.38 Special revolvers shooting high

[RicinYakima]

In the olden days, you only shot double action out to about 25 feet, and you had a 9 inch target. This is the Fairbairn, Applegate, and Askins hip point shooting. If you could get it up to eye level it was single action. At least 1/2 the LEO's in 1970 cocked the revolver as it came out of the holster. This was before the thumb break was invented, so it was a lot easier.

 

[358156 hp]

I was just thinking about all the time I spent learning to shoot revolvers DA. Now it feels awkward trying to shoot SA. My standard advice to guys who wanted me to teach them DA shooting was the old "first buy a keg of Bullseye, then get a couple hundred pounds of lead, and a four cavity Lyman mould that strikes your fancy"... Lyman was the least expensive 4 cav mould manufacturer at the time.

Then like now, everybody only wants the shortcuts...

 

[Creeker]

I've been plagued with high shooting sixguns myself. My 29-3 was a 4" gun & a 250 Keith at 1200 FPS hit 3" high at 50 yards. And there were others I'll not go into now. One I had in the early 70's shot high & I wasn't happy so on a trip to Mr. Keith's house he showed me his 4" carry gun & I asked him if it shot high. He said well it does at 25 yards but it comes out about 75. His sights were bottomed out the way he liked them so Ian you're in good company.

 

[Ian]

Doing a long run of 300 BLK subs and then I'll switch that press back over to .38 Special and try these nice powder-coated 124 grainers. Another plus, fooling around with QuickLOAD and studying barrel time, is they look like they'll work well with Clays, and I have jugs and jugs of the stuff with no other purpose. I put at least five buckets of wheel weights through one of these revolvers in my lifetime (da and sa), and even after 25 years of holding low I can't seem to learn that it's the way it's "supposed to be" and have had about as much of that nonsense as I can possibly stand. I'm also pretty much sick of Bullseye filth and intend to solve that ancient plague while I'm at it. Life is good when one has options to improve things.

 

[fiver]

the powder coat alone will help bring the impact down.

 

[Ian]

Tried these out with Clays powder, the POI came right down where I wanted it, but groups were not good. 2.5-3" at 15 yards, 4-5" at 25. At least I know what the barrel time needs to be now and can work around with some other powders.

 

[freebullet]

Red dot or, you guessed it-tg make my best 38 handgun loads.

 

[Ian]

I know, TG. I gotta solve this pc/tg conflict because both things work so well and I have a bunch of both.

I also have about 15 lbs of Clays that will probably will never find a use.

 

[Brad]

4 gr of Clays with a 200 swc in a 1911 45 ACP is a nice load. Shot up a few pounds of Clays that way

 

[Ian]

You're right about that, Brad, and I have just the mould for it, and a nice Liberty .45 suppressor. I wonder how those would do powder-coated......

 

[Winelover]

I'm having the opposite problem with a brand new Charter Arms Bulldog 44 Special with a shrouded hammer. Every load I tried, both Factory and Cast is shooting low.... even switching to heavier bullets had no effect on raising POI.

Loads I tried:

40 factory Winchester Silvertip 200 gr. HP's (these are over 40 years old, for the reloadable brass)

25 Saeco 200 RNFP bullets , over 7.0 grains of Unique, as casted .4295

10 Lyman 250 RNFP, with 4.5 grains of Bullseye, sized .431

6 Hornady "Critical Defense" 165 grain flex-tip and also their 180 JHP's. (pretty hot loads for light bullets)

Strange that all of these loadings shot @ 5" low. All shooting was at defensive distance of 10 yards.

 

[358156 hp]

Wow, at 10 yards! I'm assuming you have tried shooting the gun both single action & double action, and that the revolver has fixed sights. Try using a sight picture that has half of the front sight blade above the level of the rear sight, and see where that puts your point of impact. Your rough point of aim should be with top of the rear sight. Then try varying the amount of front sight holdover to see how much shorter your front sight needs to be.

 

[Brad]

Two problems.
John doesn't shoot single action
He said the revolver has a shrouded hammer, not sure how one cocks that for single action.

That is a huge difference.

 

[Winelover]

Shrouded hammers allow one to shoot single action.......I didn't purchase their "hammerless" because it isn't actually hammerless. It is a bobbed hammer design ......only hammerless when uncocked.

I did try it single action and it made no difference in POA.

The whole front sight must be fully exposed, above the rear, to hit POA.....I'd have to file away the whole front blade.

 

[Winelover]

More Bulldog specifics.

Throats are pretty uniform and @ .432.......(.431 slips right through and .4325 is a little tight).

Single action trigger pull is 2 3/4#
Double action is @ 9# ( RCBS gauge only registers up to 8 pounds but indicator will go past that mark.

I don't slug barrels, either. Out of the 35 cast loads shot, in two different diameters.....not a hint leading found.

 

[Brad]

I suppose the sights are good enough for the intended purpose. At 10 yards you are still gonna hit the guy.

 

[Winelover]

I suppose the sights are good enough for the intended purpose. At 10 yards you are still gonna hit the guy.

Set of Crimson Trace Laser Grips will alleviate the problem......as soon as I can find a set....always out of stock on CT's site. No hurry......would prefer a green laser, anyways. All my carry revolvers wear a set.

 

[freebullet]

I'll throw this out here but, it's only worth what you paid.

The 38's that shot low for me were a product of excessive over travel of the trigger. Once that was eliminated they shoot where they should ime. If the trigger has movement after the hammer is let go it will shoot low.

 

[358156 hp]

The whole front sight must be fully exposed, above the rear, to hit POA.....I'd have to file away the whole front blade.

I was afraid you were going to say that.

 

[fiver]

I don't know if the sticking of the titegroup to the base of the PC affects the burn of that powder all that much.
I would think if it's giving up some of it's nitro it would slow the powder speed down some.
but as easy as it is to ignite I would imagine it should still burn even stuck to the base of the bullet.