Which powder to crack open

[mickbr]

A friend is looking to load 38 special and 38+P, light jacketed to heavy cast bullets( 158 grain). He used up current can of Clays, on the shelf now are WST, Red Dot, Win231, CFE Pistol and Bullseye. I said they all the do the job more or less . His point is in this day and age one prefers not to wreck the seals on too many powders just to play around. Particularly here, supplies of US powders are a bit thin. My advice was try red dot, I like the idea of its case fill volume. Or WST which seems to be a bit of a mystery powder in load books but bullseye type weights with better case fill. Its probably an unanswerable question but I thought I would throw it out there. Failing that I will tell him to write the powder names on a lucky spin spin wheel and see what it lands on!

[Ozark mike]

I personally like 231. But yore milage may vary

[pocketace]

you actually wont know what works for your gun until you try. as a result youll have to try each one. And dont forget, little things like crimp and seating depth will make a powder that works for me in terms of accuracy, give YOU shotgun size groups.

[mickbr]

Not my gun, but of course you are correct. Not much to choose between any of them.

[GhostHawk]

I'd second the Red Dot myself.

[metricmonkeywrench]

+1 on W231/HP-38

Though 158g bullets are not "heavy" for the .38

IMHO 231 and Bullseye should be standard bench staples plenty of data out there on both.

[Wayne Smith]

WOW! 321 and 231 - I transpose numerals all the time. I prefer powders with names!

[swheeler]

I was shooting two different 357 revolvers yesterday and the ammo was 38 Special with 158 LeeRNF and 4.3 grs Win 231, my favorite load for 38s.