my carry gun is a Taurus 605. The load im shooting
for practice is a Lee 158gr swc backed by 5.8 gr of
Blue Dot. I always have some unburned powder when
using this load. Any suggestions?
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my carry gun is a Taurus 605. The load im shooting
for practice is a Lee 158gr swc backed by 5.8 gr of
Blue Dot. I always have some unburned powder when
using this load. Any suggestions?
You're probably getting a real cool looking muzzle flash too.
Blue dot is on the slow side. It shines in magnum calibers with long-ish barrels.
Switch over to Unique, or something else faster than blue dot.
It'll clean all that up.
Whatever left behinds you see are usually just graphite and soot.
Blue Dot is not a suitable powder for standard-pressure loads in the .38 Special.
You would be much better served with a faster powder such as Bullseye, TiteGroup, 231, HP38, WST, 452AA, etc. While Unique is often recommended, it is better suited for +P loads than for standard pressure, unless you are loading bullets heavier than 150 grains.
I had issues with blue dot not burning completely with 10mm. I tried magnum primers. They did the trick.
3-3.5 gr bullseye shoots real well and a pound of powder goes a long way, I also load some with 4.5 gr be-86 and that works well also in my old lend lease S&W.
this is where I use up all my Remington 1 1/2 primers
Try a faster burning powder and I bet you unburned powder goes away.
Bullseye. 'nuf said.
I've used W231 for decades in standard .38 Special loads. I see no reason to change.
Robert
I would switch to Bullseye or Unique.
I use either Bullseye or Unique in 38 Special. Save the Bluedot for 357 or 9 mm.
Winelover
HS6 has worked for me in 38 loads with 158 gr boolets. Bulseye is my #1 powder in 38
I love Blue Dot... But I also love 4350.... Neither is really best for the 38spl! ;)
As suggested, Unique, Bullseye, 231, HP38 and a few other newer powders are better!! Id like to see the pile of Bullseye I have burned in almost 40 years of Bullseye 3.2g at a time...
CW
3.5 Bullseye or 4.0 231/HP-38 with a 150 - 160 boolit. That's about all you need to know for a working .38 Special load. It's full power, standard pressure.
Casting a lot of 158 SWCs with a TL358-158-SWC I seat to an put a medium roll crimp in the top lube groove in 38 SPL cases. Loaded over 3.5 gr Bullseye they are an excellent factory duplication load and very accurate.
Appreciate the input. I'll switch to Unique as I have plenty of that. Somewhere I thought I heard Blue Dot was the powder for .38 snubbies....apparently I heard wrong. thanks again
Ed and Larry know that you reduce it to the lowest common denominator BE and Unique for everyday and a little extra when needed. I started with Unique and BE always scared me a little. When I first started I had a can of Unique and a Lyman 45th. That is all I used for a year or two.........
it's all good to someone somewhere. i use w231 for .38spl and 9mm. it works well for me.
In my S&W 638, I use a 155gr MP Keith HP Bullet HiTek coated, 4gr Universal, seated to crimp groove, heavy crimp getting 720fps. I am not getting any leading and great accuracy. Universal is very similar in burn rate to Unique.