Hello,
Newbie here with another question. I bought some 158gr ranier lead safe bullets for my 38 to reload. I have some Hogdon HS-6 powdwer. The chart shows HS-6 being used on 158gr Hornady XTP and 158gr cast lswc (lead safe wad cutter???).

My question is why would my ranier 158gr lead safe bullets not use the HS-6. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!!

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking why the powder mfg does not list your particular bullet in their data or why your bullet mfg does not list that particular powder in their data. The answer to that question is that when a component mfg works up their data, they use what they feel is a representative assortment of other components to do the testing. Generally if you use several different loading manuals, you will find bullets, powders, etc. that are close to the ones you have and can work up a reduced load and gradually increase the powder charge until you approximate the data given with a SAFE load. When substituting bullet brands or styles in a handgun, you are relatively safe with using your manual's starting loads as long as the bullets are of identical weight. Foe example swapping a SWC for a HP design. DO NOT substitute weights or powders until you have more experience. If that doesn't answer your question PM me and we can discuss further.

quote:

Originally posted by M&Pguy40cal:
Hello,
Newbie here with another question. I bought some 158gr ranier lead safe bullets for my 38 to reload. I have some Hogdon HS-6 powdwer. The chart shows HS-6 being used on 158gr Hornady XTP and 158gr cast lswc (lead safe wad cutter???).

My question is why would my ranier 158gr lead safe bullets not use the HS-6. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!!

LSWC is lead semi wad cutter. Depending on the data, HS6 is a bit slow for low vel 158gr lead bullets, more propriate for high ve. jacketed bullets. Plated bullets fall in between lead & jacketed for data use. You can use HS6 for your Ranier bullets, back off the jacketed data 5% & work your loads from there.

Rainier says to load using cast bullet load data.

M&P, I got this straight from the Rainier Bullet website:

quote:

We, at Rainier Ballistics, recommend using lead bullet load data when loading our bullets. There is no need for adjustment when using lead bullet load data. Our bullets are jacketed using an electroplating process and are softer than traditionally jacketed bullets; hence the recommendation to use lead bullet load data. If you only have access to traditionally jacketed load data, we recommend reducing maximum charge by 10%. A roll or taper crimp may be used with our bullets; do not over crimp.

Next step in figuring out charge weight is to go to the powder manufacturer's website..... in this case Hodgdon.

Here is the load data from the Hodgdon site for regular pressure (non +P) loads for the .38 SPL using 158gr. lead semi-wad cutters (LSWCs) with HS-6.....

quote:

Bullet: 158 GR. CAST LSWC .358"
Powder: Hodgdon HS-6
Starting Charge: 5.7gr./928 fps/13,700 CUP
Max. Charge: 6.3gr./1010fps/16,200 CUP

Are your Rainier plated bullets of round nose or flat point design? I ask this because this will determine overall length (OAL) of the cartridge.

Look up Steve's Reloading Pages on Google..

Independent guy that catalogs all sorts of load data from all sorts of resources..

that you can look up by caliber and bullet weight..

very comprehensive and very easy to use..

I think it is the best reload data site on the web..

If you use Steve's Pages, I suggest lowering the charges a bit. He has one for .223 that almost fills the case-- it's right there at the bottom of the neck. That's too full for me. Just passin' on my experiences with Steve's data. It's always a place to start, if nothing else...

http://stevespages.com/page8a.htm

Just a side note, if you see cast data listed for W-540 in that bullet weight you can use it for HS-6. Same powder different designation. Just start low and work up for accuracy.

HS6 needs maximum pressure to burn correctly. Save it for jacketed bullets @ maximum load, with magnum primers. YOur bullet can not be crimped and gives light bullet pull, low pressure.