Testing heavy bullets in .38s

[AzShooter]

I recently started casting my own bullets for ICORE and USPSA. It's fun, relaxing and educationL.

I started with LEE 158 grain tuble lube but didn't like the lube all over the bullets. I switched to LEE 150 and ran them through my Star sizer. Much better. No extra lube and groups were pretty good.

Then I read about LBT moulds. Veral Smith, the owner says with his moulds you can get 1 inch groups at fenominal distances. I just wanted to try for 1 inch at 25 yards and I'd be happy.

I ordered his mould for a 180 grain bullet. I told him I needed a round nose so it would reload quicker than the flat points he normally makes.

I started with very light loads to insure safety. I wanted to get about 740 fps with an average Power Factor o fabout 130 +.

Using a number of powders the biggest problem was light loads causing problems with primers coming loose. As I increased the charges this stopped and I got some decent loads. Very consistent and the accuracy increased.

Here are some examples:

Since I have about 10 lbs of Solo 1000 that's what I inted to use for a while. After that more experimenting with Titegroup which shows lots of promise.

Recoil feels very light, even better than my Trail Boss loads with 150 grain bullets. Trail Boss won't give me the velocity I need, filling the case and I'm still 20 fps too slow for ICORE.

[dajarrel]

I couldn't help but chuckle when I looked at your first target and saw you were using 3.0 gr of TiteGroup. I use that powder charge with 158 gr hollow based wad-cutters and it is incredibly slow, but accurate. Some of my shooting buddies would even comment on the visable arc observable on my rounds

Good luck on your testing.

dj

[Carlos]

There is data in the Lee book for 200 grain lead bullets in a 38 - and IIRC, the velocity came close to 800 FPS.

-a 200 grn bullet going 800 FPS - out of a .38 spl? That is quite a bit of energy for a .38 special. Not too far beyond the magical .45 ACP in terms of energy, actually.

Makes you wonder why its not further explored as a defensive load.

[revchuck]

Back in the '60s, Winchester had a .38 Special "Super Police" load - 200 grain LRN at ~600 fps depending on barrel length, though I believe it was advertised as running at 700+ fps.

Vitha Vouri's data shows a few .38 Special standard pressure loads that make major. I kinda doubt that they do, but that's what they show.

[Tucson-John]

Makes you wonder why its not further explored as a defensive load.

Heavy pure lead HBWC loaded backward was a big topic of discussion back in the day. There was a mold for 180, the idea was to use a VERY fast SB powder to compensate for a short barrel (sound familiar?). (Hornady actually made a pure lead commercial HBWC that was so soft & so deep it seemed like a mistake but would expand to a nightmarish degree in soft tissue.) There was also an old police round that Lyman made a mold for that had a very large hollow cavity. It was a 200gr RN; but loaded backward......It may do something serious w/ today's powders.