I am looking at the Speer reloading manual #14 and am reloading 38 special and thinking of loading some .357. I am currently using 3.9 grains of HP-38 and speer 158 grain lswc bullets for 38 special loads. From my understanding HP-38 and W231 are the same powder but the Speer manual has different data for both powders 3.6-4.1 for hp-38 and 3.8-4.3 for 231 while hodgdons site has 3.1-3.7 listed for both (hodgdons site data is for cast lswc).
Basically I'm wondering should I be using the data listed for 231 or for HP-38 in the manual and is the data on hodgdon site lower because it is for cast as opposed to being cold formed? Also some of the .357 loads only have data for 231 listed which seems strange if both powders are the same.
Basically I'm wondering should I be using the data listed for 231 or for HP-38 in the manual and is the data on hodgdon site lower because it is for cast as opposed to being cold formed? Also some of the .357 loads only have data for 231 listed which seems strange if both powders are the same.