Testing .38 S&W, commercial and hand-loads

[tinkerpearce]

Chronoed some commercial ammo and handloads today, thought I'd share the results.


Winchester 145gr. (modern) factory ammunition



S&W- 1-5/8″ barrel: 535 fps. 92 ft./lbs SD: 39



H&R- 3-1/4″ barrel: 478 fps. 74 ft./lbs SD: 42



This modern factory ammunition is very under-powered, probably to make it safe to shoot in even the poorest-quality antique handguns.



125gr. TCL, 2.7gr. of Unique with a CCI 500 small pistol primer



S&W 1-5/8″ barrel: 621 fps. 107 ft./lbs SD: 21



H&R 3-1/4″ barrel: 566 fps. 89 ft./lbs SD: 11



This is a deliberately light load meant to be ‘top-break friendly,’ in the interest of being kind to antique guns of this type.



150gr. LSWC, 2.7gr. of Unique with a CCI 500 small pistol primer



S&W 1-5/8″ barrel: 672 fps. 150 ft./lbs SD: 14



I only had five of these with me, so I decided to shoot them out of the shorter gun as these are the loads I use when I carry this as a pocket-gun.



It’s interesting that the much shorter barrel on the S&W consistently produced significantly higher velocities than the longer barrel on the H&R; I can only presume that the tolerances on the S&W are significantly tighter.

[magnumwheelman]

Have you tried any of these with Trailboss???

I'm not dissing Unique, but I've had really good luck with both the 32 & 38 S&W's using Trailboss

I generally load 3 levels when loading for these "S&W" cartridges... lowest level uses a pinch of powder ( thinking a half grain of Trailboss ) & a soft lead round ball... these are safe in any gun of those calibers that time out correctly, the middle loads use a cast bullet, & shouldn't be hard on a gun in good condition, including the top breaks for regular range use... the hotter loads have proven safe in the guns that I might use for carry occasionally, but expect they could loosen up an older gun if shot regularly with them...

I suspect you could be right on tolerances, but bore condition on the older & cheaper revolvers varies a lot from too pitted to shoot, to rough... though I do have a couple with nice bores... I've found the worst tolerances on the Spanish copies of the era, generally the H&R's haven't been too bad

I also suspect the low volume of powder performs better with a shorter barrel, as I've noticed on some guns, that the longer barrels also didn't produce a higher velocity, but I have a couple 6" barrels & they seem to perform about the same as the 4"

[tinkerpearce]

I ran out of Trail Boss... need to pick up some more! I've used TB mostly in my large-bore antiques and conversions, and .44-55 Walker uses it up in a hurry!

[needsmostuff]

Velocity is also gonna be dependent on what dia. bullet you are using. (.357 or .361) .
I used to use what felt like a decent power load with a .357 hollow point cast bullet that had a cupped base and Unique . It was 158 grains and cast a little on the soft side so it sealed pretty good.
That was for a S&W British service revolver so strength was not a huge concern. Even with the smaller diameter bullet accuracy was acceptable and leading was not happening.