Low velocity .38 Special 125 gr. data?

[Buck13]

This may be a fool's errand, but I have a 4" half-lug fixed sight GP100 which works great with 170 grain Keith bullets or 180 gr XTPs. Every loading I've tried with those, from Trail Boss to 14 grains IMR4227, shoots pretty much right to the sights at 25 yards.

OTOH, 125 grain bullets with magnum or .38+P loadings hit 5 to 6" low. I'm not desperate to make those work, but it would be nice to have a very light load for newbies, so I'd like to load them down as slow as possible to see if the gun will recoil up a bit before the bullet leaves the muzzle. (It's not the lightest revolver, so maybe this won't ever work, but it will be fun to experiment.)

Most starting loads for bullets that light are still pretty fast, and seem to be simply 10% of the max load. I'm guessing that's still well above what's safe to avoid a squib and stuck bullet, at least for many powders, but there seems to be little good info on this. Anyone have a source for real powder-puff data that is safe?

Right now, the only faster powder than Unique and AA#5 I have is Trail Boss, but I'm happy to get #2, Red Dot, HP-38, etc. if/when I can find them.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I think you would be better off using a 158gr or 148gr lead bullet at low velocities for new shooters than trying to get a 125gr load to hit POA. I use nothing other than W231/HP-38 for my .38 Special practice/target ammo.

 

[Claude Clay]

another vote for 158gr and mine are on top of 4.0gr of bullseye
which is a mild and often a most accurate load for my 4" revolvers.
(insert usual re-loading warnings here)

125 rounds I've loaded down such that they align with POA/POI
of factory ammo are hardly making it out of the bbl and thus not safe.

 

[Buck13]

I've still got about 50 each lead and JHP 125s to use up, so there's that. I guess for newbies at 7 yards, it doesn't matter much, since they'll only be about an inch low. I virtually never shoot that distance myself, though.

 

[anothernewb]

I use 3.8 grains of TB behind 125 plated with good results. hits to about the same location as a 148 with 2.3 of trial boss behind it.

 

[OH_Spartan]

I load 2.5 grn of Clay's behind 125 grn lrnfp. I use them in a snubbie and they are very easy to shoot and very accurate. With fixed sights, I can expect to hit a 2" circle with 5-rounds at 10 yards. When someone asks "what kind of gun should I get for defense?" I let them shoot this round. I also use it if I am wanting to practice certain self-defense tactics and want to shoot a lot of rounds without hurting the next day.

I have loaded Clay's lower than 2.5 grn (don't remember how low), but accuracy really suffered.