Loading .38 S&W ballon head brass?? And cut down SPL?

[Deavis]

I am planning on loading some .361 145 rn on top of a mouse fart quantity of TB for an old Iver Johnson Top Break (1922 mfg gen 3 for smokeless).

1) Some of my random brass collection is balloon head.

Given that these are going to be light loads that I'm not going to Camp Perry with or making USPSA major with, any trouble with balloon head other than volume / density variations vs non balloon head?

2) Some of my Brass is cut down .38 military cases (no caliber headstamp). I know that these split in hotter loads but again, with mouse fart loads, will they fire form?

3) yes, I know Starline is available and even on sale right now at Midway. I ordered
some, just trying to make good use of what else I have.

[Larry Gibson]

I've used both those kinds of brass in my H&R w/o any problems. I use a minuscule load of BE.

[smkummer]

I save the balloon 38 S&W brass for blank loads. Either fill the case with 700X or black powder. No enlarging of the flash hole needed, even with the smokeless 700X, it provides enough pressure with a thick card wad that the primer is not set back. But these are shot on solid frame Colts.

[turtlezx]

i use cut down 38 special brass with 2 grains of red dot and 148gr rd nose as cast @.358 dia

2nd model IJ black powder gun