38SPL Range Report (plinking rounds)

[jell-dog]

38SPL Range Report

CAUTION: The following thread includes posts of loading data tested in my guns chambered for this cartridge.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Neither the writer, The High Road, nor the staff of THR assume any liability for any damage or injury resulting from use of this information.

This being said, NONE of these loads are compressed.

All loads at their respective COL's had (to me) a mild/moderate felt recoil. YMMV

Here are the guidelines I will be using: 10 yards, sitting, open sights, MTM pistol rest, target has 1/2" grid lines and 1" bullseye, 7 rounds for each bullet data.
I will be shooting with a S&W Model 686-5+, 4" barrel for all range work.

The bullets I will be using are:
X-TREME 158gr PLATED SWC (I will abbreviate to X-TREME SWC)
BERRYS 148gr PLATED HBWC (I will abbreviate BERRY HBWC)
FRONTIER 125gr PLATED FLAT POINT (I will abbreviate to FRONTIER P-FP)
MBC 148gr COATED DEWC (I will abbreviate to MBC DEWC) (THANK YOU vaalpens!!)
MBC 158gr COATED SWC (I will abbreviate to MBC C-SWC) (THANK YOU Dudedog!!)
MBC 140gr COATED ZINGER (I will abbreviate to MBC ZINGER) (THANK YOU Dudedog!!)
MBC 158gr LEAD SWC (I will abbreviate to MBC L-SWC) (THANK YOU Dudedog!!)
ORIGON TRAIL 158gr LEAD SWC (I will abbreviate to OT L-SWC) (THANK YOU edleit!!)

So, here are my results:
Load# 16-04-001D, X-TREME 158gr PLATED SWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.7gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Cannalure


Load# 16-04-002C, BERRYS 148gr PLATED HBWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.4gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= 0.125" above case mouth, Lite Roll Crimp


Load# 16-04-004D, FRONTIER 125gr PLATED FLAT POINT, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.7gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= 1.415", Lite/Mod Roll Crimp


Load# 16-04-005C, MBC 148gr COATED DEWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.4gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Crimp Groove


Load# 16-04-006D, MBC 158gr COATED SWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.7gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Crimp Groove


Load# 16-04-007C, MBC 140gr COATED ZINGER, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.6gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Crimp Groove


Load# 16-04-008C, MBC 158gr LEAD SWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.3gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Crimp Groove


Load# 16-04-009C, ORIGON TRAIL 158gr LEAD SWC, BULLSEYE POWDER @ 3.3gr, WSP Primers, Remington Brass, COL= Lite Roll Crimp @ Crimp Groove


Thank you to the THR members that PIFed some bullets to me to try, they are all greatly appreciated!!

A big THANK YOU to Dudedog and vaalpens, they supplied data for the bullets they PIFed

Hope you enjoy this thread as much as I enjoy putting it together!

As always, all comments are greatly appreciated
JD

 

[HankC]

Pretty good! But how can revolver be accurate? Huge bullet jump before engaging rifling!

 

[vaalpens]

jell-dog,

Thanks for sharing your test results. Hopefully you also had some fun throughout the process.

It seems you have some good loads: Berry HBWC 3.4gr Bullsey, Frontier 125gr wbith Bullseye 3.7gr, MBC 158gr C-SWC with 3.7gr Bullseys, and MBC 158gr L-SWC with 3.3gr Bullseye. The Berrys HBWC result really looks good.

I think the MBC 158gr SWC does very well with different loads. I have seen good groupings with 4.0/5.0gr of Unique, and then 3.4gr Bullseye. It seems that 3.3-3.5gr range is a good range for the MBC 158gr SWC's.

With the MBC 148gr DEWC I see you have loaded it with 3.4gr of Bullseye. I am still trying to find the sweet spot, but for now the best grouping I have seen was with 2.8gr and 3.0gr. I should probably try a 2.7gr and also over 3.0 gr to see what works best.

 

[Dudedog]

Oh NO
You have been swayed by the Dark (wheelgun) side of the force
Now I'll have to shoot mine and there are 6 extra holes to clean
Looks like Bullseye is working well for you.
Couple of those guys were one shot away from being one big hole!
Berrys HBWC, Frontier 125 and MBC 158 all look great.
Thanks for taking the time to test and post results for us all.

Got some testing I want to do if I can ever make it to the range.:banghead:

 

[ljnowell]

If I could make a suggestion it would be to try loading some with no crimp. Seat the bullet to the point of the crimp groove just slightly below the case mouth and just straighten out the case flare. Almost like you would taper crimp a 45 acp.

In my quest for the ultimate bullseye load in 38 special I found this to provide the best accuracy with both DEWC and LSWC.

I've also noticed that many other precision pistol shooters are doing the same thing. The load levels are such that a roll crimp simply isn't necessary.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jell-dog]

ljnowell,
Thank you for your suggestion!
I will try the "taper crimp" instead of the "roll crimp".
JD

 

[Hardtarget]

Your loads are very much like I've used for many years. mostly I load a 158 gr swc with either bullseye or WST. I was gifted four pounds of Unique so I've been shooting some of that as well. Going to take a long time to use it even with loading for my sons ...their wives...the grand children...everybody shoots except for my wife. She is just not interested.

I could see your gun liked your loads. You'll have a good time at the range.

Mark

 

[bluetopper]

You can tell a whole lot more about a load at 25 yards.

 

[mjones 59]

Thank you for sharing. I also have been testing .38 target loads. One
of my problems is that I will have 5 shots that group well and 1 flier.
I just bought a bunch of once fired brass and am going to sort it and
and do some more experimenting to tighten up the group's. I also
use bullseye but would like to try W231 or titegroup but they are
hard to find around here. Be careful how hot you load the hollow
base wadcutters in reading other posts they talk about the bullet
coming apart.

 

[TimSr]

If you want to get really technical in tight groups from a revolver, you can mark your cylinders, and shoot groups from each cylinder.

 

[Buck13]

You can tell a whole lot more about a load at 25 yards.

You can also tell more if you shoot 20 or 30 rounds of each. You need a lot of data to average out your mistakes well, IMHO

 

[murf]

mjones59,

is the flyer coming from the same chamber, or is it a random occurrence? you may have a bad hole in that cylinder.

murf

 

[jell-dog]

mjones59,

is the flyer coming from the same chamber, or is it a random occurrence? you may have a bad hole in that cylinder.

murf

murf,
I think it's my steadiness holding sight picture.
As suggested by TimSr, I'm going to number the chambers an fire a group from each to see if I get a bad group from one chamber or random flyers from other chambers.
Thanks everyone for all your comments!
JD