If you seated to the canelure you could probably do 6.5 grains. Seating them like a wadcutter, I’d probably start with 4 grains, chronograph and adjust from there. I plan to seat mine to the canelure. I don’t have a 38 special chambered gun, so mine will only be used in 357 mag chambers.
If Lyman say you can do 4.2gr with a flush seated 158 grain lead, I’d feel pretty good with 4 grains and a deep seated 130gr jacketed bullet. If one really wanted to play it safe, 3.8 grains might be a good start.
I'd crimp them in the canelure if they don't exceed the cylinder length. They're likely not prone to entering the throats crooked because of the cylindrical shape so maybe flush seating is fine.
Im glad you didn't shoot those in that danty little gun.
Yeah, they might be a little warm for a non +p rated gun with that bullet. But I don’t think they’d be unreasonable if you’re not gonna shoot a lot of them. 6 gr would probably be a bit better for something that’s going to be shot much. Just my guess. I’m looking forward to the report as well.
Neither load was very accurate in my gun. Noticeable difference in recoil between the two loads. And velocity!
The deep seated 4.0gr load was slower than I want for this Bullet. So, I didn’t even expansion test that load. It was a powder puff in recoil, though.
The long seated load with 6.6gr Unique was more to my velocity liking at 989 fps but, accuracy still wasn’t great.
It was an impressive 3 Jugger on penetration. The best of all the loads I’ve tried in consideration of penetration + expansion.
Not sure what I’m going to do. I could play around and try for better accuracy. But I’m not sure 10ths of grains are gonna do it for me. I don’t want to lose velocity, that’s for sure. Or at least not much.
I’ll see how the other guys fair with their loads and maybe go from there.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
The target with the heavier charge has two holes out of the three that appear slightly elongated as if the bullet may not have been completely stable in flight.
The expansion looks to be completely in depth back to the full length of the cavity. Expansion could maybe be as good at reduced speed?
Given the better accuracy of the slower load and above observations. A slightly slower speed could maybe offer a desired effect?
I finally got some free time and read all the other posts. I'm really glad you didn't blow yourself up or damage that gun experimenting. 😌
Anyway, there should be a load in 38 that your revolver actually likes. Considering how thoroughly the bullet expanded tells me you have wiggle room to go up or down (most likely down) in velocity where the groups will tighten up without losing too much performance.
Like you, I'm waiting for what the other guys come up with.
Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
I’d bet Titegroup will give better accuracy and velocity, based on my experience with it. Playing the 25 yard bullseye game, I tend to go to that powder a lot. But, I caution everyone I tell about that powder, it’s not Unique. Often you’ll see book data with less than 1/2 a grain difference between starting load and max load. It’s a fast powder. You’ll see better velocity and accuracy pretty frequently. But .3gr could be the difference between bang and boom... on the plus side, at 4 grains per charge, you can get 14,000 charges out of 8 pounds of powder..
Ill be trying those bullets seated to the canelure with Titegroup when I get mine. Only thing is, the shortest gun I haven’t is a 6” GP100.
Trail Boss loads are made. Was able to put 4.6gr in the case just below the bullet base. I don’t expect it to be fast. But, if it’s accurate, I’ll do an expansion test regardless.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
125 GDHP 6" barrel and Unique @ 5.7 grains (980f/s)
Also, 38 Special +p
135 GDHP 6" barrel and Unique @ 5.2 grains (988f/s)
The trend here when using a heavier bullet is to use a lighter charge (maybe 5.6).
Since you're already off the reservation. You might want to try something between 6.0 and 6.3
If you want something "safer" or less "wear and tear" on the gun, I wouldn't go above 5.7 (4.7-5.3 in the standard pressure-ish range)
Yeah, velocity is going to suffer but if you can find something in the neighborhood of about 850 f/s, I think the performance of those HST's will be good enough.
Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
I'm sure Alliant is dumbing down the numbers because I have a older Speer manual with higher numbers than what's on the Alliant website but that's what they're listing today.
I'm thinking, creep the load down until the groups tighten up a bit (6.4, 6.2, 6.0, etc). If the groups don't tighten up then there's not much you can do. Find a speed/performance combo you like and call it good.
Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience -- Mark Twain How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
Replies
Im glad you didn't shoot those in that danty little gun.
Guess I’ll load some up that way as well!
Then I can use 6.6gr Unique! 😁
Yes?
Your pics are so good, I just noticed the elaborate full length scoring of the jacket for aiding symmetrical expansion. Impressive.
The expansion looks to be completely in depth back to the full length of the cavity. Expansion could maybe be as good at reduced speed?
Given the better accuracy of the slower load and above observations. A slightly slower speed could maybe offer a desired effect?
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
Might actually chrono them as well
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
Ill be trying those bullets seated to the canelure with Titegroup when I get mine. Only thing is, the shortest gun I haven’t is a 6” GP100.
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain