[E. Pluribus Unum]

[PROCON]

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[mountainlion]

Weigh the charge out and look in reloading tables for loads that give similar velocities for that specific bullet. Reloading ables often say to reduce loads by 10% and work up a load. Different batches of same powder can be off by that far.

[CodeToad]

NEVER reverse engineer something the way you are trying to do. Instead, look at various powders, bullet and powder manufacturer load data, and decide what loads would suffice for the performance you desire. Never think you can duplicate a recipe by looks. Work up your loads using known information, not looks. You will find many manufacturers use blended powders that you cannot get your hands on. They have additives you cannot sometimes buy and rarely detect.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Looks a little like Unique to me, but I haven’t loaded wadcutters since the 80’s.

[MCF]

Winchester WST will give about the same velocity with a 2.6 gr. charge under a 148 HBWC.
But, as others have suggested 2.7-2.8 grains of Bullseye will give very good accuracy. I tried HP-38 (which is the same as Winchester 231) and Bullseye was more accurate out of my revolvers.

[smokingfrog]

How old is it?

[smokingfrog]

Esther might be able to tell you.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

Looks a lot like one of the shotgun powders. Some of which do give good performance in certain .38 special loads.

 

 

[Chad C. Mulligan]

It is impossible to identify a pulldown powder by visual examination. Forget even trying.

Find charges for canister powders from published data.

[Paal Gulli]

This was everything I could find in my powder database (and QuickLoad doesn't have an extensive pistol powder db) that was as fast as Unique (646 fps MV) or faster.

According to QuickLoad (note the 1.160" COAL):

Powder ------- MV (fps)

Bullseye ----- 729
Red Dot ------ 802 (yes, eight-oh-two -- I triple-checked)
Green Dot ---- 759
Unique ------- 646
H-Clays ------ overpressure
Titegroup ---- 753
HP38 --------- 704
H-Universal--- 697
VV 320 ------- 750
VV 330 ------- 677
W-231 -------- 694

This was closest predicted to 710 fps MV:

Because of variability between lots of powder, differences in component particulars (brass, primers, etc) and seating depth, QuickLoad isn't at its best until you've tweaked powder properties so its predicted MV jives with what you're getting in the real world.

[Eagles6]

Probably a mix of Bullseye and Clays.

I've shot both and have them here.

Just go with 2.7 gr of Bullseye.

Nice powderpuff loads.

Great for beginners to learn with.

[Dennis M.]

I wouldn’t reverse engineer a load unless I had a large sample size, a lab for chemical analysis, a pressure test gun and a financial reason to fool with it. Just saying..

[fatboy]

No one can answer the question “what powder is this” from pictures. Plain and simple you are getting guesses and nothing more. We (the hobby handloader) handload with canister powders, the commercial loaders use non-canister powder blends and you will never figure it out by looking at it and comparing to a canister powder. And mixing canister powders as some have suggested is a fools errand and a really dumb idea.

By way of example, Hodgdon doesn’t actually make any smokeless gunpowders. To use the example of Hodgdon Clays, up to about 6 or 7 years ago it was made in a factory in either New Zealand or Australia (I forget which) until they had a fire in the plant, a year later they resourced it from a plant in Canada. Most ball powders sold to handloaders in the USA come from a factory in St Marks FL regardless of the label.

Anyway, the best way to figure out what you want is first get a bullet that is the same, the exact same as your old factory round. Same weight, profile, diameter, finish and hardness. Then, take your chronograph and get some velocity numbers on the factory round. Then try to duplicate those numbers with several canister products loading within published data tables.

Now that I have told you the correct way to duplicate a factory load understand fully that I do not care one bit what you do or how you do it but I’m telling you how it’s done short of simply getting lucky. Some canister powders such as WST and Titegroup are temperature sensitive, they may lose velocity as the ambient temperature goes up. So even if you do everything I mention you still might not get it exactly correct under certain situations. But most of us mortals are not that accomplished marksmen for that to make a difference. In other words, close is good enough. Without chronograph numbers you are simply loading for feel and accuracy so the exact powder is irrelevant anyway. Get velocity numbers on the factory load first.

[Paal Gulli]

VV 320 -——— 750
VV 330 -——— 677
W-231 ———— 694

I might shouldn’t have put the double-vees next to the double-U but those are Vihtavouri 320 & 330 but Winchester 231.

[Pythion.net]

Regarding “reverse engineering” a factory load.
The naysayers are missing something. There is load data for all the commercial powders to keep you in the safe zone.
Reverse engineer away, just use the published load data to keep you safe.