Looking for Red Dot .38 Special recipes

[Uncle Fester]

I've got Winchester small pistol primers, 1000 125gr jhp, 500 158gr tcjrn, and 300 158gr lswc bullets, and about 1500 pieces of mixed brass. I've found loads for the jhp's and the lswc's but I have been having a hell of a time finding .38 special loads for the tcjrn. Does anybody have a load for that bullet with Red Dot?

 

[Dick]

tcjrn? - that's a new one for me.

truncated cone? tungsten core?

(Or maybe anyone who doesn't know is unlikely to have any load info for it, I guess)

 

[EddieCoyle]

Let me take a guess: Truncated Cone Jacketed Round Nose

If this is the case, they're probably not a good bullet for .38 SPL - especially if the bullet has a bearing surface equal to, or greater than that of a 158gr JRN. Most of the newer reloading manuals warn against using jacketed bullets as heavy as 158gr for standard .38 SPL (some even warn against using them in +P loadings).

 

[Uncle Fester]

It's total copper jacket round nose. Would that be better suited to .357 loads?

 

[Dick]

The Speer Manual does indeed warn about 158 gr jacketed bullets in 38 Special loads, citing the possibility that the reduced velocity and greater frictional resistance might result in the bullet not clearing the barrel.

My Hornady Manual (4th Edition, 1994) does, however, list 38 Special loads for their 158 gr HP/XTP and FP/XTP bullets. They show 3.3 gr Red Dot as a starting load and 3.6 as max for standard 38 Special, 4.2 as max for +P. That's with Hornady/Frontier cases and Federal 100 primers.

That said, if it were my gun (and hide) I'd give it a pass - why take even a little chance?

Those bullets should be just fine in a .357.

 

[Uncle Fester]

OK, thanks for the info.