Hi all,
I know this is an AR forum, and this is from out of left field, but I also appreciate the knowledge base here, and I know that a bunch of you reload for calibers/guns other than .223 and ARs...
I'm trying to come up with some superlight .38 Special loads for my 3" Ruger LCRx revolvers — I have a wife and daughter who don't like recoil and noise, and this is how I'm going to get them to shoot centerfire handguns.
I'm an experienced reloader using cast bullets in .40S&W and .380ACP on a Dillon RL550B (20+ years, 10,000s of rounds), but this is my first time loading .38 Special and first time using Trail Boss.
I'm using 75gr lead wadcutters and 95gr coated roundnose bullets, seated so that the top groove in the bullet is well inside the case.
I started with 3.0gr of Trail Boss, like all the manual suggest. I'm using Winchester SPPs and once-fired nickel-plated cases with mixed headstamps.
Today I took my first batches to the range with a 3" LCRX and chronograph.
I shot several 10-shot strings. Recoil was satisfyingly negligible, but my velocities with both bullets were all over the place, and some extremely low: Some <300fps, and some >600fps. Standard deviations ranged from the 30s to over 90.
(I'm aware of the danger of a squib load, so I kept shooting over my chrono, so it would confirm each shot that the bullet left the barrel.)
Also, I saw a lot of unburned powder, not only at my shooting bench, but also at my chronograph...
Thoughts:
1. It's not the gun. The same pistol shoots factory rounds just fine (and did so today), and their SD ranges from <10 to 25 or so.
2. I don't think varying powder weights is my problem — I was very careful about setting up my powder charge, and then checked regularly, and it was always right around 3.0gr. (I use an old Dillon balance beam scale, and I calibrated it repeated with check weights.)
3. I'm not crimping these much at all, so much so that I had several "sticky" rounds that didn't want to drop into a chamber. I'll put a bit more crimp on them, with the idea that holding the bullet in the case a bit longer might consistently burn more powder and built more pressure and even out some of those extremely low velocities.
4a. I assume I'm having ignition issues. Should I use a hotter primer?
4b. Should I up the powder charge to get more consistent ignition? The case isn't even half full with 3.0 grains of Trail Boss, and even the rounds at 500-600+ fps didn't recoil much.
Please advise!
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