My normal (go to) loads for paper punching with a .38 Spcl revolver are cast 130 grain coated lead round nose flat point, and 3.2 grains of Tite Group. Very accurate out to 25 yards, very controllable recoil. I've been shooting this loading for years. I decided to switch things up and try some Speer swagged 148 grain hollow base wadcutters and 2.5 grains of WST powder. I figured the felt recoil would be about the same. Was I ever wrong! It felt lighter than a .22LR. And accuracy was even better than my previous loadings. Is this normal? How light can I safely load these wadcutters? 2.5 grains of WST is the start load according to Winchester load data. Can I drop below this, and how much?
Light loads for .38 Spcl
- Thread starter Mike38
- Start date
yes, and nobody knows.
You can, literally, keep reducing your load until the bullet doesn't come out the end of the barrel.
At that point, you went too far.
Long time ago a friend of mine was shooting a lot of .38 wadcutters at about 600fps or so. Never had any stick in the gun, so all was well.
Cannot say with certainty how light a load will stick a bullet in YOUR barrel.
When working with very light loads it is always possible so, pay CLOSE attention to EACH shot. Make sure you see a bullet impact for each shot. And, if the recoil or report is in any way different from the rest of your rounds, STOP!! and make sure the bore is clear.
Recycled bullet
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One grain of titegroup pushed the wadcutter bullets out of my 2 1/4" snub and through a paper target at close range.
At longer range you can see the bullet in flight[emoji85]
At longer range you can see the bullet in flight[emoji85]