loaded with .38 Special Lee Loader today

[alphalimafoxtrot]

Just got to mention, I've been collecting the essentials and recently got going with my little Lee Loader .38/.357 kit. Hammered out 50 rounds of .38 Special, using my new Badman Bullets red polymer-coated bullets.
These are 158 grn LSWC, and I'm loading the same bullets in .357 Magnum as well.

Winchester 231 with Winchester small pistol primers. The cases are Perfecta/Fiocchi that were from a new box of .38 Special ammo from Dick's. I'll be back at some point with shooting results, pics if I can remember!

No chronograph, but the load data and my powder selection should be about 740 fps with 3.3 grn. We shall see!

Adam

[Ranch Dog]

Good deal Adam, looking forward to your results.

[JohnnyEnfield]

That sounds great Adam. It is very nice being able to create ammunition by hand. I told my wife today, sometimes I like hand loading more than shooting. Good luck. I look forward to your report.

[mr surveyor]

It's just my opinion, Adam, but I would suggest you continue to use the Lee Loader for several months (I forced myself to stick with it for exactly one year) before moving on to the next step. In my experience it helped me to understand exactly what was happening and gave me the opportunity to learn good techniques in inspecting and handling the brass. More importantly you learn to safely handle the case charging using dippers and scale. After putting off the urgings of my mentors for 10-15 years I finally got my feet wet in Jan of 2011 ... but the first year I forced myself to stick with nothing but the Lee Loaders (.38/357 and 9mm) which made the transition to better tools a breeze.

Congrats on the new endeavor and stick with it


jd

[Ranch Dog]

That sounds great Adam. It is very nice being able to create ammunition by hand. I told my wife today, sometimes I like hand loading more than shooting. Good luck. I look forward to your report.

Oh, I definitely like handloading more than I do shooting. I like hunting more than handloading though.

[9x80Drilling]

YOOOUU got it, my friend!!

[Shotgun]

I'm with JE & Ranch Dog re reloading vs shooting. Like most folks, I started to reload to feed my shooting, now it's the other way around!

[Ranch Dog]

My problem is that I won't reload for others so I have to generate the empty brass to load.

[cj8281]

Pounded out a box today, just for kicks and giggles. A lot of people %@*&$ about 700X not metering very well, I found I can dip it at 3.6 grains and be consistent with the .5cc dipper. Didn't set off a primer or anything. I used one of my "new" Loaders that I recently acquired, charge card has 1978 on it. It didn't have any brassing on the flaring tool or anything, it does now.

[alphalimafoxtrot]

Morning, all!

Well guess what. I can't find my .38 Special charge card for the life of me - got two .357 Magnum Lee Loader charge cards, one is a 1980's card other is a new one 2012 I got not that long ago. But where is my .38 charge card? Maybe I never had one. That might explain it!

Since the interwebs and Lee's website - as well as Lee Loader Data dot com - do not offer instant pdf/jpeg downloads of said .38 charge card tables, thought I'd give it a go here.

Basically, I only want to get an image download of the charge card so I can print it and put it in the red box. I have plenty of load recipes saved up from other sources, that's not the issue.

Here's an example of what I'm looking for in another caliber - the classic .35 Remington. Thanks for looking!

35 Remington load data.jpeg

PS.....Man, I'm getting tired of my cabin fever situation something fierce! PT is still a "female dog" and won't be returning to work any earlier than Feb. 18th at this point. Sorry for the ramble!