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Powder for 38 special?


carbonman556

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Anybody shooting a 125gr load? I'm looking for a j-frame plinker load.

4.0gr of Unique crimpded in the crimp groove of a hard-cast Lead bullet (lazer cast 125gr fp or Lee 125gr rnfp) is our standard load for Cowboy Action. I have also used 3.2gr of Clays with the same bullets, softer and noticeably slower.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two questions, when you guys refer to Clays is it Hodgdon or Universal?

I've gone to Accurate data page & found nothing on Solo 1000 for .38spl, where are you getting your data from?

thank you

For me it is straight CLAYS, not Universal. I run 3.2 grains of Clays with 160gr RNL and 3.4 grains of S1000 for about the same results/velocity. Both are clean loads in the revo.

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YES.. plain old Clays... not Universal Clays! Clays does great things with 158 grain lead bullets in a .38 revo (and 230 lead in .45 ACP). I shot a ICORE match a week or so ago... .38 Long Colt cases, 158 Speer swaged LRN, 3.3 grains Clays (all six chambers make 120 PF easily with that load) and it was so clean that I didn't brush chambers once during the 120+ round match. When shooting IDPA I use .38 Spl cases (Long Colt ain't legal there) and 3.6 Clays with the same bullet and same PF... still very clean.

Universal only seems to work in .38 at MAX loads. Below max it doesn't burn cleanly and leaves a lot of crud in the gun... not to mention filthy cases and very erratic velocitites.

I think Hodgdon created unneeded confusion with their different designations (Clays, Univeral and International) using the base name Clays.

For target loads in .38 and .45 ACP with lead bullets, you want plain Clays and don't mess with the other two. Except, if you have some Universal on hand... it does work in 9mm (real small case volume gets it a clean burn, but you still need to be in the upper load level ranges).

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