38 Spec, CLAYS

[ultralightbackpacker]

Rather a loaded question. Been playing around with 38 special loads in an ancient 686 plus, using 357 mag brass with clays. Folks swear by clays for 38 special something akin to the defacto bullseye load. I haven't been able to locate many 38 special data using clays. Any secrets?

At first I started using 3.6 grain clays under a 125 berrys plated FP it does quite well, but wow, the cylinder gets hot, no I mean really hot. Way more than say 231, or bullseye or Unique or even 700x.

Steer me the right direction gents. Looking for fun loads, but accurate, these fingers don't work so well anymore, if you get my drift.

 

[Sunray]

Hodgdon's site has buckets of .38 Special Clays data. Loads are a tick less of Clays vs Bullseye with a 148 grain HBWC. Quite a bit less for a jacketed 125.
3.6 grains of Clays is .1 over max for a cast 125. Not enough to worry about though. For some daft reason, Hodgdon shows their testing was done with a 7.7" barrel too.
No such thing as an Ancient 686. Thing was designed in 1980. Some of us have socks older than that. snicker.

 

[Walkalong]

Clays in .357 brass.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I used a pound of Clays in the .38 Special and had good results. It didn't meter as well as W231 so I didn't but my any more. It seemed to be very accurate in several of my revolvers. I didn't notice any excessive heat.