Recommend a decent manual?

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Howland937

Howland937

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I'm getting more confused instead of less with trying to load for this 38 Super. Seems like most of the manuals I have access to show some pretty watered down loads. My powder availability is currently hs6, CFE pistol, and lil gun. I have 124 gr TMJ and 124 gr jhp. Barrel is ramped/fully supported... Just a plain 5" govt size 1911. No comps or ports or anything fancy. Not looking for someone to tell me how to load it as much as where to find decent info for what I have on hand. Anybody? Thanks!
 
What manuals do you currently have? Since those are all Hodgdon powders, have you looked at their website for loads? What brand bullets are you going with, the manufacturer may have loadings for their products.

I have Lyman 49th, 50th, Hornady 9th and will probably get 10th, and then I am going to get some Sierra loads. I am planning on sticking with Hodgdon powders since I can always access their loading data online.
 
I see discrepancies everywhere on load recipes for a given caliber, I buy Lyman's manuals and cross check them with the powder manufacturers recommendations and go with that.
I'm just a lot happier that way and have never had a problem with my loads.
 
My go-to manuals are Hornady, Lyman and Speer. I buy each new edition of these manuals, and they have a common trait; the newer manuals have watered-down loads for each powder relative to the older manuals. Many of my pet loads from older manuals show as overloads in the newer manuals.
 
mdThanatos said:
What manuals do you currently have? Since those are all Hodgdon powders, have you looked at their website for loads? What brand bullets are you going with, the manufacturer may have loadings for their products.
Click to expand...
I've got a hodgdon manual from 2017 that shows max load of hs-6 at 7.7 gr with 124gr fmj/rn. Which is the same info on their website.
Speer manual from circa 2015 shows max load of hs-6 at like 8.4 for the same bullet.
 
the foot said:
Many of my pet loads from older manuals show as overloads in the newer manuals.
Click to expand...
+1 on that...I may dig out some of my old manuals next time I'm over at my dad's. Ran into that on rifle loads years ago in my .22-250 and .220 swift. Hadn't considered it on the handgun rounds though.
 
Some say with the revolvers, it's because of the Aluminum framed guns with titanium cylinders, because the cylinders expand more than steel cylinders do and it can over expand and really clamp down on a case and you can't eject it out. Maybe.

Some say the pressure testing now is so much better than it was back when the older manuals were written and they have found problems with pressure spikes with some of the high end loads. Sounds more like it.

Some say it's the lawyers, Probably.

Who are you supposed to listen to.

Just keep up with the warnings from the powder companies about certain powders in certain caliber loads and you should be fine. That's why I also watch the powder co sights as a cross reference.
If I see a recipe that is contradictive to what the powder company says, I usually stay away from it.

Misprints do happen.
 
I've been all over the web...I guess the part that confuses me is a lot of the higher pressure or hotter loads are being ran in comped guns. I'm not trying to compete in anything. Just wanting to come up with a flat shooting round that isn't just a more expensive 9mm.
 
Manuals are published reports of the results a specific testing lab achieved at a specific time, with their specific components on their specific equipment. They are not exacting formula. (google "differences in reloading manuals" and you will see this often repeated subject on many forums). K.I.S.S.; if you are using Hornady bullets, use Hornady data. Speer bullets, Speer data, etc. If still concerned, use the lowest published charges and work up if necessary. If a some of my reloading manuals published the exact same data, I would question their sources (Lee "borrows" data from several sources).

Newer manuals publish newer/better testing method data, which accounts for the different charges than several years ago, not "lawyered up"...
 
To further expand on what people have said above, if older data was "hotter," it's usually because their testing equipment was inferior and couldn't detect short-duration overpressure events. Modern testing gear lets the lab see the whole pressure curve... rather than just figuring it backwards from how much a copper crusher deformed.

As for the notion that "lawyers" change data in load manuals... that's a bad joke. That is not the explanation. A lawyer would never white-out some engineer's reported, observed data and replace it with their own guess or made-up number. Utterly, utterly ridiculous. For one thing, the lawyer would be too worried about getting sued for what is now THEIR data!
 
Lyman, Hornady and Speer are the three that I refer to most

Super is sort of an oddball caliber to load for. Manuals have to cater to ALL pistols. Some have supported chambers, some don’t.

If your pistol is built right, meaning that you have a fully supported chamber and the guy that put it together didn’t throat the heck out of it to get it to feed right, it can handle some hot loads. Like making major power factor with a 124gr bullet back when major was a 175 power factor.

Guys were using small rifle primers to prevent piercing and primers popping out under the pressure.

Just start out with the manuals. As you get to know the caliber and you’re gun, you’ll be able to make decisions about what’s risky and what isn’t.
 
Look at the manuals, take your best guess of a good load, and go out to the range and shoot them over a chronograph. Find the one you like,the one that gives the velocity you want, with the accuracy you want, and does not show pressure signs. And then, don't be surprised when you are shooting more of the wonder load later, that you get sticky extraction, blown primers and have to cut the loads.

Happens to me all the time.
 
The guy that put it together mostly didn't know what he was doing (me)...but most of my reference came from threads on here and an old gunsmith I've gotten to know. It's a Sig factory barrel in a full size Kimber 9mm frame with the factory Kimber slide. Basically everything else is WC except the grips. Had put a 15lb recoil spring in place of the 12lb factory spring but had to put the 12lb spring back in for my first batch of handloads to cycle.
 
Just pull the barrel and drop a round in the chamber. You see any gaps between the cartridge and chamber. Should be support all the way around. If it’s unsupported you’ll find that out too. As you get hotter, you’ll start to notice a bulge near the base if the case.

If you want to start to try to load hot, just don’t do it by using an overly fast powder. 231, hp38 and such have a really narrow peak pressure curve. Just look through the manuals and refer to the burn rate chart to get an idea of obtaining velocity while keeping pressure down.
 
Lyman 49, 50 for the reloading process. Powder and/ bullet mfg website for load.

Lowder/primer compositions can change without notice. Stay with mfgr recommended loads. My problem is more for matching bullet to load. I find fpr a given ppwder, I don't have the recommended bullet and vice versa. Common sense interpolation is required.

Std primer (any) + powder (not close to max load)+ lead bullet (closest match) + properly prepared brass (any) = safe load.

Same for magnum components, or jacketed bullets. Never exceed published max data, stop second guessing powder mfgr's. After you gain experience with the reloading process you may want to experiment, but do so within safe perameters.

For sure, be cautious of any load not published by approved mfgr source on the I'net.
 
I've been really happy with the 38Super loads found in the Lyman reloading manual.

The powders you listed should have no problem getting past 1250fps.
 
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