Here we go….
Sorry if I came across as a grouchy, aging ba$t@rd, but that's what I am.
Aaaaand we're off! No worried My Good Cholla, I find that you are more of a fiesty discussionist, who is equipped with a chrony .
I am willing to bet you also have a micrometer and know how to use it to determine pressure signs, as opposed to the avg joe looking at primers.....
We stress following the recipes because we do have noobs popping in and asking
(figurtively) " I just bought all this crap now teach me reloading while I hold my breath"
-and-
(literally) " I can't find any Trail Boss, so can I just substitute the same amount of Red Dot?"
Here we try to help the average guy with average "CAS" load issues , or stuff like it. I expect there are other better forums elsewhere that handle the more lofty esoterica ( no offense intended ).
I have read Elmer's books, and also ancient reprints of his articles. ( I have also George Nonte's , Ed McGiverns, some of Charles Askins, Bill Jordens, most of Skelton's works, but few of the actual pioneers of hand loading as I find them particularly dry; and I have found the pioneers' letters to the Rifleman to be a bit too chock full of "testing to failures" for my tastes - but they had little lab equipment at the time.) Back to Elmer, If I remember correctly ( and I may be mistaken) in his letters ( or books?) a couple of incidents stick in my mind
- he blew the top strap off a Colt .45 with a full case of 4F
- he specifically said he switched to .44 spcl because he blew up too many .45 Colts due to the thin cylinder.
I do agree hotrodding must be placed in context - but the OP did specifically say in the title "Hot loads in Cattleman"
and if you mic your cases for your 941 fps load ( as I expect you already have) and find no signs of pressure issues, then Bob's Yer Uncle
and I suspect you will be a valued contributor here.
I am well aware of the .38-44 and I believe they worked the heat treat on those cylinders "special" - as you may recall the .38-44 factory loads weer specially marked. You may also recall the early .357 mag loads that made it famous (in the large frame Mod 27) which have since been reduced, then reduced again; and the Highly Valued and long Extinct Super-Vel loads - both of which led to the early cracking of the K-frame .357 mag forcing cones....
The eye-witness account of a gent who reports he watched the same steel go into .38 and .357 cylinders; then watched the *different* heat treat for each should not be disregarded. I know way too many bubbas who reamed their .38 spcls to accept .357 's ....
But even Elmer stated one could safely hot-rod a J-frame .38 spcl and get away with it for a while
due to the offset cylinder notch -
but that the foricng cone and frame will eventually suffer.
Last, I cannot stress enough the importance of
pressure curves vs
pressure spikes. It is most often pressure spikes that blow stuff up. Pressure spikes most often occurr when deviating from recipes.
Reloading safely for Hobby shooting is a rather different animal than load development for experimentation. Those Who Know More Than I Do and who have labs to measure these things have stated that there are often high-end loads that "look just fine" but an even 5-10% increase takes you into catastrophic KB areas. Those are interesting discussions but probably not for this forum.
I was also a fly on the wall following lengthy rocket surgeon esoteric scientifical debates about deviations in pressures, powder position issues, primer temperature issues, spead of wave fronts, and stuff that got into more calculus than I ever forgot. It was fascinating but again, not the sort of discussions for hobbyists.
So, Actually my Good Cholla, I believe
you are fine , and there are a lot of good recipes that will safely make a good stout load with more giddyap than CAS may need and that's fine.
btw - you're not grumpy ....
yhs
prof marvel