Brian Pearce article on heavy .38 Special loads?

[Patrick L]

It seems to me that within the last 5 or 6 years Brian Pearce did a column on heavy .38 Special loads in Handloader Magazine. I don't recall if it was a feature article or just one of his monthly columns. I'm talking about loads in the old .38/44 class, sort of starting level .357 class loads, but in .38 brass.

Would anyone happen to remember when that was? I want to play with these, especially with our 358156PB we did as a group buy a few years ago.

[USSR]

Patrick,

While I don't have that Brian Pearce article, I can highly recommend a top end .38 Special +P consisting of 7.0gr of HS-6 with a magnum primer.

Don

[tigweldit]

USSR, What bullet (boolit) are you using are you using with the HS-6 load?

[USSR]

USSR, What bullet (boolit) are you using are you using with the HS-6 load?

Most of the time, the MP 359-640. In the pic below, the bullet on the right was fired using that load. Velocity was 940fps out of a 2.5" snubbie.

Don

240329

[G50-70]

Patrick

.38-44 and .38 Special +P by Brian Pearce was in the October, 2016 issue of the Handloader. No 304.

[Patrick L]

Many thanks!!

[Jtarm]

Most of the time, the MP 359-640. In the pic below, the bullet on the right was fired using that load. Velocity was 940fps out of a 2.5" snubbie.

Don

240329

Sweet.

What’s your alloy/BHN?

[tigweldit]

USSR, Great pics of some awesome expansion for a 2.5". Alloy/BHN? Accuracy? Tell me more. I have a Colt Detective 2.5" that needs help.

[Larry Gibson]

tigweldit

A Colt Detective SPL is not built for "heavy 38/44 class loads". Those 38/44 loads are meant for 357 Magnums and the S&W 38/44 revolvers. In 38 SPL revolvers +P 38 SPL level loads are what you want.

[sixshot]

In the winter Edition of Handloader in 2017 Brian Pearce showed the top ten reloaded hand gun cartridges. Here's what he had to say about the great old 38 special.

https://i.imgur.com/v1iP79Vh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DzarIGZh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lCPEm4Kh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hFbeeCch.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/y7TZ4z3h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LFou17wh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nhquSZjh.jpg

Dick

[Tracy]

John Taffin did a Taffin Tests article on the .38 Special, quite a few years ago. It's worthwhile reading, too. Here it is: http://www.sixguns.com/tests/tt38spcl.htm

[am44mag]

Skeeter Skelton once wrote that for heavy 38 Special loads, he liked to seat a 358156 out to it's lower crimp grove and use 13.5 gr of 2400. He was getting a velocity of around 1150 FPS. He mentioned that this was his everyday use round for his 357s, and that he had taken more game with it than any other loading. He also mentioned that you should only use this round in 357s, or in large frame sixguns like the .38-44, Colt New Service, or a SAA. Keep in mind, he wrote that in 1969. I'm not sure if 2400 is the same as it was back then. I'd work up carefully in a 357 before I'd used this in any 38 Special.

http://www.darkcanyon.net/Handgun%20Loads.htm

[35remington]

I will point out that the loads Taffin lists in the article mentioned above as Plus P are actually in excess of Plus P by a pretty fair amount.

[blue32]

I knew Pearce wrote the article because, if nothing else, the use of a pencil is prevalent. A few of those pics looked like they were from the two part series he did on the registered magnum and and 627 around 2010.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Maybe October 2016, issue number 304
https://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/HL304Partial(revised).pdf
Sadly, this PDF doesn't include that article, but it does include Mike Venturino's "Beginning bullet casting part II"

[USSR]

USSR, Great pics of some awesome expansion for a 2.5". Alloy/BHN? Accuracy? Tell me more. I have a Colt Detective 2.5" that needs help.

The alloy is 2.5 Sn/0.5 Sb/97.0 Pb. Would guess that the BHN is in the neighborhood of 7. Lots of tin and little antimony is the key to getting expansion at low velocities.

Don

[9.3X62AL]

USSR--

The photo results speak for themselves, but I'm not sure that I would mess with any antimony at all. I have poured some #358429 and #429421 in 40/1 and 30/1 lead/tin alloy, and if cast hot enough (775*-800* F) they fall from the moulds at ,359" and .4315". These run at 950-1000 FPS shoot accurately--do not leave metal fouling--and I am certain will not do any recipient any good whatsoever.

I am fast becoming a believer in the lead/tin alloys for moderate-velocity revolver usage.

[USSR]

I am fast becoming a believer in the lead/tin alloys for moderate-velocity revolver usage.

Yep!

Don

[Dale53]

USSR--

The photo results speak for themselves, but I'm not sure that I would mess with any antimony at all. I have poured some #358429 and #429421 in 40/1 and 30/1 lead/tin alloy, and if cast hot enough (775*-800* F) they fall from the moulds at ,359" and .4315". These run at 950-1000 FPS shoot accurately--do not leave metal fouling--and I am certain will not do any recipient any good whatsoever.

I am fast becoming a believer in the lead/tin alloys for moderate-velocity revolver usage.

Al;
While my standard loads for both range and field use commonly use WW's+ 2% tin, if I needed expansion, I would certainly use a lead/tin alloy (the softest that would work - 20/1 lead/tin or softer).

I have to smile at your paragraph (while completely agreeing with it), it seems that the "old boys", with no computers, chronographs, etc) had it figured out pretty dern good. Yes, that "Ol' Cowboy, Elmer Keith", whose little blue book written in 1936 was my guide to the sport of handgunning, bullet casting, and reloading back around 1949, did not lead me astray...

FWIW
Dale53

[ddixie884]

ttt.............

[salvadore]

I use the Skeeter load @ 13gr. of 2400 in the .38 case. Out of a 6" model 28 I get substantially more fps according to my chrono.

[Jtarm]

Most of the time, the MP 359-640. In the pic below, the bullet on the right was fired using that load. Velocity was 940fps out of a 2.5" snubbie.

Don

240329

What’s your alloy?

Oops, nvm. Should’ve read on. Didn’t realize this was a zombie thread.