.38 SPL data

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OSSwill

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A buddy bought some reloads from a local store. He told me that they "kick real hard," and locked up his revolver. Actually, the primer flowed back into the firing pin hole. Anyway, he left me a few rounds to try (like I'm gonna put THAT in MY revolver)

I pulled a bullet just to see what they were. It's a 158 gr SWC (poorly cast, I might add) and 7.6 grains of a large flake, dark gray powder. Can anyone find data for that much of any flake powder in a .38? I'm stumped here.

Will
 

Mitch H.

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I couldn't find anything that called for that much powder in my Lyman manual. The largest max load I could find was 6.6 grains of Blue Dot. Sounds like someone shouldn't be playing with powder.
 

338Shooter

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I have the Lyman 47th ed, the nosler 6th ed, and the hornady 7th ed and can't find any load for .38 that calls for that much of any powder, even +p loads. The only powder that hodgdon's site shows for .38+p over 6.6grains is H4227 at 11 grains max charge.
 

ldp4570

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A buddy bought some reloads from a local store. He told me that they "kick real hard," and locked up his revolver. Actually, the primer flowed back into the firing pin hole. Anyway, he left me a few rounds to try (like I'm gonna put THAT in MY revolver)

I pulled a bullet just to see what they were. It's a 158 gr SWC (poorly cast, I might add) and 7.6 grains of a large flake, dark gray powder. Can anyone find data for that much of any flake powder in a .38? I'm stumped here.

Will

That sounds almost like shotgun powder!
 

aeropb

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Could be Bullseye. Max load for Bullseye is 125gr bullet with 5.6 grains of powder. A 158 gr bullet with 7.6 grains of powder is crazy.
 

_CY_

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sounds like you need to get your buddy to call the store pronto... and get those rounds off the shelve.

A buddy bought some reloads from a local store. He told me that they "kick real hard," and locked up his revolver. Actually, the primer flowed back into the firing pin hole. Anyway, he left me a few rounds to try (like I'm gonna put THAT in MY revolver)

I pulled a bullet just to see what they were. It's a 158 gr SWC (poorly cast, I might add) and 7.6 grains of a large flake, dark gray powder. Can anyone find data for that much of any flake powder in a .38? I'm stumped here.

Will
 

criticalbass

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sounds like you need to get your buddy to call the store pronto... and get those rounds off the shelve.

Absolutely! And if they won't, at least post the name of the store so other members will know where not to buy .38 ammo.

My basic rule is to shoot no one's reloads but my own. CB
 

338Shooter

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7.7 grs of Bullseye under 158 SWC is HOT 357 territory. I couldn't find what type of powder 4227 is.

I think it is flake, but 7.7 grains would most likely be a way too light load if max is 11. Plus, H4227 is 6 spots slower than H110. May be into detonation territory that much low.

I looked in the Lyman book and the lowest starting load I could find was 11.8 grains of H4227.
 

OSSwill

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I couldn't find any published load that matched anywhere close to what I'm seeing in this round. I've called the buddy who bought it, and instructed him to contact the seller of this stuff ASAP! If I get more details about where he found it, I'll post that info. For now, beware buying .38 SPL reloads in a zip lock bag with a handwritten tag!

Will
 

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