troubleshooting problems with .38 special 148 grain HBWC

[chickenfried]

Here's the same loads as in the other pic this time shot from my 27-2 shot standing at 25 yards 30 rounds give or take a cylinder. For now I'm just going to treat the 14-3 like a red headed step child and shoot the 27-2 and 586.

Same load shot with the 14-3 rested at 15 yards

 

[Fla_Sun]

Try faster powder.

 

[BE Mike]

Here's the same loads as in the other pic this time shot from my 27-2 shot standing at 25 yards 30 rounds give or take a cylinder. For now I'm just going to treat the 14-3 like a red headed step child and shoot the 27-2 and 586.

Looks like the ammo is good. You might want to fiddle with the 14-3 and see if recrowning or other gunsmithing action might tighten up it's accuracy.

 

[Wayne Dobbs]

A couple of ideas to consider on this:

1. Can you recover some of these fired HBWC bullets and see if the plating is stripped off? I've had some experience as a police firearms trainer with some plated bullet ammo that was literally coming apart in flight in distances as short as seven yards. I wonder if something like that is occuring here.
2. Next, how does your K-38 shoot with standard factory wadcutters? If it's like most, it shoots lights out with the major brand wadcutter loads. If it's not a good performer with factory ammo, then taking a look at the various dimensions such as cylinder throats, cylinder gap, crowning, etc. is in order.

I think that you've chosen a bullet that is going to frustrate you most of the time for performance due to that plating.

Hope you find some relief!