.38 cal reloading

C

Carbineman

Inactive
Hi, to all.
Some time offline, busy with some military museum artifacts.

I want to know from you the Pros; which cartridge would be the best in .38. The one with thicker walls that I could get the most reloads.

Second, for the same caliber, which primer will be the softest for quite a smooth hammer? The most sensitive and reliable one. I will be competition shooting in some moths.

Any word of advice & caution is very much appreciated.

Still reading Lee’s reloading

Thanks to all
 
I think you mean which case to use. Since we don't know if you are shooting 38 Short Colt, Long Colt, S&W, Special, or whatever, it will be hard to know what is available. On the assumption that it is 38 Special, if you are shooting light loads, then you may find that something soft like Federal works well. Personally, I like Starline brass (you can buy direct in bulk from them or from a vendor), as its tolerances and weight are about twice as tight as most of the big commercial names, and the brass is good quality and seems to last well.

The thickness of the brass does not tell you for certain about how long it will last. That also depends on how many steps from finished they did the final anneal in the brass drawing process, as brass that's too hard tends to get springy and be hard to resize completely.

For primers, Federal #100 primers have the best reputation for ease of ignition in a small pistol primer. Often, folks getting failures to fire have switched to these and had their problem stop.
 
I am by no means an expert in reloading, but I have reloaded tons of .38 special. It does not seem to matter which brass I use, at the low pressures I load they all seem to last forever. I have hundreds of cases, all brands, some with military headstamps. I have lots of +p cases, none seem to last any longer or shorter than any others. Some of my nickel plated have the plating almost all worn off, and still reload nicely. but then I mostly load target wadcutters.

I do not separate headstamps in .38 actually I do not separate headstamps in any pistol caliber.

As far as primers, I avoid Wolf primers. I bought a brick of them in 2009, loaded up a hundred and did get some that indented the primer but failed to fire in just one pistol. I just put the rest of the primers up high on the shelf and try not to use them. But if I run low on CCI or Winchester I will use them again. It was probably more the pistol than the primer.

David
 
"...will be competition shooting..." The kind of competition shooting matters, but use a .38 Special with cast/swaged 148 grain WC's and 2.5 to 2.8 grains of Bullseye. That has been the target load for eons.
Wall thickness of the cartridge has nothing to do with case life. Case life is entirely dependent on the load used. Cases used with the Bullseye Target load last virtually forever.
 
Not a pro myself , but one thing that will help prolong case life is flaring the mouth just enough to start/ seat the bullet. I also am switching to starline brass very high quality .
 
Carbineman, Firearms are a terminology rich environment. The use of a "." in front of 38 is incorrect, in relation to 38 special, or the other 38's. the "." designates bore size the 38 special uses a .357 diameter bullet.

If you're just starting to read books about reloading, the Lee reloading manual is a good one. But the above paragraph is meant to make you realize that asking a question like yours should have included make and model of the pistol/revolver, barrel length, type of ammo you wish to load,(wadcutter, semi-wadcutter, cast lead, plated lead, or jacketed), so we could know how to answer your question fully.

Don't let me scare you off, but the more precise info you can provide, the better we can help with specific answers.
 
.38

Unclenick, thanks for your answer.

I am reloading for .38 Special for a Ruger GP-100, Model Number: 1707; Barrel Length 6", Stainless Steel, with a twist rate of 1:18.75" RH.

The event consists of timed shooting at 25 and 15 yards. So, I want the minimum loads that could get the bullet on target for starting, using wad cutters in both extremes; 110 g. and 148/158g.
 
snufy, thanks.

.38 Special wadcutters; 110 to 158g. That with the minimun loads I can get away with. Will be shooting timed events at 25 and 15 yards.
 
Welcome to the wonderful oft frustrating world of reloading. I started reloading in 1969 with .38 Specials with a Lee Loader. I have reloaded many, many rounds since then and cannot say wall thickness has much to do with case life or case strength (more with chambering fat cast lead bullets). I do not count how many times I reload my revolver brass, but I'd guess my .38s run 20+. I don't bother much with case life as .38 Specials are readily available and cheap, but I would hazard to guess I may have reloaded some of my brass with 150 gr. DEWC and Bullseye some 40 times. I just inspect them every time I process any.

None of my revolvers have had "soft" enough hammers to give me misfires and have not had problems with any primer brand I've used (even Wolfs work great in my .44s). I'm amazed at the extremely low instance of really "bad" primers as 99.5% of the misfires are the reloader's or the gun's fault.

For a new reloader I'd suggest a good library to start. The ABCs of Reloading, Lyman's 49th, and one from a jacketed bullet manufacturer. The ABCs will tell you how to reload and what equipment is needed for your reloading needs, and the Lyman is a very good "generic" manual with a good "How To" section (generic=both cast lead and jacketed bullets, from different manufacturers, data). If you choose to load jacketed bullets, get the manual by the manufacturer of the bullets you use (Hornady bullets, get a Hornady manual. Sierra bullets, Sierra manual, etc.).

Go slow, double check everything, and most important, have fun...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top