[Monte Harrison]

I can get brass from Starline, but what about .361" bullets? I assume one gets very erratic performance using .358" bullets.
How about a recipe for a Victory Model Smith?

[Mike Irwin]

I'm not sure, but I think that NBC offers bullets of the proper size.

If you're just looking for plinking bullets, you can also load hollow-based wad cutters.

The skirts will expand to fill the rifling.

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

It is hard to believe but my 1979 Speer reloading manual recommends loading their standard .357 jacketed and .358 lead diameter bullets. I guess they wanted to sell their bullets no matter the weapon barrel diameter.

It is a very close range defensive weapon like 15 feet maximum. I have loaded the hollow base wadcutters and cast 38 158 grain round nose bullets of linotype which expanded when cooling and rubbed bullet lube into the grooves unsized, loaded and shot them with 2.6 grains of WW231 and got some better hits than with the HBWC's hits in a silhouette target in my police range.

2.6 was considered a max load at 671 fps.

John Paul

[Old Fuff]

Check the bore size on your particular revolver. I've found some wartime 38-200 revolvers with tight bores. It may be a case of worn tooling, or maybe they didn't always switch when going from .38 Special to .38 S&W.

The late George Nonte had a neat trick. Get a .360 bullet sizing die with a nose punch to match the bullet you're using. Set the die, base down, on the workbench on a piece of steel plate. Push a .358 bullet into the die with your thumb, push it down with the nosepunch, and give the punch a hit with a plastic mallet. This will swage the bullet out to .361 (or whatever). Then pick up the die and tap on the nosepunch until the now reformed bullet drops out. This process is valled "bumping."

[Clark]

My grandfather had an Iver Johnson break top 38 S&W from the Alaskan gold rush.

Then about 5 years ago, I started buying the 38 S&W and 32 S&W Iver Johnsons for $25 broken and up to $50 working at gun shows. They were typically the cheapest gun in the whole show.

I overloaded them to see what happens. The latch has an eye that takes a threaded pin. The threads are 5-56 or some tiny diameter. The hot loads make the eye elongate, and the action becomes loose.

I showed this to a gun designer and started talking about maximum pressure, and he pointed out that the latch does not see any force directly from chamber pressure. He said that the two forces on latch are recoil on the barrel mass and bullet fricion in the barrel. Both forces are shared with the barrel hinge. That idea too me a long time and allot of effort to invision.

What the gun desinger said, then means that I should shoot soft lead bullets [less friction] and low recoil loads.

I was loading 158 gr .357 JHP XTP bullets with Blue Dot powder charges from the part of the load book for 38 Super +P when I stretched a latch.

I now shoot .360" 158 gr Soft lead bullets with 3 gr UNique or Lead Balls with 1 gr Bullseye.

Most guns are tough. The CZ52 and antique break top revolvers are not.

[Johnny Guest]

Loading for a Webley Mk 3 and an Albion Enfield - - -
Elder son and I got some satisfactory results using l148 HBWC bullets over around 2.5 gr. Bullseye and 4.0 gr. Unique. If you can't get bullets of proper size, best bet is wither Winchester 200 gr or 158 gr. Hollow base round nose in .357 diameter. Difficult to locate these factory bullets, but they turn up at gunshows occasionally. Son also used some home cast 195 gr (+/-) from a Lyman 358430 mould, and there were surprisingly good. Some 3.0 gr. Unique makes for a load much like the original .380/200 British service cartridge. Kind of a high trajectory, but probably as near to a real stoping load as you get from this ctg.

Using the S&W M&P frame V-model, you can safely go beyond the loads shown above, but I'd be certain to keep these separate from anything wich might be shot in a break-top.

I feel it is futile to load .357" jacketed bullets in .38 S&W. You cannot safely drive them fast enough to get the HPs to expand. There is a lot less chance for the jacketed bullet to obturate ("slug up") to give decent accuracy. AND, with equal powder charges, you get higher pressures with jacketed bullets.

Best,
Johnny

[Frenchy]

Check out BONUS BULLETS (http://www.bonusbullets.com/pistol.htm) for a proper .360, and M.D. SMITH (http://www.reloadammo.com/38sw.htm), for the recipes.

[ranger]

Liberty bullets has them:

http://www.libertyshootingsupplies.com/html/handgun_bullets.html

There are a couple other places too, but I can't find the links. (Try a google search!)

[Gewehr98]

Most guns are tough. The CZ52 and antique break top revolvers are not.

But that's the first time I've heard the CZ-52 lumped in there with the break top revolvers.

Since I run my CZ-52 7.62x25 handloads over 1600fps, in that beefy roller-locked action, I'm at a loss. What's the weakness, Clark? :scrutiny:

[Mike Irwin]

Biggest weakness in the CZ 52 in my experience is the firing pin.

Breaks fairly easily and regularly with regular shooting, breaks even more easily with dry firing.

[Gewehr98]

I even bought a couple spares from makarov.com, but mine hasn't broken yet. I don't dry fire the gun, though.