'Breaking Wrist Upwards' How to resove this?

[Josh45]

Okay, went to the range today with some hand loads I had. The hand loads were 5 shots of 125 GR TMJ with 7.0 GR of Unique behind it. Those shot high. The range I shot them at? 7 yards.

Okay, I loaded up another 5 shots of 125 GR TMj with 7.2 GR of Unique behind it and same thing. This time, 15 yards. They were all .357 loads but starting loads for that powder. While maybe not the right powder for it, I had more rounds to test but this range closed earlier.

So, seven feet, seven yards or fifteen yards, Im still having that problem.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Did you try shooting off a rest...or having someone else shoot your gun?

 

[BCRider]

My Lyman book tells me you're just up to the max or just a hair over the max for a .38Spl sort of velocity at just 990 fps. And another .2 gn won't be enough to really matter.

The max load of Unique for .357 is up around 9.7 gns for a speed of around 1360fps.

As mentioned already a fixed sight .357 is going to be sighted in for a good solid magnum velocity and resultingly short barrel dwell time. So I'd suggest you start looking at around 8 to 8.5 gns of Unique and watch the POI come down. Tune as needed until the impact point matches your POA.

By the time the POI matches the POA if you find that even with the lighter 125gn bullets that the recoil is still more than what you want you'll need to try some 110's and go through the same starting loads and on up until the bullet sneaks out the end at the right timing.

For example at 7.4 gns of Unique behind a 110 gn bullet the velocity goes up to 1052fps from my layman book. So it's on the right track. With the 110gn velocity capping out at 1390 when shot with 10 gns of Unique it promises that you should be able to match a "classic" 158gn bullet at 1185fps with somewhat of a mid range charge of around 8.5gns of Unique.

I'd play a little more with the 125's before you dump the idea and go with the 110gn option for "plinkers". The 125's peak out at 1360'ish in my book vs the 158's 1185. So you should be able to get matched up with the POA and POI at a point where you're shooting something up in the mid power range. Once you're there if it's still too heavy then you can buy a box of 110's and start again.

If the goal is to get some lighter recoiling loads then you've really just plain and simply got the wrong gun. To get there you'll need to get something with an adjustable rear sight. Or pick up a similar size and weight of gun chambered in .38Spl. But with some more load tuning I think you'll get there.

To limit the needed number of range trips I'd suggest loading up 10 each of rounds with the 125's using 8.2gn, 8.6gn, 9.0gn and 9.4gn. The 9.4 is still 0.3 gn below the max permissalbe. One of those loads will be on the bull or hit just barely over and the next up in power will likely hit a hair lower. By that time you'll have a good idea of where to go for the final test recipe for your main loading. Or you'll know that it's still too much recoil for long practice sessions. If so then it'll be time to go buy a box of 110gn JHP's or something of the sort.

 

[Josh45]

9MM,

No. I did not. I had made more test rounds to see if I could see what i was doing wrong. I have made quite a few .38 spcl rounds as well to see if this helps any what so ever. Also thinking the less recoil may help me have a better sense of what it is Im doing wrong.

BCRider,

Who said anything about giving up on anything? I have made several rounds of different loads to see what would be an accurate round with this gun itself. And then go from there in a sense. So, I loaded up some .38 with some BullsEye as to what my Lymans manual says is the best they seen in accuracy. I will find out some time this week.

Also, Going to have my brother shoot it to see if it is just me.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Unless you are really knowledgeable and experience in spotting it, it is very hard to detect flaws in your own shooting technique.

I'd highly recommend finding a knowledgeable instructor and having them help you make the correction

 

[Josh45]

Sorry to bring up this old thread but I found out what I was doing.
When at the range, I loaded up 5 rounds, Spun the cylinder and closed it without looking at it. Shooting it in single action and not knowing when the next round was coming. When the empty cylinder came up, I tend to push forward when pulling the trigger.

I believe this is why my shot's are all over the target. When I first shot 130 GR Winchester factory ammo 38 spcl out of it, It was a bit high but grouped together really well. So, I'm sure it's because I push forward. Developed a flinch to the 357 mag...

 

[9mmepiphany]

Thanks for letting us know the outcome.

As I said in post #16, trying to self-diagnose when using that target just isn't very dependable.

The easy solution is to shoot it DA and work toward a smooth trigger press