Short Barrel 38/357

[sandman228]

i just bought a pair of 38 snubby's for the wife and I about a week ago .1 is a new Taurus and the other a new rossi , I've never been a big fan of either but to be honest were both are very happy with them. she picked the Taurus I cant remember the model number but its the new 6 shot version of the 85 and mine is a rossi mod 351 . ive been loading a lee powder coated 105 gr swc bullet over 3.5 gr of red dot with very good accuracy at 7 yrds and they shoot at point of aim . we've also been shooting allot of 148 gr powder coated dewc from a lee tumble lube mold over 2.7 gr of bullseye also with very good accuracy . ive also been able to put the wad cutter load on paper at 25 yrds with the rossi , not dead nuts accurate at that distance, but not to bad either .

[USSR]

My CCW is a 2.5 inch S&W Model 19. My load is known as the FBI Load. The bullet is cast from my MP 359640 mould. The 158gr bullet in the middle came out at 840fps, while the bullet on the right did 945fps.



Don

[Forrest r]

My CCW is a 2.5 inch S&W Model 19. My load is known as the FBI Load. The bullet is cast from my MP 359640 mould. The 158gr bullet in the middle came out at 840fps, while the bullet on the right did 945fps.



Don

I use that same bullet in a s&w L-comp that is listed as having a 3" bbl. While the bbl shroud is 3" long which is a good thing because it has the longer extractor rod that fully ejects the long 357 cases. The bbl itself is 2 1/2" long with the comp taking up the last 1/2" of bbl.
[IMG][/IMG]

I use 14.7gr of 2400 with that Mihec 359640 158gr and it chronographs @ 1200fps in that 2 1/2" bbl'd l-comp 586. HP expansion is not a problem and that 158gr bullet has a pretty good smack @ 1200fps.

FWIW:
I did testing with 3 different powders for the 357/359640 combo. 2400/H110/MP-300 While I was testing the loads I figured I'd also test them in different bbl lengths. So I tested them with 2 1/2", 4", 6", 8" & 10" bbl's. The 2 1/2" bbl was the l-comp 586, the 4"/6"/8" bbl's were in a dan wesson with the bbl gap set @ 4/1000th's. And the 10" bbl was a contender bbl. The strings were only 20-shots but I gave me an idea of what to expect.

14.7gr 2400/359640
2 1/2" bbl ='s 1197fps
4" bbl ='s 1257fps
6" bbl ='s 1345fps
8" bbl ='s 1406fps
10" bbl ='s 1610fps

18.5gr MP-300/359640
2 1/2" bbl ='s 1124fps
4" bbl ='s 1261fps
6" bbl ='s 1404fps
8" bbl ='s 1477fps
10" bbl ='s 1672fps

16.0gr H-110/359640 load mirrored the MP-300 load (+/- 10fps)

The faster burning 2400 did extremely well in the short 2 1/2" bbl & all powders were pretty much = in the 4" bbl. The slower burning MP-300 & H110 really started to shine in the 6" and longer bbl's.

For me it's 14.7gr of 2400 pushing a Mihec 359640 158gr hp

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I put 3.0gr HP38 under a 125-130gr RNFP Cowboy bullet for a Taurus 851(638 clone) and an S&W 638 for pleasurable practice. I put a 148 Wadcutter over 4.0 gr HP38 and a CCI shot cartridge if I carry it for rattlers, skunks, raccoons. Swap out the shot cartridge or load Federal wadcutters for town.