Of course the info in the answers is still valid. I was actually interested because I recently picked up a couple futuristic (20th century!) 38 revolvers and, after a maybe 20 year hiatus, I'm loading 38 Special again. So I find this thread useful, but I do have to smile...
CC Griff
My Dear Gruff -
What a remarkable coincidence! I too have recently acquired yet another modernisch revolver in .38 spcl, as well as the afforementioned .36 Pietta 1851's. Thus my interest in both mild CAS loads friendly to opentops ... And modernisch loads I haven't cogitated upon for some lustrum ....
It turns out that whilst I had been preoccupied, cheap commercial lead loads are dissappearing!
The good news is that the purveyors of cowboy Ammunition have stepped up ...
The bad news is the cost...
I have been trying to find the old federal or Remington "fbi load" ... To no avail.
edit: I found buffalo bore offers low pressure mid velocity high performance "short barrel loads" , but they are not carried by the local LGS's ...
So I have been haunting the loading sites to see what I can find, since other folks are desirous of the same thing...
and no-one really wants the +P+ high velocity full copper crap being offered ( btw that stuff actually jammed several revolvers
recently that are rated for +P+ ... )
So far I am falling back on skeeter skelton's old load, 5 gr unique and 158 gr soft flatpoint, for strong modern equipment only...
Backing off on the unique a bit for CAS....
More later when off this phone thingy.... I have some links bookmarked or saved or something on the franken puter
Damn you autocorrect!
prf mvl