By Art Merrill | Reloading Editor
Safety, of course, is our first priority in handloading.
To that end, we work as much as possible with known variables, but moving from a beginner level into more advanced handloading means that occasionally we delve into an unknown, such as working with anonymous bullets.
Back in January we covered a four-step method http://www.thegunmag.com/working-with-mystery-bullets/ for safely reloading mystery bullets: identify the bullet type, measure the bullet diameter, weigh them and then cross reference loading data for that type and weight bullet. With all that information in hand, we chose a starting load of 3.0 grains of W231 for our 152-grain mystery lead full wadcutter (WC) bullets for the .38 Special cartridge; maximum listed charge is 3.3 grains, giving us four increments of 0.1 grain charges to try. Continuing where we left off at the loading bench back in January, let’s load up and see how they will perform in a recently acquired second-hand Ruger Security Six .357 Magnum revolver.
Decision process
We’ll use 32 cartridge cases of all the same make (here, nickel plated R-P cases) to ensure as much as possible they have the same internal volume, which is an aid to consistent pressures and velocities. Trimming cases to the same length is another step for consistency.
Progressive presses, while complex for the beginner, are great for volume reloading of a single charge weight. But because we are loading up several different charge weights and utilizing comparatively few cartridges, the simplicity of the single stage press has more KISS appeal for this project.
An electronic powder scale/trickler is ideal for accurately dispensing charges and changing charge weights. When developing loads, we want the shot-to-shot consistency of weighing every charge; once we’ve selected a load, we can later go to simply throwing a volume charge from a mechanical powder measure and using a progressive press for reloading mass quantities.
Carbide resizing dies are one of the joys of straight wall pistol cartridges like the .38 Special: resizing lube is not required, so we skip the mess and the additional lube-on/lube-off steps.
Our wadcutter (WC) bullets lack a bevel on the base, so to ease seating and mitigate shaving any lead from the bullets in the process, we’ll expand case mouths just a wee bit more than usual. Some .38 Special and .38 Special/.357 Magnum bullet seating dies come with two seating stems, one rounded for (duh) round nose bullets and the other flat for WCs, SWCs and bullets with big, flat meplats. Let’s install the correct one, then adjust the die to seat bullets flush with the case mouth and apply a light roll crimp just on the upper edge of the bullet.
Do we really need to crimp the WC bullet? Some reloaders do and some don’t, and those that do may use either a roll crimp or a taper crimp. (The perceived advantages of one type crimp over another is a discussion requiring its own focus, which we’ll save for another day.) Also, some WCs have crimp grooves just below the bullet’s flat nose and some, like ours here, do not. I prefer a light crimp to ensure the bullets in the unfired cartridges in the revolver chambers don’t move in or out of the case under recoil.
Weighing our bullets gleaned 32 (hence selected 32 cases previously) that weigh within one grain of each other (152.0 to 152.9 grains). An item we aren’t addressing here is that our mystery bullets include a mystery lube of indeterminate age and composition. The lube is still tacky, rather than dried and crumbly, indicating it should still do its intended job; unless we want to remove the old lube and replace it, we’ll have to accept that and just see how the bullets perform. Given that we can’t exactly replicate these mystery bullets anyway – once they’re gone, they’re gone – at this point we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns for our efforts. Again, we’re performing this exercise to finish up demonstrating how to deal with unknown bullets (the four steps we covered in detail earlier), to get an idea of the performance potential of a recently-acquired used revolver, and to just have fun loading and busting some caps.
Charges & primers
By now you’ll have recognized that 3.0 to 3.3 spans four different 0.1 grain loads, that we are experimenting with four different powder charges of W231. How many cartridges of each load shall we make? As this is a first run for both the gun and the bullet, six of each should be adequate to show which may have the best promise warranting further pursuit – and whether there might be some unseen problem with the used revolver. Four times six is 24, leaving us eight extra bullets and cases. If our four loads show no pressure signs and otherwise go without a hitch, then let’s use those eight to try a starting load of another powder, 2.4 grains of IMR Target. This load comes from Hodgdon’s online Reloading Center https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/. We’ll light off all these W231 and IMR Target loads with Winchester Small Pistol Primers.
Range results
Fifteen yards – 45 feet – is a reasonable distance for testing these loads, given the firearm, open sights, cartridge and my eyesight. Past experience with these factors prompted me to utilize milsurp “1000-inch” paper targets discussed previously http://www.thegunmag.com/reloading-aim-small-miss-small-targets-for-checking-handloads/. I fired from a concrete bench, supporting both my hands and the revolver with rests. Results appear in an accompanying table. We are, of course, deducing safe pressures from published safe velocities as measured with a chronograph.
Summarized, our starting load of 3.0 grains of W231 hit the nail on the head with an average velocity of 672 fps, as published load data cross referenced to four sources lists safe velocities with bullets of 148 to 155 grains starting at 680 to 869 fps. We also achieved our goal of determining a safe starting load with IMR Target, 2.4 grains of this new powder that delivered an average of 652 fps. Increasing charges in 0.10-grain increments, we see that velocities rose gradually, as we expected.
TABLE, .38 mystery bullets
W231 Vel.(fps) Group size (in)
3.0 672 1.5
3.1 679 2.5
3.2 696 2.5
3.3 720 1.7
IMR Target
2.4 652 2.7
.357” 152-grain “mystery” WC bullet, R-P .38 Special cases (nickeled brass), WSP primers, W231 and IMR Target.
These components and loads performed safely in this particular firearm. Because of variables in your reloading equipment and technique, in your firearm and in your local environment, you may experience other results, including higher pressures that may be unsafe. Data presented here is for information only; the author disclaims liability for results obtained by others.
As an aside, we might also infer from the group sizes that we may have found a mild, decently accurate plinking load with 3.0 grains of W231 and our mystery bullet. More testing would further refine precision, but we have accomplished our mission here, which was to test our theory on determining starting loads for bullets of unknown manufacture and unusual weight. The purpose in buying the second-hand Ruger is to use it to hunt javelina, so instead I will turn my energies to developing a load for a 110- or 125-grain JHP bullet – of known make, ready availability and listed amongst load data – in the .357 Magnum to reach out to 75 yards or so.
