Top Three Powders for .38 Special

[Char-Gar]

Ah yes..Today's shooters don't like to clean their guns or wash their hands. How silly of me, I forget they have become delicate in these days.

[PS Paul]

I kinda like leaving the range with soot all over me! kinda like a "badge of honor", my loved ones can always tell when I've been shootin' by the racoon-face I sport when i return. ha-ha!!

4227 is one of my favorites in high-pressure loads, but I always have unburnt granules in my hair and all over. Doesn't bother me too much because I like the performance and LOVE the smell!!!
Paul

[Dave C.]

#1 Bullseye
#2 Bullseye
#3 Bullseye

[KYCaster]

Ah yes..Today's shooters don't like to clean their guns or wash their hands. How silly of me, I forget they have become delicate in these days.

I don't recall ever seeing Marshall Dillon or Wyatt Earp or Gene or Roy with dirt on their face!!!

Just tryin' to carry on the tradition.


Jerry

[Char-Gar]

I have been at this shooting business for almost 60 years now, and I have never had powder residue/dirt on my face or looked like a racoon.

[gbrown]

If you're happy with your choice of powder, that's fine with me, but just because they've been working for fifty years doesn't mean I can't find something I like better.
Jerry

(Originally Posted by Char-Gar
This is all from 1966, but I don't really see that anything has changed in the following 46 years.)

I was always told, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Bulleye is my goto powder for the .38. Also for a couple of other calibers. Has been a workhorse and proven performer. May be a little dirty, but I've never come away from the range with a lot soot on my hands, maybe a little dirty, but usually that is dirt from the ground picking up brass.

[avogunner]

#1 Bullseye
#2 IMR 700X
#3 Red Dot

[PS Paul]

I sometimes wipe my face while shootin and fail to look in the mirror. That is where the "racoon-face" would come from. Just a little humor. Very little, I guess....

[PS Paul]

I thought for a minute and felt some of you might actually find this funny. It is to me....
Three weeks ago, I go to the range. It's getting hot, so I want to keep it within two or three hours. I shot 250 rds. 45 Colt, 200 rds. .357, all with various powders, loads. As I shoot, it gets hotter and I find myself startin' to sweat. I get around to shootin' up some loads with 4227, leaving unburned granules in my hair and on my face. So I start wipin' to remove it.

When it is all shot up, I jump in the car and race home because my wife and kids are waiting for me to take them out shopping (good times...).I run in the front door and there they are, sitting down waiting for me. My boy jumps up from the sofa and yells, "Dad, you look like a RACCOON!!"

I go in the restroom and see I am COVERED with black soot; some dried and caked and some smeared all over, mixed with sweat.

So I gotta say, it was a pretty funny moment and I get a little laugh each time I think of the look on the boy's face when he saw me!!

So, racoon-faced, coated in goop and pretty humiliated, it was a banner moment and since then, I have placed a towel in the car on my past two trips to the range. Goin' again tomorrow, so it's back to the reloading bench to load up some .357 with bullseye, red dot and unique. I'll save the 4227 for another time!

[Casting Timmy]

I really like Bullseye, I prefer fast powders with revolvers.

[Char-Gar]

I really like Bullseye, I prefer fast powders with revolvers.

Bullseye, Unique and 2400 all have their place in sixgun shooting. It all depends on the velocity and size of the cartridge.

In the 38 Special 2400 will produce top velocities with acceptable pressure. When your try to push the same bullet in the same handgun at those 2400 velocities with Bulleye or Unique you will hit the pressure red line before you get there.

Bullseye gets very touchy if you go above service velocity. It only takes a fraction of a grain to get you into pressure trouble.

I use BE in the 38 Special and 45 ACP rounds as the powder of choice at velocities to about 850 fps. In the larger cases like the 357 Mag, 44 Spl and Mag and 45 Colt, Unique is the powder unless I want to go above 1,100 fps and then it is 2400 all the way.

[tonyjones]

I use Solo 1000 with wad cutters and Universal Clays for everything else. In a confined space, as with a flush seated wad cutter, S 1000 burns about as cleanly as it gets. BE is my favorite powder for 3/4 ounce charges in a 12 gauge.

Regards,

Tony

[jnovotny]

#1 Bullseye
#2 Bullseye
#3 Bullseye

I'm with you Dace C. best I've found for the 38 special.

[1874Sharps]

A couple of thoughts: Even though Bullseye (my favorite 38 Special powder) has been around a long time and I use it exclusively for the 158 grain RCBS Cowboy mold boolit, I am glad there are a wide number of other powders out there that are as good or better. The willingness to experiment and build a better mouse trap is a cog in the machine of innovation -- and make no mistake, the folks on this forum are innovators. I like CHAR-GAR's experiment with BP in 38 Special. The power of a full load of BP in a large capacity case should not be discounted. Before the 357 Magnum came out in 1935 the 45 Colt BP load was the most powerful conventional cartridge around. And, in a pinch BP can be made at home while making smokeless propellent would be much more difficult.

[I'll Make Mine]

And, in a pinch BP can be made at home while making smokeless propellent would be much more difficult.

Not to mention much more hazardous -- concentrated nitric acid isn't anything I want to be around if I can help it.

[Lefty SRH]

Most accurate load I ever found for .38spl was HS-6 with a Lyman 358311, but it doesn't burn completely and can bind the cylinder.
MY current match load is HP-38 and the same 358311.
I'm hoping to find a good load with Clays for the same boolit.

I like all 3 of these powders.

[Old Kid]

3.2 grains of Bullseye with a Lee 105 grain SWC. Makes a great plinking load and allows me to really concentrate on trigger control. I've been able to use this load to help some novice shooters get over flinching and really enjoy shooting.

Also have used 2400 with 158 grain gas checked SWC's with some success.

[Hamish]

For me it's 10B101, for the wife it's 700X.

[MasS&W]

Bullseye, unique, herco. The holy trinity.

[BD]

As always, a different point of view.
#1 HPC-18 (surplus 231)
#2 Unique
#3 WC-820

Some time around 15 pounds of powder from now, or whenever Bullseye gets down to $5/lb, I may reconsider #1. Meantime I'll just keep shooting the cheap stuff, as it's bulkier and and more accurate
BD