.38 Reloads

[SASFixer]

I once had a customer who was the Massachusetts indoor State pistol champion. He had a super duper wad gun built that he used in his endeavors. He moved to NC when he retired and tried the wad gun and his miniscule loads at 50 yards, the load was not stable at 50 yards, he had every conceivable shaped hole scattered all over the paper. He came to me for advice, thinking his super duper wad gun had gone farther South. I asked the load, he says 2.8 gr BE, which I was astounded that the bullet (200gr LSWC) even got out of the barrel . I told him that I shoot 4.2 gr BE with that bullet try bumping the charge up a mite like in the 4.0 gr range. He did and the accuracy returned. The bullet just wasn't stable past 25 yards.

 

[Al W.]

Many eons ago IIFC (?) the Bullseye Shooters loaded 148 grain W/C bullets with 2.5-2.7 Bullseye for compertition matches ???

At my club the powder charge for BE was 2.8 . I often used 2.9, but shot some powder puff loads at 2.5. As has been said BE hasn't been available for some time.

 

[SS336]

Bullseye was the powder of choice back in the day. The standard load was used by just about everyone, + or - a tenth of a grain.
With powder availability being what it is today a person has to find alternatives to that load. I have quite a bit of Unique and have worked up a load that works well in all my .38s.
If and when I run out of Unique I guess I’ll have to adapt and move on to something else.

 

[jjfitch]

Many eons ago IIFC (?) the Bullseye Shooters loaded 148 grain W/C bullets with 2.5-2.7 Bullseye for compertition matches ???

In order to duplicate our PPC, Winchester 38, 148 grain HBWC ammo, 3.1 grains w231. Same POA/POI out to 50 yards!

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Many eons ago IIFC (?) the Bullseye Shooters loaded 148 grain W/C bullets with 2.5-2.7 Bullseye for compertition matches ???

I used 2.7 - 2.8 grains for PPC with a 148 grain HBWC.

 

[bph9]

Many eons ago IIFC (?) the Bullseye Shooters loaded 148 grain W/C bullets with 2.5-2.7 Bullseye for compertition matches ???

Most of us Old Timers still use that load except for the fact that Alliant is no longer even shipping any powder to the commercial market. I had a buddy Pay $100 for less than a full 1 lb can of Bullseye.

I never found a load more accurate than 2.7 grains of Bullseye with 148 grain hard cast wadcutters.

 

[jjfitch]

I once had a customer who was the Massachusetts indoor State pistol champion. He had a super duper wad gun built that he used in his endeavors. He moved to NC when he retired and tried the wad gun and his miniscule loads at 50 yards, the load was not stable at 50 yards, he had every conceivable shaped hole scattered all over the paper. He came to me for advice, thinking his super duper wad gun had gone farther South. I asked the load, he says 2.8 gr BE, which I was astounded that the bullet (200gr LSWC) even got out of the barrel . I told him that I shoot 4.2 gr BE with that bullet try bumping the charge up a mite like in the 4.0 gr range. He did and the accuracy returned. The bullet just wasn't stable past 25 yards.

A long time ago I had to chuckle when reading some NRA Match rules. It said that "the bullet must go through the paper target"! Mabe based on that 2.7 B/E load!

 

[rwsmith]

2.5 grains of BE seems a little light, but I've shot some reduced loads with no problems and if it gives the best accuracy with the gun you're using, fine. You can probably get better consistency if you do the old 'tip the barrel up and lower it slowly before pulling the trigger' routine because even a full load of Bullseye takes up only a minute space in the case. Bullets on target is all that counts for Bullseye shooting. Power factor is a different animal all together for a different type of competition.

 

[Autonomous]

While I still have Bullseye on hand, I use A #2 for my wife's 148 gr loads.
It seems to burn cleaner.

 

[686 shooter]

Like some here, during one of several shortages of Bullseye I switched to WW 231 at 3.2 grains. That load was better than my Bullseye load and 231 seemed to be always available. The load might change with the next lot number. My load with multiple times fired WW and Federal brass was within an X or two of Federal Match. This was prior to bifocals, arthritis, and an aversion to getting up or down without something to hold on to.
Youth is wasted on the young.

 

[Reloader Fred]

When I was shooting on our dept. pistol team for PPC, THE standard load was 2.7 gr. of Bullseye under a 148 gr. HBWC. Perfectly accurate at 50 yards from most any 6" revolver, but especially so in our PPC revolvers.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[kiyoty]

My department issued our team 148 grain HBWC Federal match ammo for PPC matches. I loaded 148 HBWC with 3.1 grains of W231 for practice, which matched the Federal velocity, in my guns. Worked as intended.

 

[M1A4ME]

Had a buddy in college that had an awesome M14 6" gun. The 148 grain HBWC and 2.7 grains of Bullseye made it the most accurate center fire handgun I've ever shot. I could have squirrel hunted with that gun and took them with headshots. Still makes me smile to this day to think about how good that gun and load made me look when we'd go shooting.

 

[halfmoonclip]

Heck of a note that Bullseye, along with Trailboss, have fallen off the face of the earth.
What the heck is going on?
Yeah, 2.7 of B'eye has been my go-to for an eon. Oddly, without a skirted wadcutter, even my 'full charge' wadcutters won't run the M52. With the skirts, no problemo. Go figure.
Moon

 

[686 shooter]

Had a buddy in college that had an awesome M14 6" gun. The 148 grain HBWC and 2.7 grains of Bullseye made it the most accurate center fire handgun I've ever shot. I could have squirrel hunted with that gun and took them with headshots. Still makes me smile to this day to think about how good that gun and load made me look when we'd go shooting.

I have a model 14 and for some reason it seems all of them are extremely accurate.

 

[Zippo Guy]

I’m transitioning from 2.8 grains of Bullseye to HP-38 powder. This thread has been extremely helpful with suggestions. I think I’ll get started with the 3.1 grain load using 148 grain LRN bullets from Eggleston. I like their bullets and they come in a ton of colors. I’ve found different colored bullets help me keep track of different loads.

 

[Krogen]

I used to use 2.7 gr of Bullseye with a 148 gr HBWC. Somewhere along the line, Alliant did "something" to the powder and my Redding powder measure choked on it. The rotor would drag like it was gummy. Disassembly and cleaning with alcohol fixed it for a few more charges, but the problem quickly returned. It was definitely lot related since older Bullseye was fine and the newer stuff gave trouble. I went to WST and never looked back. 2.7 gr of WST shoots as good or better than 2.7 gr of Bullseye and gave no powder measure problems.

 

[socal s&w]

Yeah, I like the WW ball powders, they flow like water. Metering works well, but Bullseye ain't bad either, unless apparently, it's newer per the above (?). I have also found that the WW 244 powder is slightly less dirty than Bullseye powder, BTW.

mike