.38 Super loads uisng Unique or Blue DOT?

[wally]

I recently acquired a pair of .38Super pistols, a Taurus PT-1911 and EAA Witness Standard Steel Frame and now have enough brass to start reloading for them.

I found a good deal on some 124 gr 0.356" .38 Super FMJ bullets a while back so I plan on starting with these. OAL will be as long as will fit in both mags which should be about 1.260"

Perusing my old loading manuals I'm thinking of starting with either 8.7 Gr of Blue Dot or 5.9 Gr of Unique based on what weights my Lee Autodisk measure throws. Agree or Disagree these would be a reasonable starting point?

I'm not interested in buying any other brand of powder. I've got Wolf primers on hand now so that is what I will use.

How is the accuracy of 0.355 bullets in .38 Super? Most of the load books listed loads for only 0.355 bullets or 0.355-0.357" in a variety of styles without differences for bullet diameter. Since I don't plan on adding another brand of powder to the inventory, it'd also be nice if 9mm bullets worked well in .38 Super.

Once I get going I'll probably load up a few 9mm 0.355" 115 Gr bullets with the same charges just to see how they shoot in a .38Super, since I got a few hundred of these on hand. In 9mm I mostly shoot 147 gr Hard Cast TC (from Missouri Bullet Co.) and haven't loaded any 9mm FMJ in years since the Steel cased 9mm FMJ ammo is so inexpensive and good enough for my needs.

 

[atblis]

I like Unique for 9mm. Should work nicely for 38 SA.

Bluedot is a little weird behaviorwise. I generally avoid it for this reason.

 

[mc223]

unique has been one of my favorite powders for the 38 super.

 

[rfwobbly]

You might want to slug your barrels. A lot of the newer 38S barrels are .355 and so you can simply use 9mm (.355) bullets.

 

[Walkalong]

Unique & Blue Dot will both work with those 124 Gr jacketed bullets.

Speer #13 shows 8.3 to 9.2 Grs of BD and 5.6 to 6.2 Grs of Unique with 124 Gr jacketed bullets. BD will get about 100 more FPS at the cost of more powder and recoil.

 

[cfullgraf]

I like Blue Dot with 115-124 grain bullets. But I have loaded Unique as well. Both powders will serve you well.

There was a time I loaded 158 lead SWC in 38 Super over Unique. Great loads. Unfortunately, the barrel I had was an old one that head spaced on the rim. I have since replaced the barrel with one that head spaced on the case mouth and the SWC's would bottom on the end of the chamber and not work. I haven't gone back to see if I can set the bullet deeper.

I have also used Blue Dot in 9x19, 40 S&W and 38-45 Clerke.

 

[wally]

Sounds good, I'll load up 10-20 of each and see which I like better.

Thanks, glad to see my older manuals weren't very different from Walkalong's listing.

 

[wally]

Just to follow up, I made up 25 rounds of each load and ran them through my EAA Witness Standard steel frame and Taurus PT-1911 along with some 130 gr Armscor factory ammo for reference.

The Unique load was pretty much indistinguishable from the Armscor when mixed in the magazine. The Blue Dot load had a bit more recoil and a lot more muzzle flash and blast.

Managed to find all my brass so ejection was about the same for all loads, the Witness threw it a lot further.

I'll probably standardize on the Blue Dot load as why mess with reloading an odd ball caliber if everyone on the firing line will just think you are shooting 9mm +P

 

[Old Scratch]

Both Unique and Blue Dot have a very bright flash signature. This is pronounced particularly at night. Much of my shooting is at night; I don't know your habits but this is something to consider. I no longer use Unique at all and am phasing out Blue Dot for precisely this reason.

 

[rfwobbly]

why mess with reloading an odd ball caliber if everyone on the firing line will just think you are shooting 9mm +P

Excuse me !?

Sir, 9mm is the "oddball". 38 Super IS the standard !!

 

[Cherokee]

One of my best loads is with Bluedot and Hornady 124 FMJ FN bullet. It does have flash. I did not care for Unique in my guns. Power Pistol, HS6, AA5, AA7, 231 all work for me. I shoot a lot of 231 (HP38) and AA7.

 

[wally]

I mostly shoot steel plates, this means "quantity has a quality of its very own". The challenge is speed as the targets are trivial if you go real slow. I find Unique has more smoke than flash, at least with lead bullets. Unique works good enough for every pistol caliber so I only need stock one powder.

I like Blue Dot for the rounds Unique is just a bit too fast to get factory performance with -- .357 Mag, .44 Mag, 10mm and now .38Super. I don't shoot a high volume of these and can do all these with Unique in a pinch with a modest loss in performance but a gain in economy since there are ~20-30% more loads per pound with Unique than with Blue Dot.