Hey bud,
Nice seeing your name pop up.
You probably know from singleactions that Vihtavouri N340 is my favorite powder.
It has the three, great traits for a powder.
Accurate
Clean
Downloads and Uploads linear. Not spiky.
The downside is that it is expensive; mitigated by the fact, you get what you pay for. Powder is also the cheapest component of a round.
When you go to the load data from VV, you will see several choices in 38 special. There is an old copy and a new copy for VV. Message me if you can't find the old one.
For a 146gr bullet of unknown type, I suggest starting around 4.8gr and maxing around 5.8gr. That should give you somewhere around 850 - 950fps depending on gun and bullet. VV says even a little faster fps. I have also seen loads taken to over 1200fps by increasing powder; so this uploads without spiking pressure. It is linear.
If going with a heavier bullet, you MUST reduce powder weight.
Vihtavouri is really lacking in supporting the reloading community with load data. There is a huge HOLE in their .32 data. Except for the .32 SW long using wadcutter, it doesn't exist. I wrote them last week and got NO assistance. The US folks are "requesting" Finland to review the issue sometime in the future if they can get around to it. Not holding my breath.
This link has the most VV load data I've seen not from VV.
Shooter's Reference Load Data for
So if you find a bunch of other load data, LET ME KNOW !
Prescut
Few writers and testers have chosen to use Vihtavouri so making comparisons to the VV data is tough. Handloader supposedly had a suggestion on N340 and the 38 spl but I can't find the article.