fps and 4.4 of Bullseye gives 915 fps. all at 18000 CUP.
My standard load for a 38 spl is 4.2 of bullseye behind a 158 RN which gives 896 fps out of my 6" K-38. This is a std pressure load per Lyman at 16200 cup and is extremely accurate. I use it for all my shooting including Hunters pistol silhouette. I have no idea how many I have put through the K 38 but it is well over 10-15K. I have also shot a lot of 5.0/unique and 4.9/231, all are right at 875-900 and all are accurate but not quite as good as the Bullseye in my gun and none of them lead.
My standard load for a 38 spl is 4.2 of bullseye behind a 158 RN which gives 896 fps out of my 6" K-38. This is a std pressure load per Lyman at 16200 cup and is extremely accurate. I use it for all my shooting including Hunters pistol silhouette. I have no idea how many I have put through the K 38 but it is well over 10-15K. I have also shot a lot of 5.0/unique and 4.9/231, all are right at 875-900 and all are accurate but not quite as good as the Bullseye in my gun and none of them lead.