185gr Golden Sabers loaded on ~6.5 grains of HP38. Nice and warm, and just scratching at supersonic. The best part is, I didn’t have to do the work. A customer of mine took up reloading, and I’m just the (quite) willing guinea pig.
Given the current economic downturn and the trend of hoarding ammunition to the point of scarcity, many folks are turning to reloading. More power to them!
Reloading isn’t just about saving money. It allows you to tailor loads to your specific gun and situation, and once you’ve got the process down, you can achieve accuracy easily surpassing many factory loadings.
Case in point: I’ve got a marvelous .38 Special defensive load that runs a 125gr XTP over 8 grains of HS6. It reaches 1220ft/s out of a 4″ barreled revolver, and falls just subsonic in a snubnose, all while running at less that 20,000 CUP. That’s a bit warmish for factory loads, but still well within the tolerances of a good gun.