190gr 38spl+p+ AKA 38/44

Did you ever try the 6.3 grains HS-6 with the bullet? I'm guessing HS-6 going to be just as dirty and just flashy. FWIW Hodgdon's website lists 5.9 grains as the max load for HS-6 with a 170 grain bullet in 38 Special. 38 +P has a max of 6.3 and .357 has a max 9.2 grains.

Personally I'd be willing to try 6.3 grains in either a .357 or .38 case assuming it's going to be shot in a gun capable of .357 Magnum pressure. I'd be hesitant to try that combo in a .38 Special gun.
 
The post I made about 2.5-3gr of BE was kind of an unintentional red herring. I don’t mean to give any impression that I’m considering BE for this project. Those loads were more for bullet/function testing with a modest charge of a powder so I can feel better about putting real pressure behind this bullets later on down the road. To clarify, I don’t ontend to use BE for these loads. I’m using Hs-6. I apologize for the confusion
 
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I shot some loads today.

190gr/ 6.5gr Hs-6 COL 1.47” felt good flash looked ok, some unburnt powder.

190gr/ 7.0gr Hs-6 COL 1.47” about the same, little more flash but it’s hard to tell in daylight, seems like it burnt cleaner, more prominent pressure signs.

I need to load up some more and video the shots around dusk so I can review the flash.

I think Ill look for accuracy around 6.8grs with a mag primer, and that’ll probably close the book on this one( for me)
 
Bullseye is not necessarily a bad powder for .357 Magnum. It's just a little faster-burning than Unique; it's extremely high energy per gram is what pushes it to the top of the burn rate charts. Look at Alliant's load data for .357 with BE, especially the 148 grain wadcutters if they still publish that one.
 
I’ve used BE in a lot of different load configurations but I just don’t like the small mass, high pressure charges in the great case capacity of the 357 but that’s a great reason to load the small capacity 38s but regardless I just stay away from max loads
 
Trying to use up some HS6?
I can sympathize with that. I tried it in 9mm and while it delivered high velocity at the maximum without going +P, any lighter load was very dirty. Not something I usually worry about, but this was the only powder I ever shot that would coke up the gun to the point of malfunction in a match or practice session.
 
FWIW, my FBI load consists of: .38 Special case, magnum primer, 158gr cast lead hollowpoint bullet, and 7.0gr of HS-6. Velocity out of my 2.5" barreled snubbie is 945 fps. HS-6 is one of those powders that highly benefits from using a magnum primer.

Don
 
Yep. Another St. Mark's spherical powder. They all like a magnum primer.


Don,

What kind of velocity SD's were you getting with those loads? I am assuming they were satisfactory if you continued to use it. Also, I think the fellow on the other board that had a terrible extreme spread was using 125-grain bullets. The slow powders like some sectional density in front of them to build pressure against.

Nick
 
Nick,

No idea. Unlike rifle loads, I don't worry about handgun ES and SD numbers. If a handgun load shoots good, that's good enough for me. I have a Ransom Rest, and when the weather breaks next year, I will be doing a whole lot of testing of .38 Special and .45 ACP loads at 50 yards. Now I've just got to find somebody who will send me 30 of a couple of .38 caliber HBWC's that I don't currently have (Hornady, Speer, Precision Delta) for testing.

Don
 
Nick,

Just found the chronograph print out for the previously mentioned 7.0gr HS-6 FBI Load: ES of 42.36 and SD of 20.04.

Don
 
For several years my IPSC load was 5g Bullseye/158g RNL in mixed .38 case's, low recoil so I could handle multiple targets, and I was not trashing brass right and left either, primers looked really good also. With a 180g-190g bullet you would have to start off light and work your way up though. It would be an interesting experiment, for sure.
 
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