Snubby Lessons Learned

[Got_Lead?]

I am working up a load for my Taurus 85 currently, and am trying both 148 grain wadcutters and 120 grain lead bullets.

Here are a few of my observations that others may find useful:

Heavier bullets strike higher (more recoil impulse, slightly more barrel movement before bullet exit). At 25 yards shooting 120 grainers my 85 puts holes in the target right about the same elevation as the sights, however, 148's go a couple of inches higher, and 158's about an inch above that. That's how I adjust my sights.

Since most snubs are fixed sights, so the rotational alignment of the barrel in the frame is critical. You may find your gun shoots right or left of the point of aim. If it shoots straight on, you are lucky. If not, either use a little Kentucky windage or have it adjusted. This adjustment usually involves rotating the barrel slightly in the frame, definately a job for a smith who know what he's doing here. My 85 was shooting about 4" to the right at 25 yards before being adjusted, haven't had a chance to shoot it since. Hopefully, it'll shoot center.

At .38 snub power levels, I don't feel the need for jacketed bullets. This saves me a ton of money, as I cast my own. Even with the price of lead sky high, I can still crank out a 1000 .38 cal boolits for less than $15.

Cleaning the bore and cylinders down to bare metal is over-rated. I'm shooting purely lead (wheel weight alloy) boolits. The loads I'm shooting don't lead the bore, however, they do leave deposits on the throats of the cylinder, and in the first 1/2" of the barrel leade. Now, I hate it when it does that, and wish it didn't, but this seems to be the way of .38's. In fact all my .38's run the same way, clean bore, just a bit of lead fouling in the leade and throats. Does it hurt anything, no, it actually helps. The bit of fouling in the throat and leade seems to give the bullet a better seal, and some initial resistance for cleaner powder burn. After 2 cylinders (lead fouling in the throats and leade reaches a stable level somewhere between 2 and 4 cylinders of shooting), velocities will increase 50 to 70 fps over a bare metal clean bore, with no loss in accuracy. Most of my revolvers will shoot around 1" at 25 yards, with the fouling, and for me this is plenty fine. So, a little fouling increases velocity without reducing accuracy, so why remove it? I just use a little oil to prevent rust and wipe it down. Too many guns have been damaged by over-cleaning.

I'm liking lighter boolits for general shooting and plinking, they go faster with way less recoil. And I can shoot all day without beating either the gun or myself.

Here's a picture of the little fellow and a 25 yard target. Yes, it really did fire that group with the 120 grainers and a 2.8 grains of BE. Most of the other loads shot around 2 1/2" to 3 1/2" at that range.

Don't kid yourself, snubs can be accurate, but, sight alignment error is way magnified with a short sighting radius.



Thanks all, for enduring my ramblings, I just wish I could take better pictures.

 

[Armored farmer]

Thanks for the info. I am still learning to deal with my snub SP101. I cast 158gr lnfp and load over 6.4 gr Unique. It's a mild load that shoots POA for me.

 

[ThomasT]

Thats really good shooting. The load of 2.8grs of BE sounds too light. I would have used around 3.5 or a little more. I use 4.5grs of BE under a Lee tumble lube WC and 5.3grs of 231 with a Speer 158 LSWHP. Both of these get around 900fps from my model 85.

For a light load I use a Lee124gr TL 9mm with 3grs of BE. It has almost no recoil. At least compared to the other loads listed.

 

[Got_Lead?]

Thanks Ratshooter, it is a light load. I've been working a lot with bullseye loads lately. It has been pretty informative so far, with each shooting session, I'm coming home with lot's of new results to think about.

I picked up a Smith model 52 target pistol a year or so ago, and have been doing a lot of load work-up for it. The accepted standard for this pistol is 2.5 gns of BE behind a flush seated 148 gn wadcutter. However, this is a little too stout, and the gun seems to favor 2.35 grains, resulting in a whopping 640 fps, but all the boolits will go into one hole at 25 yards, and that's the name of the game.

So anyway, just out of curosity, I thought I'd try the Lee 120 gn TC boolit, seated flush, it looks a little funky, kind of like something that might go in a Nagant. Anyway, the 2.8 grains of BE just functions the gun, and is very accurate from the model 52. It shoots about 800 fps, and punches cleaner holes in the paper than the slower WC's. It also shot very well from the snubby, my jaw dropped when I saw the group. Anyway, it's very pleasent to shoot, very accurate, and I'm getting about 700 fps measured 7 yards downrange.

I'm learning a lot about accuracy lately, and with lead the accuracy load a lot of times is not conventional. But thats a whole other subject.

Thanks