A good .38 Super lead bullet load

[DWalt]

For the most part I load fairly hot in the .38 Super, using jacketed bullets. On the other hand, my 9x19 loading is generally done with the MBC 125 grain 9mm Small Ball cast bullet. I decided I would try to work up some .38 Super loads with the Small Ball with a MV in my Colt GM not exceeding 1200 ft/sec. With a little experimentation, I settled on 4.7 grains of 700-X. I loaded up some in four different cases (PMC, WIN, R-P, and Starline 9x23 SuperComp). The latter is essentially a rimless .38 Super, and works fine in my Colt. What I found this week was that loads in every different case were substantially identical in MV, with a mean of 1181 ft/sec and a SD of 17.9 ft/sec, which is really good. COAL is 1.250".

What was even better, shooting from a steady rest at 25 yards, not a single bullet left the black of the standard B-16 25-yard slow fire target. And functioning was flawless in my Colt.

 

[AveragEd]

I use 6.0 grains of AutoComp under a Missouri Bullets' 125-grain cast semi-wadcutter - either their IPD #6 or any of their coated .356" semi-wadcutters. Very accurate and clean too!

700X used to be horribly smoky. A lot of people used it for competitive trapshooting years ago and you could tell the 700X users by the cloud out in front of them, especially on calm days or under the lights.

Ed

 

[noylj]

Penn 115gn L-SWC and 8.7gn HS6 for around 1.25" at 25 yards.
Penn 115gn L-SWC and 6.7-7.7gn AA5 for around 1.5" at 25 yards.
The old MasterBlaster 115gn coated moly L-SWC with 6.9-8.1gn HS6 for under 2" at 25 yards.
Precision Bullets swaged and coated 115gn L-CFP and 8.1gn HS6 for less than 2" at 25 yards.

 

[DWalt]

"700X used to be horribly smoky. A lot of people used it for competitive trapshooting years ago and you could tell the 700X users by the cloud out in front of them, especially on calm days or under the lights."

Maybe so in a shotgun, but everything I have loaded with 700-X seems no different from Bullseye or Unique in smokiness. Several months ago I found hidden away several hundred West Coast 100 grain frangible 9mm bullets which were given to me about 10 years ago, which I loaded in .38 Super cases over 6.2 grains of 700-X. Those gave about 1450 ft/sec, and no significant smoke, even though using considerably more powder. Also about the same time I tried 6 grains of 700-X in .44 Mag cases with 180 grain Cowboy bullets, again nothing unusual regarding smoke. The latter load also gave excellent MV consistency in my Ruger Super Blackhawk - 924 ft/sec and SD=16 ft/sec. But I wasn't checking it for grouping consistency.

 

[shovelwrench]

147gr TC over 3.6 Bullseye.... You'll have to put a lighter spring in, but they'll make TINY groups!! ;-)

 

[AveragEd]

I think I recall reading that 700X was cleaned up many years ago and is not as smoky as it was when it was popular for trapshooting. I actually found small pieces of wood in 700X back in the day - it was REAL dirty stuff.

Ed

 

[SuperMan]

Never noticed 700-X being dirty or smoky in shotgun shells... My only load since the 1960s starting with a Lee Laoder was 19.0 grains in a AA hull with 1 1/4 oz. of shot in a AA or Federal wad....

Used to use 700-X in a lot of .38 Special and 9mm back in the 1970s but went over to Unique and SR-4756. Still have about 12# left...

As to .38 Super lead loads...most everything I've tried has been accurate. Used to shoot a lot of the MAGMA 120-124 grain TC and 160 grain round nose for IPSC. Now I'm running a SAECO 383 140 grain TC bullet with 6.0 grains of Unique at 1230 fps.

383





50'...the one out was my fault...




160 RN...50'...9 rounds...




I'm not sure one can feed an accurate .38 Super something that is inaccurate...

Bob