.38 spl

[fenwick]

My hands dont take the heavier recoil very well anymore so i am going to try to
get back into cowboy shooting with the .38 spl loads. I am determined to make
every attemp to develope a load that will work in both a 66 yellow boy 24 "
barrel with short stroked action & an EMF in 7 1/2 " barrel.
Anyone worked up any good loads for this type of combination?
I would be glad to hear frm you.
thansk and God Bless.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

What propellant you contemplating there Fenwick?............Buck

[Tensleep]

Three grains of Titegroup under a 125 g TC Bonus bullet and a small magnum primer work well for my wife. Very little recoil but good velocity.

[Curley Cole]

I shoot an old Jager made Dakota, a new Taylor Uberti, a new GW2 and a Rossi 1892 made in 1980, and they all shoot fine with this:

Bullets: 158gr rnfp Bearcreek
           154gr rnfp China Camp by Bonus bullets

Powder: 3.3gr Bullseye

cases: Starline, Winchester (in that order of preference)

primer: A year or so ago stocked up on Winchester small pistol primers and they are doing fine. also use CCI

These are comfortable to shoot,and are pretty clean shooting especially the BearCreek.

I might suggest (if no one else has already said it) anytime you think about using a "posted load" look in a load manual and insure it is within safe ranges.

cc

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Fenwick, 154 China Camp from Bonus-3.2g of HP-38- Federal primer. Or- 154 China Camp-3.3g VV N-320- federal primer. Both pretty good loads in our guns...........Buck

[Sheriff A.E. Moses]

Fenwick

Remember that the lighter the lead, the less the recoil..... Tensleep is telling it right....

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Three grains of Titegroup under a 125 g TC Bonus bullet and a small magnum primer work well for my wife. Very little recoil but good velocity.

Sleep is right. I've been using 3.2 gr Titegroup with 125 gr bullets and they have plenty of steam to do most knock-downs.

[Camille Eonich]

For my pistols I use a 95 gr bullet and 3.3 of Red Dot.  The rifle eats 125 gr and 3.3 of Red Dot.  As long as you keep one of each bullet it's easy to swap off between them but even the 125 gr don't produce much recoil.

[john bange]

38 special will not have much recoil even with a 158 gr. bullet...that said, Your 1866 will be much happier with a cartridge o.a.l. of as long as your pistols will allow, not to exceed 1.55...my 24" rifle in 38 sp. cycles 1.53 o.a.l. as fast as I can...anything shorter that 1.48 or so can give problems.  The weight of your 24" barrel will allow very little recoil...7.5" barrel Colt should dampen it too while a short barrel pistol will buck some.
If one, low recoil load for all three is your goal, you will need to keep an eye on the cartridge length.

[Modoc]

Fenwick,

I have to give an agreement to what everyone else has said.  I too am in the same boat with arthritis in my hands from too much abuse, and had to go to 38's.

I got my go to load from Captain Grouch, which is 3.2gr of Clays behind a 125gr bullet of any manufacturer that I can get my mitts on lit by Winchester or CCI Small Pistol primer.  Mild recoil and runs through my '73 and my son's 40 year old Rossi along with all of our pistols.  By the way, my 9 year old son is shooting these better in a pair of 3-screw Blackhawks than he was shooting the 22 LR single sixs.   

I normally run a separate load for the rifles because SWMBO's Browning will only run 357 mags with a heavier bullet (158gr+).

[Dances With Coyotes]

www.moultonlead.com
147gr TC bullet. Let's you load a 38 special case to a longer length. I run 3.0 gr Trailboss at 1.55" Runs pretty good thru my Rossi and sweet shooting. All I shoot now