Reloading component questions

[Johnny McCrae]

A friend of mine gave me a Dillon RL550B Press to use while I'm learning how to reload. I want to reload in .38 special for Cowboy shooting. The cartridges will be for an 1851 Navy RM Conversion with a 7-1/2" barrel, 1872 Army Open Top with a 7-1/2" barrel and an 1866 Yellowboy. All are made by Uberti.

Any advice as to the various manufacturer's to use for brass, bullets & bullet configuration, primers and powder will be greatly appreciated.

I have bought my own set of .38 special dies along with a toolhead. I also need to get scale. Should I consider a mechanical scale or an electronic scale?

I have watched my friend reload. I also bought a video from Dillon showing how to use the RL550 press. The video was very helpful.

[Big Dipstick]

As far as brass goes if you can find once fired .38's at a good price buy them, the headstam really does'nt matter. For Bullets you can use for both rifle & pistol I reccomend the Truncated Cone design and 125 gr. weight I use either Beanie's Bullets or Moulton Lead, www.moultonlead.com paul has great prices and can ship 2,000 bullets for $8.00. I think a mechanical scale is fine for what we do and is all I have ever used. I use only Federal primers as they are the easiest to set off, but if your guns have not had action work with fairly light springs Winchester's should do fine. I would stay away from CCI's as they are the hardest of all the primers.

Seat the 125 TC bullet into the crimp groove and you should be fine for smooth functioning in the rifle, Moulton lead also makes a 147 TC bullet that works great in the rifle as well, but if you want to shoot the same bullet in both rifle & pistol I would stick with the 125 TC.

[gotzguns]

go with a electronic scale. once you use one, you never go back to the balance type. this also goes for a caliper. i got a stainless steel one from midway about 5 years ago. don't know how i got along without it. the "one touch" hornady spray case lube is what i use. its so easy to use instead of the case lube mats. you don't have that sticky gunk on your fingers. gotzguns

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[Pettifogger]

Why would you use a case lube mat for a .38?  Just about all modern .38/.357 die sets are carbide and you don't need any lube.

[Johnny McCrae]

Many thanks for the replies. I appreciate the help and advice.

[gotzguns]

your right petti. im still useing a set of rcbs dies i bought in 1971. if they ever wear out i'll go with the carbide dies.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I don't see any mention of a reloading manual. Do you have one? A reloading manual is the single most important 'tool' every novice reloader should have. I recommend the Lyman Pistol and Revolver Handbook. It was just recently re-released in a new edition and will cover every cartridge you are likely to use in this game. Watching your friend reload is great, and videos are OK, but nothing is as valuable as a reliable reference book. In addition to specific recommendations on load recipes, a manual will explain the process to you and clear up most questions you may have.

Enough lecture.

When I buy new brass, I always buy Winchester. Star Line is also very good. But I'll tell you the truth, for 38 Special I have a huge pile of brass that I've collected for over 20 years, and it has every imagineable head stamp in it. I use it all, I don't chuck any of it.

Bullet selection for CAS is usually more dependent on your choice of rifle than pistol. Pistols will eat anything, they don't care because they don't have a feed mechanism. They are usually not Over All Length sensitive either, although some of the conversions that have relatively short cylinders may require unusually short cartridges.

I second Dippy's recommendation of the 125 grain truncated cone. It feeds well in rifles. It also seems to seat to a good length that most rifles like. Mrs Johnson's Marlin loves them, although I don't have any experience with it in a '66. The toggle link rifles can be OAL fussy and you may have to experiment a bit to find a length that your '66 likes. I use mostly Federal primers in my 38s these days, but most of my 38s have relatively light hammer springs. For ultimate reliability, you may want to start with Winchester Small Pistol Primers. I too would stay away from CCI, they are the hardest to set off.

As for Powder, take your choice. I like Unique, but most think it burns too dirty. Clays burns very clean. Trailboss will fill up your case very well. I dunno how well Trailboss will feed through your powder measure.

I am one of those old fashioned guys who thinks everybody should learn to use an old fashioned beam scale before graduating to a digital scale. But I drive a stick shift, so what do I know. When using a beam scale, be sure to learn how to zero it properly before using it, or your measurements will be meaningless.

The reasons I changed over to a digital scale were 1. Unless you get your face level with the needle, you may get a parallax error when reading the needle. This means that looking down on the needle does not show it lining up the same as looking directly perpenticular to the face of the scale. 2. I got tired of waiting for the scale to stop wiggling, even with the damping feature, and 3. The numbers are real big on the digital meter.

If you buy a digital meter, read the instructions and understand the difference between zeroing it and calibrating it. They are not the same thing. But you need to do both. With a digital scale, you cannot 'interpret' the reading any finer than .1 grains. With an analog scale, you can 'interpret' the really fine readings if you want to.

[Johnny McCrae]

Hello Driftwood,

Thank you for your very detailed reply. Your advice and comments are very helpful. I'm taking my time and doing a lot studying before I actually reload my first round.

I do have a reloading manual but the Lyman Pistol & Revolver Handbook sounds like it is a lot more detailed and comprehensive than the one I have. I would imagine the Lyman Handbook is available at a Barnes & Nobel or Sportsman's Warehouse.

I would like to reload the same cartridge for my pistols (1851 RM Navy & 1871 Army Open Top) & rifle (1866 Uberti Yellowboy). It looks llike I will have to pay close attention to overall length. The 1851 Navy has a cylinder length of 1.476" and the Army open top has a cylinder length of 1.60". So far I have been using mostly Black Hills .38 Special 158 gr cartridges and they have been feeding through the rilfe OK. The BH rounds have an overall length of 1.433". Would it be a good idea to make some sample rounds without powder and primers to see how they feed through everything?

A digital scale sounds good. My old eyes need all the help they can get.

Incidentally, I'm also an old fashioned guy who drives a stick shift truck.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Would it be a good idea to make some sample rounds without powder and primers to see how they feed through everything?

Absolutely. I do it all the time.

When you load bullets that have a crimping groove, the position of the crimp groove will pretty much determine the OAL of the cartridge with that particular bullet. You really don't have much choice. You can vary the OAL with a particular bullet slightly, by maybe .010 or so, by shifting the position the crimp falls in the crimp groove, but other than that, with bullets that have crimp grooves, the position of the crimp groove will determine the OAL. To make things worse, not all bullets of the same design will have the crimp groove in exactly the same place. For example, I bought some 125 grain truncated cone bullets for 38 Sp a couple of years ago. After I had used them all up I bought some more from a different vendor. The crimp groove was in a different position on these bullets and the OAL was different. The bullet design was generally the same, but obviously the two vendors were not using identical molds to produce their bullets. These things can vary. It's never a bad idea when trying out a new bullet design to make up a few dummie cartridges and see how they cycle through your rifle. Beware, when you do this, the dummies will probably not last forever. Repeated running through the action may tend to drive the bullets down into the case as they get compresses repeatedly by the magazine spring. It won't happen immidiately, but you may find your rifle jammed by a bullet that has been telescoped down into the case. You may have to futz a little bit to get it out of the action.

When you check your loading data, it will list a Maximum Over All Length for any cartridge. It will not list a minumum. I don't remember what the Max is for 38 Sp off the top of my head. That Max has been set by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI). SAAMI is a non profit collaberation of firearms and ammunition manufacturers. They set the standards for such things as cartridge shape, pressure, and chamber shape. However the SAAMI Max standard may or may not have anything to do with ammo cycling through a rifle. Most rifle manufacturers will attemp to design their rifles so they function well with ammo that falls into the SAAMI standards. In the past, because of their design, the toggle link rifles like your '66 have been a little bit fussy with cartridge OAL. I understand that more recently Uberti has addressed this problem and they are now less fussy. I have an Uberti '73 that was made back in the 1980s and it is vey fussy about OAL. It only likes ammo that is at least at SAMMI MAX or even greater. Hopefully your '66 is not as fussy.

As far as conversion cylinder 38s are concerned, there is one specific Black Powder bullet that is very long. It is designed to be loaded in 38 Specials but bring the OAL out to the same length as a 357 Magnum, again for fussy Uberti rifles. It is calle d the 38 Snakebite Greasewagon, and it is specifically designed for Black Powder. This bullet will probably not fit in a 38 with short conversion cylinders. All other 38 bullets should be fine in your revolvers.

But making dummy rounds is always a good idea. Label them so you know exactly what they are for future refernce. It is also a good idea to make up a few dummy rounds when setting up your dies the first time. You probably won't get the crimp just right on the first try. Better to waste a few cases and bullets while setting up than to waste a few cases, bullets, primers, and powder.

[Johnny McCrae]

Hello Driftwood,

Many thanks again for the great advice and help. This is exactly the type of information I'm looking for.

Best regards,

Johnny McCrae