190gr WFN in the .38 SPL.

[336A]

I am going to try my hand at using a 190gr WFNPB in the .38 SPL here shortly. A friend of mine has tried Blue Dot with this bullet, which really didn't work as well as he hoped for (large ES, and SD). So I'm thinking of using Unique, and 4.1gr as the charge not to exceed. My goal is to reach or slightly exceed 800 FPS. I'm not really worried about exceeding 800 FPS, if it happens it will just be iceing on the cake. I really wish that more reloading manuals would list modern load data with 2400 for the .38 SPL. I think that this would be the best powder to use with this type of bullet. Anyway what do you all think of using Unique with this bullet?. And does anyone here have any info that they would like to share on this topic.

[dubber123]

Whats the gun? If it's a strong revolver, you can get up in the pressure a bit with the .38 My old Mod. 10 S&W has shot quite a few +P loads. I shot falling plates with it for a while with a 198 gr. boolit, loaded over Bullseye. I never chronographed them, but would bet it was meeting your speed requirements. Alliant lists 3.6 grains of Unique as 780 fps. with a 200 gr. boolit, and 5.3 grains of Blue Dot as 850 fps. with the same boolit. Neither are +P loads, just standard pressure. If you have a +P capable gun, it looks like 800 fps with Unique will be pretty easy to me.

[336A]

dubber thanks for the info, the revolver is in fact a S&W M10. A 4 inch -14 engineering change model that was purchased new last year. As I was saying in my first post my friend tried Blue Dot with abysmul results ie... lots of smoke, unburned powder, with large ES and SD. So I think Unique might work a bit better but then again who knows.

[9.3X62AL]

I can't find my data to give powder weights for you--but I've run Lyman #358430 very accurately with WW-231 and Unique. I recall using roughly 10%-15% overcharges from book max and having no issues with case extraction in a Model 64 x 4" or Model 10 x 2".

GOTTA get that garage sorted out.

[anachronism]

Your friend seems to be using too slow of a powder. I loaded 215 gr 358627s in Remington cases with about 3.5 gr of 700X. This was my bowling pin load, used in a 686. I never did chronograph it, but the bowling pins were mighty impressed with this combination. I did load them long with that bullet, almost to .357 mag length. I could almost shoot that load without hearing protection. Accuracy at shorter ranges was borderline incredible. I never did shoot it for groups past about 15 yards because it was unnecessary.