Is the Lee "Modern Reloading" book any good?
Reason I ask, I'm having more problems with my 38 special loads.
I posted on here some time ago trying to get my crimp right, and got some assistance from you wonderful guys. I was messing around with it again today.
Following the Lee manual, I used 4.3gr of HP38 behind a 125gr Hornady XTP.
The first issue I ran into was, if I set the bullet deep enough to get the majority of the cannelure under the case mouth, it was already well below the minimum cartridge length listed in the manual.
So in order to get it within the length specs, I had to pull the bullet back out a bit, so only part of the cannelure is in the case mouth. Is that correct? It doesn't seem like it.
Second issue...I got another squib with this batch. And a few of the ones prior to the squib left some unburnt powder lying around. I know I had enough powder, I checked each case manually after calibrating the auto drum powder measure several times, on a calibrated digital scale.
While looking into this, I looked in my Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, 9th Edition. They don't have an HP38 load, but they have one for WIn231, which I understand is the same thing.
Their starting load is 4.8 grains, instead of the Lee starting load of 4.3. And, the Hornady minimum overall length is a tad shorter, which would've helped with the cannelure issue.
So my question is, is the Lee Book being overly cautious with the powder charge? Should I use the Hornady Win231 recipe instead of the Lee HP38 one? Or am I likely doing something else wrong?
Picture of three of the remaining rounds from this batch, so you can see the cannelure/overall length issue.
Reason I ask, I'm having more problems with my 38 special loads.
I posted on here some time ago trying to get my crimp right, and got some assistance from you wonderful guys. I was messing around with it again today.
Following the Lee manual, I used 4.3gr of HP38 behind a 125gr Hornady XTP.
The first issue I ran into was, if I set the bullet deep enough to get the majority of the cannelure under the case mouth, it was already well below the minimum cartridge length listed in the manual.
So in order to get it within the length specs, I had to pull the bullet back out a bit, so only part of the cannelure is in the case mouth. Is that correct? It doesn't seem like it.
Second issue...I got another squib with this batch. And a few of the ones prior to the squib left some unburnt powder lying around. I know I had enough powder, I checked each case manually after calibrating the auto drum powder measure several times, on a calibrated digital scale.
While looking into this, I looked in my Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, 9th Edition. They don't have an HP38 load, but they have one for WIn231, which I understand is the same thing.
Their starting load is 4.8 grains, instead of the Lee starting load of 4.3. And, the Hornady minimum overall length is a tad shorter, which would've helped with the cannelure issue.
So my question is, is the Lee Book being overly cautious with the powder charge? Should I use the Hornady Win231 recipe instead of the Lee HP38 one? Or am I likely doing something else wrong?
Picture of three of the remaining rounds from this batch, so you can see the cannelure/overall length issue.