38 special factory duplication loads

I occasionally shoot NRA distinguished revolver, the factory 158 gr round nose lead bullet 38 spl. loads work well in my guns and are accurate. While no longer required for DR they seemed to be a good place to start looking for duplication loads. I have found the 158 Saeco cast round nose to also be very accurate but am asking your opinion on other known good loads for the 38 spl., they do have to be either semi wad cutter or round nose 158. gr. bullets. I have several fast pistol powders available and generally use Federal primers as I shoot the short line double action. Thanks..... hipirn

Welcome to the Guide hipirn.

To duplicate a factory load you must have the same or similar bullets and a chronograph. If you were thinking that there are "factory recipes" that you can find and load up, keep dreaming. :D Factories don't use the same powders and often not the same bullets. No factory load or handload will shoot the same in different firearms. First you need to know how fast the load in question is moving when it exits your barrel. Then you play with charge levels of different powders until you have a close match in velocity. That gives you a load that is ballistically the same as a factory load BUT that doesn't mean it will have the same POI as the load you want to dup. If you are patient, you can try different powders one after another at the same velocity until one of them prints reasonably near the POI of the Factory load, kind of like the process of working up a load for a pistol or revolver with fixed sights. Or you can decide that POI at a given distance is more important than velocity and go for the load that will hit the same place, but it won't necessarily work for longer or shorter ranges.

The bottom line is that many of us load our own so that we don't have to take what the factories offer us and can load to the potentials of our guns. I realize you are looking for a competition load that you can substitute for the increasingly more expensive factory loads that you've been using. My advice is to work up the most accurate load you can with a bullet that meets the comp rules and that your revolver likes and shoots accurately (and you may have to try different brands and weights or cast your own) and adjust your sights for it. ;) This will save you many many hours of trial and error and half a ton of bullets and powder searching for the holy grail. Not that it isn't an interesting quest (I think all of us have tried it at least once if we admit it or not), but it is generally a waste of time and components.

Start by checking out what you have available locally or online for commercially cast bullets in the weights and styles you want. It would be nice if you could get them sized .359 or .360", but .358 may do well if they are soft enough (yes, I said soft enough - overly hard and undersized bullets can turn handguns into lead mines if they're pushed too hard and sometimes when they aren't). Unique and Bullseye are my goto powders for .38spec, BEYE for light target loads and UNQ for longer range shooting and small game hunting.

excellent advice above.

if you cast your own you can control more variables.
such as matching the diameter of your boolits to your cylinder throats. [yes the throats not the bbl].
hardness of your alloy to your desired powder and lube for less smoke and no leading.
however, if you are gonna buy most likely you are going to get boolits of around 15-16 bhn
cast from 2% tin and 6% antimony.
i would make sure they are flat based,and try to get a softer lube other than the commercial magma stuff.
i'd stay away from the lazer cast bullets also they are extrememly hard and usually cause me more problems than the bullets themselves cost.
working with the fast powders and the 15 bhn or softer boolits would be your best bet,
target a book velocity in the 800 fps range.
aa#2,and 231 are also good powders to start with. although 231 can be a bit smokey with the commercial hard lubes..
good luck.

I am very fond of Lyman 358311 and 358446 for 38 Sp duplication loads to be used in my three Colt OM revolvers. I use 4.2 gr. of A#2 and a WSP or CCI 500 primer in just about any head stamped cases including military. I do segregate my loads by head stamp and don't mix them in a box or batch.
I recently cast some 358443, I'll try them later. I size all of them .358 and it doesn't seem to matter what I use for lube as long as it is there. All three Colts slug to .3565 or slightly tighter.

I shoot IDPA SSR Division and must make 125 PF. This means, using 158gr RN cast boolit I am looking at +P loadings. I settled on a popular load using Clays. 3.5 gr under my RCBS 160 gr RN makes PF out of my 4.2" Ruger GP 100. I find Clays to be very clean burning in this loading. Much more so than either Unique or 231.

I have found the window for using Clays is pretty narrow. 3.1 gr gave this same boolit an average ride of 746 fps vs 827 fps usign 3/5 gr.

Both loadings used Federal SPP with an OAL of 1.47"

Take Care

Bob