Un burnt powder 38 special

Ruger007

Ruger007

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I've gotten back into shooting my revolver. S&W 19-5 357. Been loading up a bunch of 38 special loads. Using Lee TL 158gr round nose bullets, federal small pistol and Red Dot. 2.6gr and 3gr. Loads have excellent accuracy and low recoil. But i am getting alot of un burnt powder.
I shot about 250 last weekend and unloaded the casings straight into a Ziploc bag. There was a bit more than a teaspoon of powder in the bottom of the bag. With the red dots in it.

I tried a bit more crimp. Still getting it.

Thoughts?
 
Your powder charge is too low. At 2.6gr you 0.3gr below the minimum charge listed in "Modern Reloading #2". Low pressure = a teaspoon full of unburnt powder. Keep the charge around the 3.1gr mark.

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Change to Win 231 start 3.1 grains and federal primers and 148 gr hbwc .357 cases and it just may surprise you:)
 
I was using the load data for a 148gr bullet. As I weighed these bullets and they came out at 146gr on average. 148gr says 2.4-2.5gr. The 158 is like you said 2.9-3.1.
 
You are achieving "excellent accuracy and low recoil". Why is the unburnt powder something to correct? The powder "problem" in your revolver is simply cosmetic. The only concern I'd have with light loads is the possibility of a bullet not exiting the barrel, but after extensive shooting, neither of your loads, even the lighter of the two seem to be resulting in that.
 
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Ruger007 said:
It is accurate and has low recoil. But is dirty and have had some of the unburned powder jam up the gun.
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A lot of us cowboy action shooters run into similar problems. One of the things I found that helps is a tight crimp. Until I started seating and crimping in 2 separate stages I had a problem similar to what you are describing. When I started using a Lee Factory Crimp Die to put a good roll crimp on the rounds the issue went away. The brass still gets sooty but there's no more unburnt powder in the casings after I shoot the rounds. I use the Lee Die on all my CAS 38 rounds in both the revolver and rifle.

PS: Try a magnum primer as well. I use either the Winchester small pistol mag or Federal SPM.
 
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The revolver generally locks up because unburnt powder got under the ejector star. We had that problem in PPC. Just carry a toothbrush and brush out the cylinder and under the ejector.
 
Yes under the ejector star. I use the lee factory crimp die. Interesting thought on the primer. I have lots of magnums. Might be worth a try. Almost out of red dot anyways. I have lots of bullseye to use up now.
 
Ruger007 said:
Yes under the ejector star. I use the lee factory crimp die. Interesting thought on the primer. I have lots of magnums. Might be worth a try. Almost out of red dot anyways. I have lots of bullseye to use up now.
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I use 3.5gr of Bullseye with a 158gr coated LSWC. You'll get a little unburnt powder (not much) but it will be dirty as hell, lol. I only have a 1/2 lb. of Bullseye renaming at which point I'll go back to Clays.
 
You could switch to Bullseye powder. A 158 grain LSW bullet load should start at 2.8 grains. You could go to 3.5 grains with no problems, approaching +P loads.

One other situation you might want to examine is your powder flare die. Your full length size die takes the case back to spec. But many powder dies re-expand the case when it goes into the die to flare the case mouth. So now the case is not to spec and the bullet is not a superior snug fit, but just a fit. So hot powder gases can blow past the bullet upon ignition.

Every one of my powder mouth flare dies re-expanded the case for no reason. When this was pointed out to me and I examined the flare die body, I knew sloppy manufacturing was the problem. So I removed material off the die body until I could insert a case on the die body without it expanding before the flare. Now all the bullets are a tight fit, extra crimp is not required & magnum primers are a waste.
 
At 2.8gr the bullet will dribble out of the barrel, lol. Have you chrono'd that load? Admittedly I do not like super light loads but at 2.8gr it's probably even too light for a "cowboy" load. I wouldn't go lower than 3.1gr but that's just me.
 
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4n2t0 said:
At 2.8gr the bullet will dribble out of the barrel, lol. Have you chrono'd that load? Admittedly I do not like super light loads but at 2.8gr it's probably even too light for a "cowboy" load. I wouldn't go lower than 3.1gr but that's just me.
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When I shot PPC, the load above (2.8) was what I used, and with the 148gr HBWC it was very accurate at 50 meters, and with the 158gr SWC, accurate out to 25/30 meters.

I am running 4.3gr Bullseye under a 158gr Frontier plated bullet.
 
There's a local guy who swears by 2.0 grains of Trail Boss behind a 148-grain .38 wadcutter and manages to get through the cardboard backstop consistently. Bit sooty, though.
 
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