LaVistaBill
Plinker
Last week I took an assortment of vintage revolvers in .38 S&W to the range to try out some handloads. I'd purchased 145 gr. cast lead bullets in .361" from Missouri Bullet Company and loaded up 4 boxes of cartridges using 4 different kinds smokeless powder that included Bullseye, Red Dot, TiteGroup and Unique.
The 5 or 6-shot groups were fired from a sandbag rest at targets 10 yards away. Photos of the best groups with each gun are shown below. The sights on all these old-timers left something to be desired, but all shots stayed in the scoring rings. The 4" barrel guns, as expected, outdid the 2" snubbies in both accuracy and velocity. Groups varied from just under 1-1/4" to a bit over 3-1/2".
I used very moderate powder charges and my Oehler chronograph gave me the following average velocities for 5 rounds fired from 2" and 4" barrel guns (first 2"/then 4")...Bullseye 636/737 FPS; Red Dot 567/669 FPS; TiteGroup 629/695 FPS and Unique 646/715 FPS. All charges were within manufacturers recommendations.
I also set up a big B-27 target center and fired 5 shots with each gun, one-handed, in the DA mode at 15 yards and they all stayed on the paper. I think sights were just a point of reference back in the day!
The 5 or 6-shot groups were fired from a sandbag rest at targets 10 yards away. Photos of the best groups with each gun are shown below. The sights on all these old-timers left something to be desired, but all shots stayed in the scoring rings. The 4" barrel guns, as expected, outdid the 2" snubbies in both accuracy and velocity. Groups varied from just under 1-1/4" to a bit over 3-1/2".
I used very moderate powder charges and my Oehler chronograph gave me the following average velocities for 5 rounds fired from 2" and 4" barrel guns (first 2"/then 4")...Bullseye 636/737 FPS; Red Dot 567/669 FPS; TiteGroup 629/695 FPS and Unique 646/715 FPS. All charges were within manufacturers recommendations.
I also set up a big B-27 target center and fired 5 shots with each gun, one-handed, in the DA mode at 15 yards and they all stayed on the paper. I think sights were just a point of reference back in the day!
