Minimum pressure for 38 spl

[cj8281]

I recently acquired some Hornady 148gr HBWC. The two powders I am considering are Bullseye and Titegroup. Bullseye is the old standard for target loads like that but I like Titegroup because it burns so clean and I have so much more of it than bullseye. Now the issue I have with Titegroup is the lower pressure. What I found on Hodgdon's website is a start load of 2.7gr at 7,700 cup and a max load listed as 3.3gr at 11,800 cup. For comparison purposes I add Winchester 231 as a powder choice and it brought up a start load of 3.5gr @ 14,200 cup and 4.0gr @ 15,900 cup as a max. Is 7,700 cup enough pressure to expand a 38 spl case enough to seal it to the cylinder wall??

[RBHarter]

It probably is with new to 3x brass . You have to watch the WC data , about half is for HB swaged WC vs full , button nose , DEWC and those that seat flush or with 1/10" out . I suspect that the TG data is as it is for the HB and to remain safe with a flush seated DEWC . If it's in a +P rated gun or 38s in a 357 it's non-issue but a pre war K frame might not hold up well with a pressure change from the 16kpsi design to 18-20kpsi .
Check the load data for the specific bullet and OAL .

[cj8281]

The bullet specifically listed on Hodgdon's website is Hornady 148 HBWC. It also lists the COL as 1.160 which is .005 more than the nominal case length, so seated flush is what I get from that.
Guns are Ruger Security Six in 4" and 6" and a GP100 in a 5", also a couple of Armscor 38s, one an M200 and the other an M206.

[RBHarter]

I don't you can get hurt with that . Might be just a little faster maybe 50-75 fps .

The HB is kept low so that it doesn't "blow the skirt" on barrel exit . It's function is to seal mismatched throats and grooves . It also works out to be a near zero recoil loading .