Winchester 231 and 38 special

I've been loading 231 in every non-magnum handgun caliber I have ever loaded for. The RCBS Uniflow measure will drop literally exact duplicate loads of 231 if you keep the hopper at least 1/4 full. If the hopper gets too low the loads may lighten up a 1/10th or so.

It may not be the cleanest powder, but it is one of the most accurate powders across multiple calibers.
 
I like 231 for most handgun cartridges and could probably get by fine with no other powder, but for pure accuracy, I get slightly better results with Bullseye in the 9mm, .38 Special, .44 Special, and .45 ACP/ Auto Rim. I use only cast bullets in handgun cartridges; whether or not the results would be the same with jacketed bullets, I don't know.
 
W231 is a powder that I don't use a lot of but I have jused in in my 2" J frame and several 6" 357 magnums.

With a lead 158 gr RN bullet my best accuracy came with a minimum of 3.5 grs of powder.
The 4.0 gr load in my J frame felt like a standard full load for the 38 special case.
Lyman has 4.0 grs listed ay 15,800 CUP. and is well below my full amount of powder that I use for a +P loading.

Have fun.
 
W231 is like Unique , you can find a load for dang near anything . Also like Unique below it's preferred pressure range it is dirty , in it's range it cleans up . It does leave a somewhat gritty carbon . IMHO it's hard to beat in 38 special with lead bullets . 3.1grs with a 148 HBWC is classic like 2.7grs Bullseye . With a 158 - 160gr 4.0 - 4.5grs , swaged stay lighter end , cast you gotta push a bit harder . I've shot tons of cast 158 - 160 loads with both 4.5grs W231 & Unique both are accurate in my guns .
 
I'd go on the light end. I'm another 4.0 guy but with swaged lead I'd go as low as accuracy would allow to avoid leading. Or you may find yourself adjusting the load to point of aim. If the 3.X prints high on the target increase the powder charge until it gets where you want it.
 
231 is great powder in this cartridge and it meters very well. W231 is the first powder I bought when I first bought a reloading press. I still have some in the old jerry can style bottles.
 
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I think everyone covered it quite well above. All that is left is to give personal examples which, as you and others should always know, are subject to your own verification.

I love W231/HP38 for 38 special. It is flat accurate, meters well, mild shooting, fairly clean and did I mention very accurate.

I roll my own 158 Gr. SWC bullets and have excellent accuracy in my primary test firearm, 4" 28-2, with loads of 3.5 to 3.8. From my last bunch of loading once i these shot up at 3.8 I will load everything at 3.5. Never saw the need to use more powder when I can achieve what I am after - ACCURACY! Good luck
 
Over the past thirty something years I have loaded quite a variety of .38 spl lead bullet handloads to different velocity levels and with a lot of different powders. I have chronographed them all since I got my first chronograph way back around the early 80s. I cannot understand the trepidation that makes some handloaders insist on loading squib loads for solid, strong medium frame revolvers. I've tried them. 650 FPS squibs are poor loads that are inconsistent, dirty from poor burning of powder at the very low pressure levels, have high ES and yield poor accuracy. Loading to a velocity of a bit below factory level, 750-780 FPS or so creates far better loads and are not going to harm your revolvers people.
 
Consensus seems to be that everyone loves W231 in 38 special, that it meters well, and it's accurate in loads from 3.1 to 4.5 gr.. I love it too. Pick a charge and have fun shooting. You'll figure out what your gun likes.
 
My Speer #13 manual lists 3.8 as a starting load and 4.3 as a top load for standard pressure data with 231 for their 158 gr swaged lead bullets. For +P data they start at the 4.3 load and go up to 4.7 grs. This is very similar to the data provided by the original mfg, Winchester.
 
Nothing wrong with HP-38/W-231 in the 38 Special cartridge case. It's a good powder for light to full power loads in 38 Special. Might not be the cleanest burning powder by today's standards, but versatile and meters well through my RCBS Uniflow.
 
231 is a very versatile powder. I've found it to be very accurate in all my non magnum calibers and in magnum target loads.

Like many others I load 4 grains in .38 special. Projectile is a 158 grain Berry's plated flat point.
 
alwslate said:
Over the past thirty something years I have loaded quite a variety of .38 spl lead bullet handloads to different velocity levels and with a lot of different powders. I have chronographed them all since I got my first chronograph way back around the early 80s. I cannot understand the trepidation that makes some handloaders insist on loading squib loads for solid, strong medium frame revolvers. I've tried them. 650 FPS squibs are poor loads that are inconsistent, dirty from poor burning of powder at the very low pressure levels, have high ES and yield poor accuracy. Loading to a velocity of a bit below factory level, 750-780 FPS or so creates far better loads and are not going to harm your revolvers people.
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I don't have a chronograph and probably will never get one. I don't test loads or tweak anything. I got into reloading after Newtown purely to be able to make paper punching ammo. I do have several manuals but pretty much just use the Hodgon site. I've compared the data from it to other manuals and while there is usually a mild variation between the site and some of the manuals(but isn't there always variations between different sources?), the data on the site is in the same range as the manuals. I don't change bullet types and I rarely even change primer brands (before the current madness where primers are impossible to get, I mostly used CCI. I have used a brick each of Winchester and Federal). I never load low range because I don't want a squib, so I normally go middle of the round between minimum and maximum charge. If the minimum is 3.2 and the maximum is 3.8, I'll load no higher than 3.6. Whenever I load a new caliber I will load 5 rounds at say 3.4, 5 at 3.5, and 5 at 3.6. When the all go bang I settle on the 3.6.

I weigh every charge and that's why I like HP38. Dead on every time. Are there better powders out there? I'm sure. Never tried anything other than HP38 and the Red Dot I started with when powders were impossible to find. That metered horribly. I do have 3 pounds of Trail Boss. Haven't even tried them yet and have no intention to unless I have no other choice. I prefer using one powder for everything. No chance of using wrong powder when I switch calibers that way.
 
alwslate said:
My Speer #13 manual lists 3.8 as a starting load and 4.3 as a top load for standard pressure data with 231 for their 158 gr swaged lead bullets. For +P data they start at the 4.3 load and go up to 4.7 grs. This is very similar to the data provided by the original mfg, Winchester.
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James, I think that your confusion is caused because you are comparing 38 Special data to 38 Special +P data in a Speer loading manual. Flip back a few pages and you'll see alwslate is correct that 3.8 to 4.3 grains is the correct load data for 38 Special for what you want in your Colt.
 
Hodgdon's data of 3.1 grs starting and 3.7 grs as the dreaded word MAXIMUM for 231 and 158 gr lead bullets is just flat wrong. Their data is not developed by them and is just copied from a variety of sources. Those charge weights look like mislabeled copied data for Bullseye or 700x or some other very fast powder. Standard pressure maximum for the .38spl is 17,000 PSi. 20,000 PSi for +P loads. I still don't understand why so many handloaders are scared to death to load anything much above squib level for the .38 spl in modern K frame S&Ws. 3.7 grs of 231 is below recommended starting level in the Speer #13 manual. Get one and you will learn that standard pressure maximum level is higher for both .32 acp and .380 acp than the 20,000 psi level for .38 spl. Relax folks. You're not going to blow up your K frames if you dare venture in to the 14,000 psi range with your handloads.
 
In my collection of old Winchester load manuals the 4.0 starting 4.5 max seems to be the load for 158 lead SWC up until 2006 when it drops to a 3.7 max for lead SWC and 4.1 for jacketed. The current Hodgdens as noted above is 3.1 starting and 3.7 max for lead SWC and 3.8 starting and 4.3 max for jacketed.

Stu
 
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That 3.7 max is Hodgdon's nonsense. The pressure of that load is way below the 17,000 psi limit for std pressure .38 spl. Where they got that from is anybody's guess. Maybe some Cowboy action data they copied. One thing you can be sure of is that is not data actually developed by Hodgdon and proven to be at standard maximum pressure level for the .38 spl. I looked at data in my Lyman 4th edition Cast bullet manual and found a load for 231 with their 158 gr cast RN bullet. The old CUP maximum for .38 spl std loads was 18,000 CUP. They show 3.5 grs of 231 with the 158 gr bullet at 9,600 CUP. Just a little over half of std pressure maximum.
 
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