Any suggestions on 38 special practice load for my 357 snubby.

land308

land308

New member
I want a wimpy load that I can shoot a bunch of without getting beat up. I have thousands of cast bullets from 140gr to 168 gr. I'm wondering what powder to use. I want a powder that isn't terribly dirty. Any suggestions or favorite loads?
I have 231,296,herco,2400,h110,blue dot,red dot, and a few others to choose from.
 
If you have the brass, load light loads in 357 cases. Then yo don't have to clean the chambers as much. The 38SP leaves a ring of crap about 1/10" from the front.

Of your listed powders, W231 and Red Dot both make nice wimp loads. I use about 3.0 grs. of Red Dot and a 158 gr. cast bullet with great results.
 
Universal Clays became my very favorite .38 Special powder a few years ago. 4 or 5 grains of it with a 158 grains cast SWC is my normal load. I don't think there is a .38 ever made that would not like this load.
 
With the powders you named off, I load 5.5gr of WW 231 under a 158gr SWC in 357 cases for my light/target loads. Like mentioned above, shooting 38 cases will leave a ring in the chamber that is a pain to clean. Key
 
I been pushing a 124gr Barry's copper coated slug with about 4.0 to 4.1 gr of W-231 with Win Primers in 38Spl cases. They work well, I even use them for Steel Challenge.

You didn't mention which gun you shoot, but my 4" SW686 is fairly heavy so I find this load easy to shoot. You could probably even reduce the powder load a bit, if your sensitive. Also put on a set of rubber grips.

All powders are dirty, if you shoot them enough. As long as they clean up, it's no biggee.
 
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I use the 148g Hornady Hollow Base Wad Cutter (HBWC) pushed by 3.5g of W231 in .357 brass. It's a powder puff load and in the contest for most accurate load on the planet. I've shot it in everything from a snubby to a 6" 686. Works great in all of them.

All my practice loads for my .357 revolvers (I have 3 of them) are in .357 brass.

Another good practice load, slightly heavier, is the 125g Barry's HP pushed by 5.0g to 5.5g of W231, again in .357 brass.

I've shot literally thousands of both loads for practice. I buy W231 in 4 lb containers. It's an excellent powder for practice loads but be advised, care to avoid double charges is called for!

Fitch
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I loaded up a hundred rounds of 38 special with 141 grain cast wad cutters this morning. I used 3.4 grains of w231. I shot a few of them this afternoon and they shot great out of my Taurus 357 with a 2" barrel. Mild recoil. I was was expecting velocities in the 700-900 fps range and these were coming out at little over 1000 fps. A hot load by the books. Brass and primers look great. I don't know why I was getting that high of a velocity. I loaded up another hundred tonight with 3 grains of 231 hopefully getting them below a 950fps. I think I will start loading my practice loads in 357 mag brass after reading this. I hate cleaning out those cylinders!
 
+1 to Rustydust's (cool name!) vote for Universal powder!

To me, it's even cleaner and less position-sensitive than Unique, which is an old standby that many of the oldtimers shot. It's a great plinkin' powder for 38s/357s with lead bullets.

Old No7
 
+2 for Universal in the 38 Special. 4.4gr. of it with a hard-cast 158gr. bevel-base SWC.

As a plinking load, I have also had good results with 5.1gr of Trail Boss and 125gr RNFP bullets.
 
Originally Posted By: RedgeI really like bullseye under a 148 gr wadcutter, very accurate and minimal powder.

I've use3d a lot of Bullseye with the 38 spec and 148gr wadcutter's. The old standard used to be 2 1/2 gr Bullseye w/ 148gr wadcutter. Boy did that load shoot well!
 
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