Lee Loader

I just got the Lee 358-105-swc mold the other day. Hopefully I can find enough time to cast a batch today or tomorrow and load a batch to do "side-by-side" comparison (158 vs. 105) over the weekend.

Looking at Lyman 48th, I should be able to use the same 3.2 grn of Bullseye powder for both bullets. Those tables show huge spike in grain of powder for TiteGroup between 158 and 90 (that's what's closest in the book).
Wow, just looked in the same tables at velocities... definitely Bullseye for my softer bullets (765 vs 1006 fps).

GasGuzzler wrote:I'll never put something so ugly as aftermarket pistol grips on. To each his own.

Eye of the beholder thing I guess. Also trying to prevent further wrist damage, I wont be reduced to shooting 22 shorts if I can at all avoid it. They let me get through 40 or more rounds when I shot IHMSA and now they let me burn a lot of powder for fun mostly.

Make smoke,

Shorts are too hard to find Ha!

For those of you with scientific minds... I've found this information in Lyman 48, pg 400: So, I've played with the numbers in a spreadsheet based on data from posted loads for 38SPL in the same manual: For those that like to increase load with lower bullet (line 3 and 12) - the recoil may be the same.
But if you keep the load same (line 1 and 9) - the recoil should drop nearly 3-fold.
I don't have exact data for my new 105 grn bullet, but keeping same load, I should see drastic reduction of recoil.
I've casted the bullets last night and primed the cases, tonight will lube'n'load.
And to the range on weekend with both 158s and 105s... will report next week on results.

Back from the range...both 158grn and 105 grn, with same 3.2grn Bullseye powder behind them got me just about the same grouping. All very consistent. Now for the recoil - wow, what a difference! The number in the table above suggest it should be about 3-fold. It's hard to tell exactly but it definitely felt lighter with 105s. These may be my new favorite bullets for my 38 SPL.

Those little 105s are great bullets, size them down to .356 and they work well as a 9mm as well as the little 380. I loaded a few of those for a friend and he really likes them. In a 38 spl you can load them really light.

I have an old WWII Walther P-38 that just loves the 105 grain SWC ( actually more of a truncated cone) sized to .357 , This bullet will shoot to the P-38's fixed sights with 4.6 grains of Red Dot or 5.0 grains of Unique. Nice easy mild recoiling load in the 9 mm and accurate to boot. It doesn't batter the gun and will feed fire and eject reliably. If you have this mould be sure and try it in 9 mm or 380 .
Gary

I used the 105 loaded for my wife, she uses them in my little 2 1/4 inch 357.
These little light for caliber pills are fun to play with, loading data is slim but you can
easily extrapolate out start & max.
And Yes, very much less recoil but, as jloader has stated, there comes a point of
diminishing return ?? Best of luck, be safe.

Similarly but different I've shot a lot of gallery loads in my 45/70. That's shooting a round ball load. Actually they performed quite well for plinking tin cans.