Unique with 100gr boolit and 38 spl.

[grampa243]

has anyone used Unique with light boolits in a 38 special?

i tried the new lee 356-95-rf (casts at 100 grains for me) with 4.5 grains of Unique.

shot great till one went pop not Bang. opened the cylinder and the boolit was just inside the forcing cone.. maybe i didn't get powder in it.. or maybe the powder didn't ignite. i don't remember if i pointed the gun down before i fire that round.

i'll have to do some more testing after i shake all 70 rounds i have loaded.

any thoughts??

[mozeppa]

don't have to shake em....weigh them!

[bstone5]

Unique should fire with 4.5 grains just laying in the case. I have shot many 38 Special with around 4.5 grains.

First though the pop round did not have any Unique in the case.

[grampa243]

Unique should fire with 4.5 grains just laying in the case. I have shot many 38 Special with around 4.5 grains.

First though the pop round did not have any Unique in the case.

that is kinda what i was thinking.... they were loaded on a 550B i have never had a missed charge before..

[grampa243]

don't have to shake em....weigh them!

mixed brass can't tell by weight.

[rockshooter]

i stopped using unique and light bullets when I had a couple of 125gr cast bullets just clear the 2" bbl end when pointed down- it seems to be really position sensitive. I use 231 now and it works just fine for light loads in .38Sp
Loren

[HATCH]

I use bullseye when loading the 110 grain Wadcutters (magma mold)

I am gonna go out on a limb and say this is how you got a NO powder round with a 550.
You weighed the powder and put the empty case back into station 2 without putting powder back in.
The two Duds I have had over the years have been because of this same mistake.

You can weigh the loaded round. Yes they may be mixed brass but they will be within a few grains of each other.
This is easy to check. Take some empty cases and weigh them.

[fecmech]

I think Bullseye is a better fit for light bullets in the .38. I got very good accuracy with the RD 95 gr .380 bullet in my .38 spl with 4.5/BE.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?139563-Ranch-Dog-380-bullet-38-spl

[Beerd]

the trick is getting them to shoot to the same point of aim as the "standard" 158 grain bullet.
..

[Larry Gibson]

I think Bullseye is a better fit for light bullets in the .38. I got very good accuracy with the RD 95 gr .380 bullet in my .38 spl with 4.5/BE.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?139563-Ranch-Dog-380-bullet-38-spl


+ another.

Larry Gibson

[grampa243]

well i shot about half of them tonight.. was going good then one more popped. this time i know there was some powder in it.. not sure if it was a full charge. but could hear it in the case before i loaded it.. and there was un-burnt flakes in the gun and on the bench after the pop..

but i tried pointing it down and it still shot many other times..

i'm ether going to change powder(to bad i have 8 lbs of Unique) or increasing the charge even more to fill the case more..

[grampa243]

You can weigh the loaded round. Yes they may be mixed brass but they will be within a few grains of each other.
This is easy to check. Take some empty cases and weigh them.

i weighted some of my brass and have more weight range then the powder charge.. some are 6 grains different. so still not sure if it low powder or position sensitive.

[grampa243]

ok so i tried loading some more of these today.. and i think i found that i'm not getting a good crimp on every one of them. not enough neck tension due to varying size of brass or boolit. so some seat in lower and the crimp is on the ogive.

so this might have been the trouble all the time.

[rintinglen]

I came late to the race but the crimp issue is what I was going to bring up. I was plagued by this issue for years until I went to the Lee FCD. Brass varies in length such that you may have cases differing in length by 15 thousandths. Conventional crimper-seater dies don't do too well with such variances. Long cases bulge and the short ones don't get much of a crimp. The FCD helps here, ironing out the bulges and giving a good crimp when properly adjusted. There are folks who will tell you they ain't worth the metal they're made from, but I like them for straight sided and bottle necked cases--not so much for tapered cases like the 9mm.

[Weaponologist]

I use 4.5g Unique but with a 147gr bullet and I don't or haven't had an issue with case length. I always Clean, Size and Trim my case's the first time I ever use them. I use my cordless drill to spin the brass and a hand held Lee case trimmer. this makes fast work of the task and then I just recheck them every 3 or so reloads. But diffidently let us know if you find Unique is position sensitive...

[rockshooter]

grampa 243:- too bad about having 8# of Unique?? When you start counting your blessings, start at 9.
Loren

[grampa243]

grampa 243:- too bad about having 8# of Unique?? When you start counting your blessings, start at 9.
Loren
lol i do.. count it as a blessing. all the more for the 45 and rifles.