New Load for Me Today

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I put a bunch of Skeeter loads through an old Colt Cobra. Wouldn't even dream of doing it today. I hesitate to use them in my M19 for that matter, but the 19 has had a lot of them over the years. When I think back to all the guns that have stood up to what everyone says is an overload today, I can't help but wonder if they are wrong or if we, in our thousands or 10's of thousands, were just lucky.

Rex, "...and am in constant search for the load that will make an old man with weak eyes and tremor in the hands a great shot. " I was looking for a load like that when I was a young man with eyes like a hawk and no shakes at all! ;)
 

Ian

Notorious member
I don't know, Bret. We have this thing around here called "Redneck load limit", where someone hauls a pallet of Sakrete in the bed of their "1/2 ton" pickup or drags 35,000 lbs of bulldozer and gooseneck lowboy behind a 1-ton diesel dually. They get away with it, usually.
 

Rex

Active Member
It is surprising how many shooters today have never heard of the 38/44. Thank God those old timers were willing to experiment, think where we'd be today without them! I still shoot a lot of .38 specials with 6 grains Unique and that load is listed in my older manuals as a +P. With a 358429 Keith bullet it still shoots nice and is a useful load.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I used to use Keiths 13.5/2400 load for a long time. Then I ended up with a 357 J frame and backed away from it. I would have been better off to trade the 649 off towards a 2 in. 686 or GP100. The little feller is pretty rambunctious, even with +P loads.
 

Rex

Active Member
Arthritis is getting to be the limiting factor of my loads. I just don't like the punishment anymore. Those heavy +P loads are about as far as I go on a regular basis anymore.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I don't know, Bret. We have this thing around here called "Redneck load limit", where someone hauls a pallet of Sakrete in the bed of their "1/2 ton" pickup or drags 35,000 lbs of bulldozer and gooseneck lowboy behind a 1-ton diesel dually. They get away with it, usually.


It ain't just around there bud. It's common here too. My favorites are the guys hauling round bales with a 1/2 ton truck, 2-3 wagons somtimes, not a strap or rope in sight, at 55-60mph with the wagons whipping across 2 1/2 lanes of traffic and the bales playing teeter-totter. Every now an again one will end up in a ditch or the road. Another fav is the guy hauling wood in the trailer his grand father built after he got back from WW2, still wearing the same tires, behind the family econo-SUV. The trailer is always overloaded, there isn't a brake in sight and the 1/2" lag bolts Gramps used have rusted away to 1/4"! Those end up on the shoulder pretty regular. What gets me is the "compensation machines", the 3/4-1 ton diesels that have never had anything bigger than a set of golf clubs, a case of beer and the owners ego in them. Seems like the players should trade off vehicles!
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Yep, a lot of them round here came up from Mexico. One guy in particular drives a mini-pickup stacked to the heavens with pallets.
 

Outpost75

Active Member
As FYI for heavy frame .38 Specials and .357 guns only 5.5 grains of AutoComp shoots well with the 176 Keith in my 1955 S&W .38-44 Heavy Duty and burns lots cleaner than the often recommended 11 grs. of Alliant #2400. Have not chronographed it, but report and recoil are authoritative and this charge is 1/2 grain over Olin's listed +P, so be warned. 25-yard sandbagged group below.
11066
 
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