Oldest 38 Special Powder Still In Existence

black powder?

Bullseye and Unique are both ancient

Alliant Bullseye is the oldest smokeless powder still in production that was used in the .38 Spl. factory loads then.

rc

Bullseye and Unique were invented by the Laflin and Rand Powder Company in the late 1890s. L&R was bought up by DuPont, so both powders were then made by DuPont from 1902 to 1913. Then DuPont was forced to divest itself of certain products including the former L&R product lines to Hercules in 1913. Hercules produced both powders until they sold all their powder operations to Alliant in 1995. Good stuff with quite a history.

Do keep in mind the the Bullseye powder made back then, and now currently made, are not identical when it comes to pressure and performance. So when you are using current powder of any kind, match it to current reloading data.

Also older reloading data sometimes reflects use in balloon head cases that offered more powder capacity then modern solid head ones. A high-end load intended for balloon head cases may be too much for what's needed for equal performance now.

Bullseye Powder 1898

Link to down load a PDF file on the Laflin and Rand Powder Company http://www.laflinandrand.com/page2.html Lots of info, with photos in the PDF down load file.

Wasn't Unique also reformulated not long ago? If the brand is the same but the chemistry is different, any talk of using the "original" load would be invalid to me. It's like saying I'm driving on the same tires as Mario Andretti raced on just because they say Goodyear on the sidewall. Both are made of rubber, but...

You can't go home again, as they say.

Also keep in mind that .38 Special factory was not loaded with Unique back then either.

The standard factory powder was always Bullseye.

Except perhaps on the Hi-Speed loads that came awful close to todays .357 magnum loads.

And they were nether recommended for, or safe in a 1915 Colt or S&W medium frame revolver.

rc

Everyone keeps saying Bullseye is the oldest powder still in production but according to an article by Layne Simpson in the Dec. 2013 issue of Guns & Ammo Unique was first, introduced Laflin & Rand in 1898 followed by Bullseye in 1900. Hercules took over in 1902. 2400 Rifle Powder is quite a bit younger introduced for use in the 22 Hornet in 1932 and Red Dot for shotshells was introduced in the same year.

Please don't attack the messenger, Guns & Ammo, December 2013, Volume 57 No. 12, Page 28...

I have seen other sources that reverse the dates of both powders but I doubt they are as reliable as the research done by the staff at Guns & Ammo for Layne Simpson.

Unique Powder

From link above. Unique reformulated by ATK in 2001 to burn cleaner. In 1960 Unique was reformulated. The nitroglicerin content was reduced by Hercules in 1960 .

What kind of bullets and bullet lube are you going to use?

I know that Hercules had an original lot of bullseye stored in water. They would take some out and test it against new powder to make sure to stayed the same.

They used to have two of them. Now, they still have one of them, and it is in the Alliant New River plant in Radford, Virginia. They had a picture of it in the 1996 Reloader's Manual.
The powder, when dried, still works just fine. (But they do not recommend storing powder in water. The old powder in the jar had no stabilizers in it that the water might dissolve away.)

Actually, the oldest powder for a .38 Special was 3fg black powder. You can Wiki that for a .38 Special if you like. As for smokeless, it would probably be Unique, although there are a few others that we no longer have that were probably used before.

Ray