Powder suggestions for 38 special

[Al W.]

Hello everyone.
I've been loading 148gr WC over 2.7gr Bullseye and have been doing well with it .
My scores are coming along.
Question is what other powders might I try for bullseye shooting .
One of the guys at the club likes the Vihta Vuori N320.
He was saying that the Bullseye was such a fast burn that it will produce more recoil than a slower burning powder.
So what slower burning powder would you folks suggest ?
Whats good ?
I like shooting the Alliant product. Under 20 bucks a pound vs 37 for the imported stuff.
Seems silly to spend the extra $$ if theres something that does the job with out the imported price tag.

 

[mtgianni]

I would not listen to anyone that wants to change from 2.7 or 2.8 gr BE unless it became unobtainable.

 

[824tsv]

Finding Bullseye up here has been spotty at best. Not slow burning, but I use either Winchester W231 (3.0grains under a 148g HBWC) or Winchester WST (2.7grains under a 148g HBWC).

 

[reddog81]

Too much recoil with 2.7 grains Bullseye??? There are other powders out there that will work but you aren't going to get much less recoil than that load.

Unique Will work. Win 231 will work. N320 will work. None of them will be any better.

 

[Al W.]

Too much recoil with 2.7 grains Bullseye??? There are other powders out there that will work but you aren't going to get much less recoil than that load.

Unique Will work. Win 231 will work. N320 will work. None of them will be any better.

Ha , yep thats what he said.

 

[DennisE]

I use Titegroup or CFE by Hodgdon. Recoil, what recoil?

 

[Benchrest1]

Another vote for 231. I use a 158 SWC with 3.4 grains of it.

 

[4barrel]

Here is a wad cutter chart. Jump in feet first.

 

[Wise_A]

Hah! I'm in good company here.

You can't fault 2.7/2.8 of BE for anything.

VVN310 will probably burn a little cleaner, it's just as fast.

WST is excellent. I use 2.5 gr.

I have lately been experimenting with HP-38/WW-231. I tried 3.5gr and found it very accurate, and thought it had roughly the same recoil as BE, but softer in the hand. However, it's been a couple months since I've shot 2.8 of BE, and I've shot a lot of .44 Mag between then and now, so my Recoil-o-Meter is a bit off. I'm going shooting tomorrow, I'll bring some 3.5/HP-38 and some 3.2/HP-38 (the lightest I can get my measure to throw), and some 2.8/BEs, and try and post back. I may wind up needing Wise_A Sr to judge.

Speaking of...I thought I'd try and get rid of my experimental pound of HP-38, and now I'm enjoying it in .45 ACP and .38 Spl immensely.

When I tried to get rid of that "awful" 700-X I hated in .38 Spl and .45...I discovered it was amazing in my 9mm target loads.

My powder collection refuses to shrink.

 

[Forrest r]

2.5gr of either clays or wst
2.7gr bullseye

 

[Wee Hooker]

For accuracy, there is a reason that the 2.7 gr BE over a 148 gr WC is THE classic bullseye load.
That said, I've found that Tightgroup behaves VERY close to BE in like amounts. (There are even side by side in powder burn rate charts btw). Another good option would be W231/HP38.
If it were me, I'd get a lgs to order me a 8# can of BE with their next powder order and be done with it.

 

[ontargetagain]

Alliant has a new powder out, SPORT PISTOL, extremely mild recoil with 148gr WC loads. It is likely well worth a try, the load data shows 2.7gr w/HBWC, this works very well for me with flush set 148 WC's.
Karl

 

[OKFC05]

"He was saying that the Bullseye was such a fast burn that it will produce more recoil than a slower burning powder."


This is the reverse of the truth. It takes MORE of the slower powder for a safe charge, and more powder ejected equals more force backward. Tell him "the old physics professor" said to look up Newton's Second Law. Better yet, don't trust anything he says.

 

[iPac]

I use Power Pistol for 38spl and +P.

With all the powder options available, there will be many different varieties that are all pretty similar in performance. So it ultimately comes down to personal preference and what you have access to.

I personally like Alliant products too. Very affordable and good quality. I have a wholesale dealer local to me and can buy all my supplies from them at dang near wholesale costs. I started with Alliant and don't plan on switching. The good thing about my reloading is, all my calibers are pistol ctgs and therefore I can get away with just two powders on hand, Power Pistol and 2400.

I wouldn't mind trying Bullseye due to the low grain weight used. Maybe one day.

 

[Wise_A]

"He was saying that the Bullseye was such a fast burn that it will produce more recoil than a slower burning powder."


This is the reverse of the truth. It takes MORE of the slower powder for a safe charge, and more powder ejected equals more force backward. Tell him "the old physics professor" said to look up Newton's Second Law. Better yet, don't trust anything he says.

Weeelllllllll.....

There's a bit of conflicting thought that frankly comes down to personal preference.

One thought, as you state, is that you're converting X grains of a solid into an equal mass of a gas (and other assorted solids) that are then propelled out of the barrel. In other words, using less powder to achieve the same velocity means less recoil, because you're reacting and propelling less material out the barrel.

Speaking of which, a number of my old teachers were quite adept at converting X grains of lunch into an equal mass of gas, but I digress (and apologize...I couldn't help myself).

Another thought is that using a slower-burning powder spreads out the recoil impulse. The thinking there is (variously) that the reaction takes more time, and/or the bullet accelerates more smoothly, and the recoil is less "abrupt", which some people seem to prefer.

And still another thought is that faster powders do all of that faster, so the recoil impulse is shorter and less noticeable.

But really---everybody's right!

It comes down to a lot of things: personal preference, auto vs revolver, loading light vs minimizing recoil for a specific required velocity, and even (in the case of action pistol shooters) whether they're trying to minimize recoil or create snappy recoil that gets the sights back on target quicker.

It literally doesn't matter, recoil is very subjective and if you like a particular powder over another, then that's all it is.

 

[robertrwalsh]

I don't think I have EVER used anything for .38 WC except Bullseye or 231.

 

[GB]

What Wise said^^^ + Pick a reloading manual, from any era, bullet maker, powder maker, equipment maker, it makes no difference. All will have target loads for the special. Some will have powders you have never heard of or are discontinued( I am currently shooting up a bunch of 450LS Win ball powder, that I bought many years ago, and found data in an old Speer manual) All will perform, some better than others. As Wise said, everyone has a personal choice and for them it is the right choice. However, you will be hard pressed to find a better powder and load of 2.7 grs. of BE. But you get to make that choice and you won't be wrong either..

 

[Troystat]

You did not say what gun you are shooting it in and whether it is a hollowbase wadcutter (HBWC) or bevel base. If it is the HBWC you might try WST or 231. A lot of bulleye shooters have switched from bulleye to WST. If your shooting HBWCs you might try a range of loads from 2.7 grains to 3.0 grains and see which is most accurate in your gun. With the WST try 2.5 to 2.8 grains and see what happens. If your shooting Bevel base wadcutters you probably need to increase to 3.0 to 3.5 grains of Bulleye to get the best accuracy. We expect a full report soon.

 

[rsrocket1]

For that small of a charge, Bullseye works great if you have it, but it's kind of smokey and sooty.

Any "uber fast" powder would work nicely at that low of a charge
e3, Extra Lite, Red Dot, Green Dot, Promo, American Select, Clays, Titewad, Hodgdon (fake Red Dot) "IMR red", N310, Vectan A24 or Prima-SV.

My favorite powders for lite handgun loads are Red Dot and Titewad simply because I by them by the 8 pound jugs for shotgun reloading and have lots of it so 2-4 grains per shot of handgun rounds is nothing compared to 17-19 grains in a shotgun load.

 

[Al W.]

For accuracy, there is a reason that the 2.7 gr BE over a 148 gr WC is THE classic bullseye load.
That said, I've found that Tightgroup behaves VERY close to BE in like amounts. (There are even side by side in powder burn rate charts btw). Another good option would be W231/HP38.
If it were me, I'd get a lgs to order me a 8# can of BE with their next powder order and be done with it.

Thats exactly what I did a couple of weeks ago. I'm sitting on 9lb of BE. Works for me !