As much as I like the ultra heavy loads in the magnum handguns...those loads are really special purpose. I use them not only for hunting but for heavy target practice, long range shooting and of course killing dangerous things like rocks and hillsides.....

A good deal of my shooting, like most folks, is with light to medium/warm loads for the caliber in question. Now a medium or medium warm load for the 454 would certainly be of a higher pressure than one for a Colt 45 Single Action, or one of it’s clones. And after the number of questions I have recieved on E-Mail for load data and pressures where possible, a series like the one on Mega-Mags only on light to medium loads might be useful.

First a word about pressures and the quoted levels I and the others give on Sixgunner. I don't think it is unreasonable for folks to realise that we fall into the same problems that the reloading manuals do...in fact, if you wondered why many reloading manuals don't publish pressure readings, this is the answer. 'Too Many Variables', that can change pressures...and it's pressure that changes a lot faster, then velocity changes. And many reloaders don’t follow the rules....

In other words...the pressure can change 5000 or more psi with as little as a the chambers and bore on my gun being say 2 thousanths tighter than Hodgdon's test barrel. But the velocity may show only 50 or 100 fps increase. And that’s only one variable. So the commercial powder and reloading industry is afraid that some reloaders will use pressure figures, like they use feet per second figures, and shouldn't. There is a pervasive thinking quality among some reloaders that if X load gives me 1400 fps, and a load with 2 grains less the same powder, giving 1200 fps..then two grains more will give 1600 fps.

If a pressure level was given...say 35000 lbs for the 1200fps and 40000 for the 1400 fps...the thinking could then well be ‘two more grains will go only to 45000 psi and give me that neat 1600 fps load’.....When in fact two more grains might push the load into very dangerous territory well above the suspected 45000psi. And small variables in the reloader's gun might drive the pressures even higher...seating depth of the bullet, and wether the same bullet is even being used, make big changes in pressures. I feel all pressure quotes must be looked at as the vaguest of indicators, not hard fact regardless of the source.

I get my pressure figures from a goodly number of sources that I have been collecting over a near forty year period. So when I am giving a pressure level on a powder, I will tell you if it's from an old lot of powder so you can be extra careful with new lots of powder, or a powder that once was on the market, but is not anymore. Or one that is still carrying the same name, or near the same name as the old powder, but isn’t the same.

I think this is important...as I pointed out with the large pressure differences we incountered with Hercules 2400 vrs. Alliant 2400, when we did the testing for the Mega-Mag article on the 44 magnum. We really need to believe it when a source states the pressure level is maximum. Even when it doesn't jive with some other source. For example Richard Lee's book on reloading is just excellent...and it gives pressures for the 44 magnum with 2400 that are as high with 19 grains as Lyman's #47 reloading book is with 23 grains of the same powder. Who's wrong? Neither it seems the powder has changed under the new company Alliant...the old Hercules it seems, is slower in burning speed.

Variables can kill a gun...I think about 20 years ago I learned this graphically when some rifle ammo I loaded for a 308 cartridge in Virginia for 500 yard shooting...running average 70 degrees in weather, were fired in 110 degrees in Arizonia. They were max in Virginia...they were bolt jaming in Arizona. And that's one variable. In handguns it's more critical...less strength more variables.

Bore size in many guns of the same caliber, are anything but the same. The gap between the cylinder mouth and the barrel throat can be substantially different on two of the same make guns, let alone two different manufacturers. One rarely thought of is the variable of the cylinder's chambers throats. Not only can that effect accuracy, but also pressure. Then there are the other things like different primers, different lots of the same powder, different thicknesses in brass...even different loading procedures and so on. So it’s incumbent on us to be careful, no one can do it for us.

I would normally think that any new or recent Colt clone single action in 45 Colt will easily take 20,000 psi loads. In 44 Special certainly that can be higher, near 25000psi. I am talking about continuous use, thousands and thousands of rounds. One Dakota model that Jim T and I each had, in 45 Colt chambering...both manufactured around the same time...pushed warm /medium loads for over ten years of continuous use. Those loads never loosened up my gun, or anything else. I think Jim had a soft hammer on his...but once that was changed he didn't have any problems either.

In any lesser caliber like the 38 Special and 32s pressure is just not a factor if the gun is of strong manufacture. It took a rival gun manufacturer (Taurus), to open S&W’s eyes to the fact that gun frames the size of their I-Frame (kit gun) beefed up a little, could take 357 mag pressures. Certainly the 38 special and 32 caliber chamberings on those frames will give excellent service for years with medium to medium warm loads.

But we will be missing a goodly amount of usefulness and just plain fun, if we don't also look at the magnum chambered guns with the idea that they too can be wonderful with lite and medium to medium warm loads.

My wife and I are into our third decade of marriage. And for the most part it has been wonderful (she proof reads my stuff). I was a lawman when we married and my knowing the kind of person I am, and that an endless stream of guns would pour through our lives....and wanting to start marriage off smoothly back then...one of the very early gifts I bought her was her very own handgun. Now she was originally from New York City. The only handguns she ever saw were in policemen’s holsters or the movies. So she was fascinated with the gift. The gun was a newly manufactured H&R 38 S&W five shot with a 3 inch barrel. It was a break top model, but built very strong. Way over what the commercial cream puff rounds are loaded at.

I loaded very soft target rounds for her to start. A 200 grain very flat nose bullet, but only over 4 grains of Bullseye. At ten yards she learned to put them all in the black of a 25 yard pistol target. Perfect. My plan was to slowly increase the power level, so she would have a real home protection load. We were at a picnic in Virginia, just after moving there in 1968. I was a Federal Agent at the time...and we were with a mixed bunch of other lawmen and their wives. We had a big...really big watermelon that we were going to split for desert. When for some reason we decided to see how far in the watermelon, the cream puff load of the 38 S&W would go. This little test was sans our wives knowledge of course.

I shot into one end and as we expected it might, went the whole length and exited the other end. But what it did inside was interesting for a low powered load, instead of a pencil trail straight thru. The entrance was 3/8ths of an inch...wound channel behind entrance was about three radial inches coned down to the middle of the mellon to 3/4 ths of an inch again, until the bullet approached the other end...where that flat nose pushing all that watery melon inside forward, went into the curve of the other end compressing what it was pushing I guess, because it blew out the whole other end piece. I don’t think our wives thought the experiment meaningful.

Several of our off duty uniform officers did though. In those days they had to carry 38 Specials. With the terrible 158 grain round nose. They immediately switched to the 200 grain super police load...which was just the 158 grain load with a 200 grain blunt round nose bullet at around 700 to 750 fps. And the Richmond Police Department at the time allowed that load also. But what our boys did was flatten the noses of the 200 grain issued ammo. It’s effectiveness increased proportionally. The load in my wife’s gun was generating about 680 fps, and since it went thru two...2 by 4s...taped together one day in a test....I figured it’s penetration for home protection was also just fine. Especially since she could do so well with it.....and that’s most important.

The most effective moderate 38 load I ever used was the old reversed hollow based wadcutter over 4 grains of Universal...for 950 fps from a four inch revolver. I put a gas check on the wadcutter nose which becomes the base, and very little fouling even to 1100 fps. But you can make it too good, for the hollow base, now the mouth of the bullet if the velocity is too high. It will come all apart on contact with an animal, instead of just expanding to 50 to 60 caliber like the 950/1000 fps load does.

Someone wrote in a national gunzine a while back that this kind of load wasn’t very accurate past 50 yards....well I’m not sure what load the writer was using...or mayhaps his revolver didn’t like the bullet at the velocity he was using...because I’ve taken the steel chickens down easily, on the iron ram circuit, at 100 yards. But all that is beside the point....these are not for past 50 feet anyway. They are self protection loads in a snubby and fifty feet would be a long shot. Once I shot a 40 lb wild dog in the side chest with a reversed wadcutter over 5 grains of 4756 at ten yards out of a S&W Chief...it punched right thru...the exit was two inches and it took out ribs and the top of the heart, along the way. He was DOA to the ground in seconds. The 4 grains of Universal runs about 16,000 psi for the 950 plus fps...the other fast burners are in that ball park.

If you can and want to shoot the lite weight JHPs from a 38 and keep the pressure down, the XTP line are terrific and over 8 grains of HS6 it will give around 1200 fps for 16000 psi or so. I’ve used bulk 125 grain JHPs I’ve purchased from MidwayUSA...cheap. And they work very well from 1000fps up to 1300 fps out of 38s. One of the other bullets I love is the cast Lyman 180 grain flat nose...in the 38 special at around 900 to 1000 fps. Ten grains of H4227 stays around 16to17000 psi and is in that velocity range. Barrel length is important with slower burning powders.

I like the 173 grain Keith SWC. I have a Lyman original Keith style cut mold. And in strong 38s like the K-Frame S&Ws and Ruger’s 101s, I like 11.5 grains Herc 2400. It gives around 1200 fps and is a good small gun carry load...and at about 550 lbs of muzzle punch it is nothing to lift our noses to. It runs in pressure to near 23,000 lbs. The 173 grain Keith bullet I use is listed today as Lyman’s 168 grain 358429. My old mold (4 cavity) drops the 173 grain with about a #2 lead mix, cast hot and water dropped. What I like about this load is it’s accuracy...for me it’s always under an inch or so at 25 yards. And out of my 357 Mountain Gun by S&W...in 38 brass and WW standard primers....it cuts one ragged hole.

Lets face it the 38 Special has been around for over 90 years...certainly we have got it right by now......

In the mid 1960s after collage and a war, I was a lawman on the streets of New York City. That’s the place to learn law enforcement...L.A., Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, and the other big mean cities, I’m sure would offer close to the same experiential education. I was issued the infamous 38 Special, four inch barrel revolver. I had a choice of a S&W or a Colt. They didn’t have any S&W mod.10s that day so my choice was ever so more limited. We were issued 158 round nose ammo...reputed to reach the startling velocity of 800 fps from a six inch barrel. We also had to practice and qualify with wadcutters...which reached a velocity of 770 fps from our four inch revolvers. We carried the wadcutters instead of the duty ammo. The range officer told us secretly that at least the flat nosed wadcutters at close range wouldn’t ‘bounce off!’...How reassuring.