The nice new prob with wife. 38spl

[deathdragon147]

So. They wife finally decided to carry. Ended up she decided on 38spl revolver. Now the dilemma. She wants to shoot hornady critical defense light. 92 gr boolits. Low recoil. Her idea is to stay on target and to hit several times quickly. Can't argue that. However she wants me to make her practice loads replicating what she would be carrying.
Prob 1 boolot mold. Any ideas on who could make me a multiple cavity hp mold dropping 92gr. For 38spl. prob 2. How can I replicate the recoil? Try to just hit the same velocity? my thoughts were to dismantle a load and try to reverse engineer it. Thoughts?

[tazman]

For a mold, the Lyman 356242 comes to mind. There are used ones listed as 358242 also.
Lee makes a couple of molds in this area as well. They have a 95rf available in 6 cavity that drops at .358 for me.
There are a number of cast boolit manufacturers that list 90-95 grain lead for sale.
As far as recoil and point of impact, I would suggest duplicating the velocity for a close approximation of the load.

[grampa243]

lee TL356-95-RF comes in 2 and 6 cavity.

i shoot it in 38 brass in a 357. make sure you get a good crimp on it and you'll be good to go.

[725]

Any of the standard target wadcutters (unless she wants to practice reloading from speed loaders) dialed down to a similar felt recoil. I think experimentation with various load amounts and comparisons with the factory stuff, will give you a sensible duplicate with which to practice. This is, after all, a 7ish yard environment exercise. Best of luck. Glad she had taken the steps to avoid being a victim. Hope she never has to use it!

[deathdragon147]

I hope she never has to use it but I am glad she is taking steps to protect herself and our cub. Thanks grampa243

[dubber123]

Look for some of the faster powders. .38's don't burn particularly clean anyways, and light boolits make it much worse. Bullseye or one of the faster newer powders would be my choice. For practice, I'd skip the HP's, they are a pain to cast, and you are just poking holes in inanimate objects anyways. One of the LEE 95 RF's sounds perfect if they cast big enough. Cheap too..

[rking22]

I load lots of the LEE 95gr loads for my daughters M36 for the same reason. She carries WC loads but likes to shoot the light bullets for practice. Last cyl full is the WC load. I was using unique but had a squib last winter, when I pulled it down the powder was there but did not light off ,I had thought the primer was bad. Now using Reddot/bullseye/tightwad speed powders for the light bullets. Search this site for 100gr ranch dog or ranch dog 380 bullet in 38 special. Lota of folks shooting it in 38 special. One thing to be aware of ,if shooting longer distances, the WC loads do not hit same point as 95 gr loads. If you truly want to match the 90 gr then try the 95 Lee and drive it to match the recoil of the carry load with a fast powder. POI will be "close enough". As stated above, don't bother with the HP. The Lee 6 hole drops great bullets really fast.

[historicfirearms]

My wife decided on the same thing. I used the Lee 358-105-swc boolit with a light load of clays to duplicate recoil of the pink Hornady ammo.

[Scout800a]

Shooting our favorite 358429 on top of 2.9 gr of clays (max load, not +p though) was almost exactly like the 125 gr +p gold dots I've shot. Shooting them one after the other I'm not sure you could tell the difference.

[Forrest r]

It's hard to beat the h&g #41 110g wc's for practice loads. It's the same boolit as their famous #50, but the #41 only has 2 lube grooves instead of 3 lube grooves that the #50 has (shorter).

The h&g molds will easily cast .358 boolits out of range scrap (hill pickins) or any other high pb soft alloy.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/hampg41close_zps6e24e811.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/hampg41close_zps6e24e811.jpg.html)

I've only had these boolits up to 1000fps so far, I'm sure they will easily do more.

[HATCH]

I have a lightweight 105 grain WC mold for my master caster.
if you want I can coat up a hundred using Hitek and size them .358 for you.
No charge...
The cool thing about the 105 is that its so small that you can use standard brass (non-wadcutter).

I wanted a lightweight target round that didn't use up a lot of lead.
Once I evaluated my Primer vs powder vs lead, I determined that I have 3 x the amount of lead on hand vs primers and powder.
And I already have a lifetime supply of primers and powder

[bobthenailer]

I use the old saeco mould a 95 gr rn made for the 380 acp sized @.358 dia to duplicate Horndays CD ammo it hits to the same point of aim when using the CT laser grips beam, but with iron sights i have to use a 158 gr swc to hit point of aim with iron sights , the iron sights & the lazers poi are different and also the lazers is a few inches to the right compaired to iron sights at 25'

[deathdragon147]

Hatch that would be awesome. At least let me pay you for the lead and shipping.

[HATCH]

Hatch that would be awesome. At least let me pay you for the lead and shipping.

send me a pm with your addy.