Rossi Rifleman

I was at my local reloading story, Reloader Suppply, Inc a couple weeks ago looking for a powder that might be a little cleaner than the Bulleye. I was getting a little low on BE, anyhow and was in need of more powder. Lee, the own suggested HP-38, saying it was a little cleaner and it was in stock. I walked out of the store with it. Last week I took it out back to my little range, and WOW. I tested it at 25 yards with my Rossi and my Blackhawk. In BH it was ok. Probably more me than the powder. In the Rossi--WOW!

My loads:
.357 casings trimmed to 1.282"
CCI small pistol primers
4.5 grains of HP-38
158 grain RFN bullet.

The first shot is the "flyer" For some reason (my old eyes are the reason) the front sight looks center of the rear sight notch but not the white diamond. Thus, the 1 1/2 right of the target. After doing some mental calculations on sight adjustment, I decided to trust the diamond instead of my eye. It was a good call. The next 4 shots tore a jagged hole at 12 o'clock of the bullseye.

Now I needed to test it at 50 yards. I pulled my back out last Sunday so I was off work all this week. My chiropractor suggested that I not sit or stand for extended periods. hmm what to do on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. hmm If I go to my little range for some shooting, I'd be sitting for 5 to 10 minutes while I fire off 5 rounds and glass the target between rounds. Then I'd walk 50 yards to the target to collect and re-attach a new one. It sounded like perfect therapy to me.

Maybe if I wasn't in pain the group would have been tighter, or maybe not. Either way it's not bad, with on outside, center-to-center spread of 2 inches.

Both these were shot with my left elbow on the table with my left wrist cocked over the rest and my right elbow/arm parallel to the ground, hunting style.

I think I've found my new "pet plinking/coyote or smaller load.

I too use HP38 with good results. But Before you call that your pet load. You need to try that powder and the Lee or similar 125 rf. It will usually make your 50 yd groups look like your 25 yd one looks!

If that is the Lee 158rf, when you try it at 100 yards, your gonna be pizzed off. I can not make that bullet work. Some people can and others can't, and I'm one of those that just gave up on it because of GIANT groups at 100yds.

As far as a clean burning powder goes. I want to try the new Alliant E3 powder. I think it is an up dated bullseye. It is suppose to be extremely clean burning. So many powders.....so little time.

donhuff wrote:I too use HP38 with good results. But Before you call that your pet load. You need to try that powder and the Lee or similar 125 rf. It will usually make your 50 yd groups look like your 25 yd one looks!

I second donhuff's info. I use the Berry's Bullets hard cast 125 gr fp and 5.3 gr of W231/HP38. It chromos in my 20" at 1116 fps and is a tackdriver. Nice plinking, small game and pistol caliber silhouette load.