My favorite 38 special load is 5.7 gr. of HP-38 pushing a 125 Berry's flat nose plated bullet at 950+ FPS out of my 4" S&W 581. Since I only shot 38 Special with 357 guns, I didn't worry that it was just below +P in the Hogdon on-line data. It's the max load in the Hornady manual for a 38 special using a 125 gr. XTP bullet and HP-38 (actually Win 231 is listed). Its hard to compare Hogdon to Hornady data since Hogdon uses a 7.7" test barrel and Hornady used a revolver with a 4" barrel. I recently bought a S&W model 14-3 which is a 38 Special (I don't think its rated for +P) and wonder if I shouldn't reduce the load to 800 FPS or so? That would be 4.8 gr. of HP-38, a significant difference. What do you think?