VANITY CHAT: Best powder choice for .38 / .357 short barrel loads?

I've got everything in place and ready to go to load up a couple of decent-sized batches of .38 and .357 loads.

The .357s are for practice use in a couple of .357 revolvers, both with 3-inch barrels.

Shoots like a .22

A friend of mine who regularly shoots the STG-58 here installed the gas plug upside down after cleaning it once, which as I remember LOCKS the gas system and completely exhausts all the gas to the atmosphere that would otherwise drive the piston and cycle the rifle. I fired it after not noticing that it was left this way and it bounced me pretty hard. :-) The rifle is fairly heavy though, so it didn't hurt me, but I certainly noticed! But when left to operate on it's own, it's very smooth and low recoil. :-)

In fact... it was low recoil to start with, but I put a Buffer Tech recoil reducer in it and all of my youngsters started shooting it when they were around 10 or so. They had to shoot prone, or rest it on something because it was too heavy for them to hold up, but they could operate it!

""Cop Killer" bullets!"

The brain washing continues, just like "Assault Weapons".

All bullets kill and any any weapon used to assault someone with, is an assault weapon!

Be Ever Vigilant!!

The .38 loads are for practice use in a couple of airweight revolvers.
The .357s are for practice use in a couple of .357 revolvers, both with 3-inch barrels. ... .

WHICH POWDER IS BEST FOR USE IN SHORT-BARREL HANDGUNS?

I like about 2.8 grains of Bullseye with 158-grain bullets. You might step that up to 3 grains in the .357s, but I don't suggest it in the airweights.

Indeed, my favourite loads for my .38 snubbys are to use 115 or 124-grain bullets for the 9mm in it, with either 2.8 Bullseye or 5 of Unique. For more serious purposes, the equivalent hollowpoint bullet can be used, or you can resort to the old trick of using a reversed 148-grain hollow-based lead wadcutter bullet and seat it in the case backwards, the hollow base portion facing out. Try one of these in a gallon jug of water at 10 feet or so, and see if you're not impressed.

High velocities and powder charges that give a lot of flash from short barrels aren't needed here, since the bullet does the work. Indeed, they may keyhole in some guns, but a pinwheeling bullet that strikes its intended target flat-on certainly doesn't need to expand, and there's little worry about it overpenetrating. I mostly carry the 9mm JHP loads for serious work, since they reload the gun more easily when carried in speedloaders, but if all I have around is the backwards-wadcutters, they'll do just fine,

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