[Beladran]

ok im sitting here thinking which way should i go in pistol matchs i need to keep it above a 125 pf

powders i am playing with is WST, Autocomp, N350 and W231
bullet choice would be either
125gr lrn or 158gr lswc
my N350 will give the highest speeds 1100 for the 125gr(137pf) and 963 for the 158gr(152pf) I can back way off the powder charge on the 158gr and still make PF. With a max charge i can dang near make major PF with that heavy bullet but i dont wanna burn my pistol up in only 2 years

with the light load with autocomp i can make pf and only run about 10000 psi vs about 16000 for the others

 

[msredneck]

So is this 38 super out of a wheel gun?

Shoot as light a load as you can get away with...

I'm not familiar with action pistol, so I don't know how much steel affects you..if any

The reason I shoot 147 Gr in 9mm vs the 115 gr is to get a little more thump on knocking the poppers down...

Most of the good shooters I've watched don't run all that "hot"

That's my feeble 2 cents worth...

 

[Beladran]

lol these are loads for my 38 special
so go with a heavy slow load? There are steel targets in action pistol to. Only get one shot per target so if they dont get knocked down it dont count.

 

[jbpmidas]

I like heavy and slow, but I have never shot Action Pistol.

 

[Xd357]

Heavy and slow is good but remember the longer the bullet stays in the barrel the more room for error. True follow through is important as you know. How fast pace is action pistol?

 

[captain-03]

....remember the longer the bullet stays in the barrel the more room for error. True follow through is important as you know.

Hum!! Interesting!!

 

[msredneck]

Why shoot High $ N350 when you can shoot cheap Bullseye powder...thought N350 was for large caliber magnums?

3.4 grains on a 158 SWC lead is a soft 855 fps that will hit the target accurately in my 686

That's a lot of loads in a lb

If you want a little more "juice" try Unique

i don't see wst, autocomp, listed for 38 special lead loads in my manuals

 

[Beladran]

neck if you break down the cost of VV to a per bullet its not that bad, price its like .018 cents per bullet, bullseye is .012. N350 is the slowest burning powder of the 300 family. It has to be the cleanest burning powder i have ever loaded. N550 is for high power magnums be very careful not to mix the two up or KABOOM! neck i got a few bottles of 550 stored. I would love to sit down one weekend and load up some 243s and show you what your rifle is capable of doing. A 105gr VLD can be pushed right at 3000fps a 58gr vmax can go almost 4000fps

 

[DBChaffin]

I'd load for accuracy and see which bullet your revolver prefers. It may very well decide for you. It would surprise me if accuracy wasn't slightly better with faster powders, though. WST did very well for me in a couple of loads, and I am a big fan of the Viht powders, especially N320 and N310, if you can find the latter. Titegroup is also a powder that is appropriately named. I don't know how well any of these work in .38 Special though. Bullseye is generally a good choice for accurate, light loads, too.

All things being equal (and they very seldom are), I think I would prefer a light and fast(er) bullet for Action Pistol. Slightly less drop at the longer range targets and very slightly less lead needed on the mover. The only steel is 8" plates and they should go down easy to either load.

With lead bullets and 125 - 150 PF, you'll have to spend well more than the price of the gun (several times it I would bet) on ammo to wear it out. After several thousand dollars in ammo do just that, a new barrel and tune up will just be a drop in the bucket to be back at 100%.