Thanks for the recommendations thus far. I realize the vast majority of 38 special reloaders are firmly in the cast lead camp with Bullseye being the go to powder, and they perform extremely well for me as well too. I also realize all ammo is dirty to some degree. I can't be the only one wondering the pros of finding a cleaner 38 special reload. Maybe the trade offs aren't worth it. Figured with all the wisedom on this forum it couldn't hurt to ask...
Plated bullets are the happy middle ground between the higher cost of jacketed bullets and avoiding the "dirt" and smoke that comes with cast bullet lube.
I'll argue that most of the dirt shooters complain about with cast bullets is due to the lube not the powders.
The dirt from the powder is also load dependent. For example Unique is often called "flaming dirt" but it's an exceptionally versatile powder. It's also not dirty at all with near max loads. The complaints come from light loads.
It's also relative. I don't mind unburned flake powders as they won't effect function of a pistol or revolver. However, unburned or partially burned particles of colloidal ball powders like H110/Win 296 commonly used in magnum revolver loads will produce unburnt or partially burned grains large enough and hard enough that if they get under the ejector star will prevent it from going all the way back into the cylinder and in turn will prevent the cylinder from going back into the frame.
In a self defense load where a reload might be needed that is a total non starter for me and it's the only "dirt" issue I find to be a concern.
In that regard, I don't think anyone was trying to insult you. Most of us just find the whole dirty powder issue to be irrelevant (with a few exceptions like the H110/Win 296 issue above).
Most of us are not doing stupid stuff like 2000 or 5000 round torture tests to see how long a firearm will function without being cleaned. Those folks hang out over on AR15 dot com.
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Again, faster burning fine grained or flake powders like Bullseye and Unique may be sooty, and cast bullet loads can be very sooty, but it's just not an issue even over the course of a few hundred rounds during a day long course, particularly in a revolver. Clean up at night between days is just a wipe down with some solvent and usually just dry brushing or a wet patch or two through the barrel and cylinders before lightly recoiling. It's literally a 5 minute process.
It's the large course grained colloidal ball powders that can be most problematic and create actual reliability issues.