Best .38 Special Handloads

[Jim Watson]

I once splurged on some of the gimmick shotgun shells.
The flechette rounds were a bust. Loaded both ways for nesting in the shot cup, the ones loaded backwards did not turn over and typically landed broadside, and even the ones loaded point forward did not have much penetration.
The military version had them all oriented points forward and may have worked better... but they did not get adopted.

On the other hand, the Dragon's Breath put out a lot of fire a long way, igniting paper targets at 25 yards.

 

[AJC1]

My 2 most used loads are 2.6-2.8 grains of 231 and a Speer 148 HBWC or a 170 grain Keith Type SWC cast by me with a near max charge of 2400.

There are so many good loads for the 38 special that its hard to choose one!

If your using that Keith 170 are you loading that Keith 13.5 grains of 2400... I'm playing with that bullet currently and started with Silhouette. That 13.5 grains is way out of bounds for 38-44. 6.0 of Silhouette in a 38 case used in a 357 is very nice.

 

[lightman]

I have loaded up to 13.5 grains but I mostly stop at 12 or 12.5 grains. All of those 2400 loads usually shoot very good.

 

[film495]

I got to the bottom of a bunch of stuff on my workbench and cleaned up 6 months of home project stuff. This cleared up the bench for reloading so I poked around to just organize a bit and see if I could find all the various items needed. I had a can of Win231, but also some Accurate 5744 I must have picked up during the pandemic/crunch. Not sure if I got this for .357 or for .223 or what my intention was, just found some and go it cause it was available, haven't used any of it and I don't remember what I was thinking. Looked up some data and it seems like can be used for .223 and heavy 180 grain bullets for .357. Probably what I was thinking and just picked something availalbe with some versatility for what I plan to eventually be doing. Anyone used this? How did you like it?

 

[IWAC]

I've been using that same load for almost 50 years.

It's funny how many favorite loads are built with Unique. My go-to load for my 357 Magnums is 5.5 gr. Unique with a 150-RCBS-160 gr. RNFP cast bullet/357 brass... I've been thinking of going to 6.0 gr. Unique to better the chrono'd velocity of 860 fps, but...why? That about equals the standard LSWC loads used by law enforcement for decades, which is a +P load in .38 brass, and plenty effective. Sort of pleasant to shoot, too. That said, I do have Unique, Trail Boss, AA#5, Universal, and Hp-38, which has come onto the market in dribs and drabs in all the LGS locally. With the price of gas, It's grab what you can, whenever you see it, and don't drive all over (as my Dad would say)"He11 and half of Georgia" trying to find stuff. Order online, but if you have no handloader friends to share the cost, the Hazmat fee will kill you! Things seem to be getting slowly better now. Primers are well below the $$ that local on-line pirates are demanding. They never learned the word"NEGOTIATE", either!