Well, here I go

[David2011]

Gotta agree with Petrol and Powder on 231. It’s very clean and a little goes a long way.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I never thought that I`d find a boolet that I liked as well or better than the 148 Gr. WC in my K 14 S&W. Well for the past 20 years I have been shooting the `daylights` out the RCBS 38 - 150 SWC mold. I`m using the same 3.5 gr. powder and same primer loads and it shoots as well as the WC does. There are other clone molds of the RCBS, but I stay with the `green box` model.Robert

[Texas by God]

I'm still shooting boolits from a 1980's Lee 150 swc 2 cavity. They shoot better than I can hold in our 4" K frames. I use Bullseye, Red Dot, and sometimes Unique when I want more thump. I love the .38 special.

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[trooperdan]

i have been using unis ginex small rifle primers from gaf and sons $109 per 5000. seem to work just fine. i have read on here there is no difference in small rifle and small pistol not sure about that but i can't see any difference.

On sale at Graf's (dealer) for $98/5,000. A C&R license gets you dealer status.

[rbuck351]

How you practice can save you a bunch of ammo. You need to be able to see your mistakes in trigger control. Load one loaded round and the rest empty. Close the cyl and start "firing" until you find the loaded chamber. This will show you very quickly any bad habits and give you lots of practice developing good habits without burning lots of ammo wondering if you held solid our if the recoil hid a less than good follow through. Don't play while shooting, concentrate on making every shot a good shot. 1k rounds will go farther than 10k rounds of just blasting away. Also dry fire until you can keep the front sight solid on target all the way through the trigger pull.

[John McCorkle]

How you practice can save you a bunch of ammo. You need to be able to see your mistakes in trigger control. Load one loaded round and the rest empty. Close the cyl and start "firing" until you find the loaded chamber. This will show you very quickly any bad habits and give you lots of practice developing good habits without burning lots of ammo wondering if you held solid our if the recoil hid a less than good follow through. Don't play while shooting, concentrate on making every shot a good shot. 1k rounds will go farther than 10k rounds of just blasting away. Also dry fire until you can keep the front sight solid on target all the way through the trigger pull.

That's great advice, a coach once told me to practice 100 dry fires at night per every live round I fired at the range....don't know if this was literal or figurative but I come close to that in dry fires...

I think continuing that coupled with 20k rounds.... would take a long time (not going to burn through that many like that in a month or two) and would really boost my confidence and skill.... guess I should set what attainable milestones I'm looking for as "skill set markers" ie...what size target at what distance how many % of the time...

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[MT Gianni]

Remember practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Focus on the front sight all the time you have your finger on the trigger. Routinely practice moving your trigger finger until you move it rearward and nothing else in your hand moves. Any movement other than your trigger finger will move your gun, in a handgun it doesn't take much to through a group off. Shoot double action if you wish but get good at single action first.

With an empty gun, checked and verified empty, stand in your bedroom doorway and aim at the opposite corner of ceiling and wall. Drop your arm and repeat ten times trying to reacquire the sight picture as quickly as possible.

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/backcreekdiary.htm
I like these articles Ed Harris has written re the 38 special. If it were me I would get a 6 cavity Lee TL Wadcutter mold and 8 lbs of Bullseye. That and the 90 ge 32 SWC of Lees are the only ones I TL and shoot them at under 900 fps. I think there is no quicker way to make a lot of shootable bullets.

[psweigle]

My go-to 38 spc. load is a 158gr. Boolit behind 3gr bullseye. I shoot it out of rifle and revolver and even the coonan.

As far as primers go, I get mine from a local reloading supply shop by the thousand.

As others have said, 125gr will work, but heavier boolits are better in 38 spc.

A good place to find lead is at boat yards. The keel on sailboats to be spacific.
Good luck and enjoy the project. Keep us posted.

[slughammer]

In 38spl I know I've burned both an 8lb jug of Winchester Super Target and an 8lb of Clays. The Clays was used with 125's and 130's. The WST was 150's and 158's.

I will go on record here and say Clays is way cleaner than bullseye, red dot and unique in 38 spl. Most of this shooting was stainless S&W's. Way less permablack in my cylinder flutes. Clays is also less position sensitive from the holster and gives consistent velocities.

I will also say that WST while similar to Titegroup in burn rate is better. I found my forcing cone hot as heck when practicing with Titegroup.

I keep both around. For the last few years I've just been shooting 158's with WST. If I switch to 125's for cheaper boolits (save lead), then I'll be using Clays again. (I also have Bullseye and Unique around, but I use them elsewhere than 38spl).

[Echo]

try shooting double action only so you can just concentrate on sight picture and trigger squeeze .

I think you must mean single-action...

[robg]

meant don't cock the hammer just press the trigger ,pull is longer but you don't mess about changing your grip etc

[shafer44]

unique...only thing is it does not meter as well as some other powders

[MT Gianni]

meant don't cock the hammer just press the trigger ,pull is longer but you don't mess about changing your grip etc

I find it much easier to cock the hammer, reacquire a proper grip and focus on sights with a much shorter trigger release than DA. Most Bullseye shooters did also.

[Hondo 60]

Any suggestions on where to get a few ten thousand pistol primers

My go-to place for primers & powder is Powder Valley.
They usually have the best prices

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/

& here's a place to start with load info

http://www.reloadammo.com/9mloads.htm

[John McCorkle]

Man, loving all the responses from you all. I've loaded and shot alot but not much 38 spc (<3k in my lifetime) this is a going back to focus on fundamental marksmanship with pistol...much like I did growing up with .22 rifle (translates to rifle in general)...work on fundamentals

However this is why I really enjoy this forum...I'd likely never get to meet any of you in person and certainly not get the broad range of experience from all the like minded fellows as I do here. Keep em coming

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[tazman]

I have tried many different boolit weights in the 38 special and the ones that shoot the best for me in my S&W revolvers are the 148 wadcutters, the lyman 358311, and the150 grain SWC boolits from either Lyman, NOE, or RCBS.
For target work, any light load will do. Try to keep velocities over 750fps. This seems to be a sweet spot for the S&W guns.
I have used HP38/231, WST, Bullseye, Titegroup, CFE Pistol, and a couple of others and they all gave acceptable results. Consistency on your casting and loading process is more important than what powder you use.
I am not going to give advice on shooting technique. Others have already covered the bases there. I am still working on my own technique and doing it in much the same way you are going.

[robg]

used to shoot practical pistol years ago found I shoot better shooting da under pressure as only had to think about sight picture and trigger press even at 50 yards.seems wrong at first but for fast shooting it works.bullseye was never my sport.

[dverna]

Have shot likely 150k .38 Spl. loads. Any of the fast Shotgun powders will work as well as Bullseye. Although I have over 60 lbs of Promo (Red Dot...is the same), I prefer HP38 for light loads as it meters better. Saving money of pistol powder is of no concern to me as each load uses so little. I also prefer the Winchester primers but any primer that fits easily should be fine for plinking.

Many places offer reduced cost HazMat fees during promotions...must be patient. Combine powder and primers on the same order and you can save a lot over the LGS. I also buy components at major trap competitions. A fed years ago I got Promo for $68/8lb jug at the Ohio State shoot. Good deals at times.

I would not worry about buying in bulk for the .38 unless you are trying some off brand powder or primers...with primers being the worst if they do not fit the primer pocket. The .38 is the easiest caliber to reload for. Any of the popular powders mentioned will work either well or extremely well.

My light loads are 2.8 gr of HP38 with the 125-130 gr bullets I typically use for plinking and CAS. 1" groups at 30 yards with the rifle. 1" groups at 7 yards offhand with the pistols. Good enough for my needs.

[John McCorkle]

Have shot likely 150k .38 Spl. loads. Any of the fast Shotgun powders will work as well as Bullseye. Although I have over 60 lbs of Promo (Red Dot...is the same), I prefer HP38 for light loads as it meters better. Saving money of pistol powder is of no concern to me as each load uses so little. I also prefer the Winchester primers but any primer that fits easily should be fine for plinking.

Many places offer reduced cost HazMat fees during promotions...must be patient. Combine powder and primers on the same order and you can save a lot over the LGS. I also buy components at major trap competitions. A fed years ago I got Promo for $68/8lb jug at the Ohio State shoot. Good deals at times.

I would not worry about buying in bulk for the .38 unless you are trying some off brand powder or primers...with primers being the worst if they do not fit the primer pocket. The .38 is the easiest caliber to reload for. Any of the popular powders mentioned will work either well or extremely well.

My light loads are 2.8 gr of HP38 with the 125-130 gr bullets I typically use for plinking and CAS. 1" groups at 30 yards with the rifle. 1" groups at 7 yards offhand with the pistols. Good enough for my needs.

150k is quite a few!!! Thanks for the advice...my goal is to start at the end of hunting season (property doubles as deer hunting grounds/target range)

The deer are rather used to regular shooting but need to fill the tags first to eat on next year then focus on this dandy project...but already sourced 1k cases (which if i load light from what I can tell will last me the rest of my life) keeping my eyes open for online deals black Friday for powder primers, and making weekly trips to the local tire shops with donuts in hand to trade for their old lead (which most of is now iron or zinc but there is still some here and there...worth collecting still)

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[OS OK]

I make my .38S. FWC's on an old restored Green Machine, this is the current recipe...I just try to keep this jar full and don't load by the thousands, just by the hundreds...



I admire your quest to master the handgun after so many years of rifle, I did the same thing. Got tired of being a lousy shot with the pistol. From the .38S. I moved to the 1911 with the same attitude. Now it's this jar that I try to keep full...



Once you have settled on a recipe you like the next objective, at least for me was to get the lead back with the least amount of effort. I built a backstop catcher that'd put my lead into a 5 gallon metal bucket. Then it'd go directly to the smelt pot...no digging in the berm, I'm too old for that anymore.

Practice on this side...



Get the lead back on this side...



It was a lot of work to build this gizmo but that part is in the past now...



today it's practice, practice, practice...then after about 3,500 rounds with the .38S. there's about 75 lbs. of your lead waiting in the metal bucket. Then it's off to the smelt pot to turn that into this...



You know the rest of the story after that...it's a real pleasure to get all that silver stuff back.
Good luck with your project...