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Coated bullets .38spl chrono data

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 11:08 am
by Morne
While at the Medina Gun Show this past weekend I picked up a little 100-count baggie of .38Spl coated 130-gr RNFP bullets from Buckeye Bullets. I am trying to replicate my current favorite Cowboy Action load which is 125-gr LRNFP over 3.7-gr Trail Boss with a Fed-100 SPP (yielding about 763 fps from a 6' barrel with five shot ES = 56.5) except with a coated bullet. I got the "Midnite Black" color.

52 F, 53% RH, 30.44" Hg

***CHRONY DATA***

.38 Spl 130-gr Coated RNFP, FED-100 SPP, Trail Boss Powder, 1.446-1.464" COAL
Taurus 66 with 6" barrel

3.4-gr AVERAGE = 695 fps; ES = 52.9
3.9-gr AVERAGE = 790 fps; ES = 46.7
4.3-gr AVERAGE = 818 fps; ES = 61.6
4.9-gr AVERAGE = 846 fps; ES = 73.9
5.1-gr AVERAGE = 851 fps; ES = 34.8

The 3.9-gr load gave very good results. Comparable velocity to my current favorite CAS loads with slightly better ES. I'll have to load this into my CAS pistols and rifle and see how it does.

Re: Coated bullets .38spl chrono data

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 1:30 pm
by Morne
62 F, 39% RH, 30.14" Hg

***CHRONY DATA***

.38 Spl 130-gr Coated RNFP, FED-100 SPP, Trail Boss Powder, 1.446-1.464" COAL
Taurus Gaucho with 5.5" barrel

3.9-gr AVERAGE = 829 fps; ES = 22.0

Rossi M92 with 20" barrel

3.9-gr AVERAGE = 990 fps; ES = 98.7

Really liked this load in my cowboy guns.

The pistol data was with my usual five (5) shot string. Had nine (9) extra rounds for a total of fourteen (14) data points but that only nudged the average from 829 to 830 fps and only opened up the extreme spread from 22.0 to 36.5 fps! That's pretty darn good. 8)

The rifle data was with ten (10) data points. The extreme spread wasn't all that great but also not tragically bad. Given that the load worked well in both modern and CAS revolvers I think it is a winner.