Old Colt Loads

My .38 Special go-to is 4.5 gr Unique under a 158 gr SWC or LRN. Fun, accurate and they don’t beat up the gun.


And when these are done, there are still several hundred more in the bin that are ready to take their place.



Stay safe.

Hey Rio, I run the same load except with a 125 grn bullet. I have a couple of Rugers in .357 that are very accurate with that load. Dropped a Jackrabbit at 128 yards with that load....twice. I know the range on account of going out with a range finder and measuring the distance. Overall it's a great load.

I load 3.5 grains of Win231 under a 158 grain semi wad cutter, and it is on the low end, a bit of a mouse fart plinking load. Much ligher than factory ammo. If you want real light loads consider trimming the brass down to Long Colt or Short Colt and I haven't done it - but, I'm sure you can go even lighter with them and still be using published load data. Might need a different crimp die or something to do it, forget what it was, but something doesn't fit or work right with .38 Special dies. Just to throw out another option for testing and light loads.

Jackrabbit1957 said:

Hey Rio, I run the same load except with a 125 grn bullet. I have a couple of Rugers in .357 that are very accurate with that load. Dropped a Jackrabbit at 128 yards with that load....twice. I know the range on account of going out with a range finder and measuring the distance. Overall it's a great load.

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For some reason 4.2-5.0 Unique is a happy zone for a lot of bullet weights in the .38 Spl case. The 125 is a really soft shooter, I fired lots of those early on through snubs and lighter .38’s.

Over 100 yards is a long poke, at 128 that’s nice shooting!

Stay safe.