Light 38

[Diamond-City-Bob]

A friend wants me to teach her how to shoot. She is about 70 owns a 38 revolver. my thoughts are to start her with one of my Ruger Mk2s and then step up to a lightly loaded 38spl round. I have a mould for a 150 gr SWC. what would be a good LIGHT low recoil load for this?
Thanks
Bob

[MikeSSS]

At the last Cowboy Action shoot I went to the light 38 Sp loads were 105 gr bullets over 2.9 gr of Trailboss powder.

I searched for Cowboy loads and got this:

158 grain Lead RNFP or SWC COWBOY load

Trail Boss 2.7 gr. 661 FPS minimum
Trail Boss 4.2 gr. 804 FPS Maximum
Universal 3.5 gr. 756 FPS minimum
Universal 4.5 gr. 974 FPS MAXIMUM
HP38 3.1 gr. 782 minimum
HP38 3.7 gr. 834 Maximum
Titegroup 3.2 gr. 815 minimum
Titegroup 3.8 gr. 920 Maximum
Clays 2.8 gr. 812 minimum
Clays 3.1 gr. 871 Maximum

These aren't my loads and I don't recommend them. But, this is what I found. 150 is a bit lighter so each of these loads would be a tiny bit milder with the 150's. I like light loads they are all I need.

[Treeman]

There are lots of light charges to be found as starting loads in old handbooks that will kick that 150 grain bullet out at around 650 fps. Those don't kick as hard and fast as top end loads but the real route to greatly reduced recoil is in using lighter bullets. The .38 spl isn't a violent round and most people can quickly adjust to its recoil in standard loadings but the reduction in recoil from dropping down to 115 grain bullets and mild loads is phenomenal. For a light framed snubby I find my 115 wadcutters much more pleasant to shoot .....and I 'm not bothered by magnum recoil in full size guns!

[Dale53]

When my daughter was a little girl (seven) she wanted to shoot my revolver. She could hold a .38 snubby, so I loaded it up with 2.8 Bullseye and the 158 gr RN (Lyman 358411). She shot that load really well. Made some grown men blink.

Like most woman I have taught to shoot, she listened to what I had to say and then applied it (most men already know everything, don't cha know?:( ).

I sat her down and drew her a rough picture of proper sight alignment and used the large police PPC silhouette. I started her close (7 yards) and let her gradually work her way backwards. By seeing exactly what was happening, the learning curve was quite short.

FWIW, I would rather teach young girls and woman to shoot than men. They make MUCH better students, in my experience. Of course, that is a generalization, and we all know how wrong they can be...

Dale53

[TAWILDCATT]

2.8 Of Bullseye And 148 Gr Bullet Is The Prefered Load For Master Shooters.i Used The Same Load But With 700x In A Model 10 Smith With Bomar Rib.a Tack Driver At 50 Ft.
Wildcatt

[Diamond-City-Bob]

Thanks,
I have some good ideas to go on that will work with some of the powder I have on hand. I have the one mold in .358 so lighter bullets are not a consideration at present since all of my pistols start with a 4 or a 1. I figure to start her with a .22 and then switch up to light loads in her .38 and work up from there, She's 70 and a life long Democrat and thinks gun control sucks so there is hope for the world.
Bob

[jballs918]

bob funny you should ask this question. i loaded up a bunch of 38s with a 158 smc with four grains of unique. well at 25 yards i noticed not so well for shooting that just maybe me. recoil was not bad from all the guys that had shot it they said. but please keep im mind i shoot 16 7mm mags in a row then went to the light 7.62x54r to my 32ws. about 20 rounds of that in one sitting lol