My wife had an eardrum replaced and has very sensitive ear canals. She wears electronic ear muffs. Her 22 pistol noise does not bother her. She shoots a 1 7/8"barrel 38 Special, S&W Lady Smith, which does bother her ears. She's tried factory FMJ 124 grain, She's tried 160 grain cast over 3.6 grains of 231, all too loud. I have two molds I'd like to try for her. Using CCI primers my first choice is a 105 (drops 108) grain swc Lyman recommends 5.1 grains as a starting load. My second is a 125 grain mold that drops at 128 grain. For the 108 grain bullet I'm thinking of loading up a test series of 2.6 grains W231, followed by 2.8 grains followed by 3.0 grains to check the noise and accuracy. Our range is a 15 yard to 35 yard range. I have heard several cases where people have shot reduced loads of 3.0 successfully but not 2.6 or 2.8 What is your opinion?