Nice medium 38 special load

[Cosmic_Charlie]

3.0 grains of VV310 under a 148 gr. dewc. Light crimp in the first groove. About 1.375" depending on your boolit. Has more beans than the standard 2.5 grains of Bullseye under a hbwc.

[Low Budget Shooter]

I've never tried any of the VV powders. But I've made lots of nice, round holes in the middle of the target with both DEWC and HBWC bullets over 2.4 - 3.5 gr Bullseye and Red Dot.

[45DUDE]

Most any shotgun powder works with a 148 wc. I am a VV fan also. It's very clean but cost more. A 148 wc is the best cheapest accurate boolit you can shoot.

[Randy Bohannon]

I bought 5k of the dirty filthy dry lubed Remington 148 gr. HBWC that shoot amazingly well in both .38 Special and .38 S&W with small charges of B/E I don’t think I need another powder to push a fairly fragile boolit.

[rintinglen]

Most any shotgun powder works with a 148 wc. I am a VV fan also. It's very clean but cost more. A 148 wc is the best cheapest accurate boolit you can shoot.

Amen. One of my most used molds is an H&G 50, 140-ish button nose wadcutter. 2.7 Bullseye or 3.0 WW-231, crimped in the crimp groove, for sheer shooting pleasure. They'll group as well as your 38--or you--can shoot.

[oldsalt444]

Among bullseye competitors, "the load" for 38 Spl is 2.7 gr WST or 2.8 gr BE under a 148 HBWC. Extremely accurate.

[Rodfac]

In .38 Special, I like 3.5 gr. of Bullseye with Lyman's 35891, a 145 gr button nose wadcutter offering, weighing 146 gr when cast from Wheel Weights + a pinch of tin for mold fill out. I routinely swirl lube my cast bullets with either LLA or 45-45-10 prior to sizing and re-lubing with 50-50 to help with any leading issues. It works...and the 5 minute process of swirl lubing adds little to the overall work load assembling rounds. Note in the attached pic that I lube only the lower two grooves, as that's all that's required for lead free shooting.

I lightly taper crimp this bullet in the tiny crimping groove, leaving ~1/8" of the button head lead showing. Sizing to 0.358" works well in both my S&W and Ruger Magnums as well as a cpl of Smith .38 Spls. In my M66 Smith with its 4" bbl., I get 806 fps muzzle velocity. This is a good, leading free load that's capable of sub-2" groups @ 25 yds if I'm doing my part.

In .357 brass, with the same bullet & 4.0 gr. of Bullseye, I get 832 fps with equal accuracy and no leading. (And no lead/lube build up in the chambers as left by .38 Spl. brass.)

Both loads place no stress on the gun, give superb accuracy and hit with authority...and that's what I'm interested in. The 100 fps or so bump above the usual target load velocity of Bullseye (2.7 or 2.8 gr. of BE), doesn't seem to affect accuracy while increasing impact effect if you're hunting small game or using the round as a SD load.

Here's a pic of the loaded rounds plus the bullet showing the small crimping groove and its relation to the the seating depth. I believe that little bit of lead extending out of the cartridge case, helps align the bullet as it enters the forward portion of the cylinder as well as the bbl's forcing cone. Best Regards, Rod

https://i.postimg.cc/DZXz8wdv/IMG-E9355.jpg (https://postimages.org/)