[jeffreybehr]

Bought the new 38 Monday, with a couple boxes of Winchester whitebox 230FMJs. Shot those quickly, and they and the gun were 100% reliable. Then bought 4 boxes of American Eagle 185TMJs and had less success with them...seems the 38 would fire only 3 - 6 before failing to feed. Most failures were hanging on the front of the magazine.

Received 4 boxes of Speer Gold Dot 185 JHP bullets this afternoon and assembled 10 batches of 5 rounds each, loaded to OAL of 1.06". These functioned perfectly this afternoon, so tonite I loaded more of these loads for a session at the range tomorrow. I got close to the manual's maximum charges this aft., and all primers still had plenty of radius on them, so tonite's loads went a couple tenths higher.

BTW I'm using the same 2 powders that were so succesful in my 40s--Hodgdon Longshot and Universal, with Federal SP primers.

BTW2, my compliments to MidwayUSA--I ordered a die-set and turret and 4 boxes of bullets Tuesday; MW Priority Mailed them Wednesday, and I received the carton today. WOW! The Priority Mail was a little less expensive than UPS ground, and if I'd chosen that, I'd be waiting for this stuff until next Monday or Tuesday.

[mhmills]

I do not like the American Eagle 185s but I have never had failures with them. Did this happen with different mags or just one?

[jeffreybehr]

Originally Posted by mhmills

I do not like the American Eagle 185s but I have never had failures with them. Did this happen with different mags or just one?

Ahem...don't know. I guess I'll have to pay more attention. :-)

My reloads shot perfectly today, and I had so much fun I went home, reloaded more, and drove back to Ben Avery this afternoon. Based on primer radii and functioning, my reloads with Universal are perfectly safe and have topped at almost 1080FPS @ 10'; those have a Power Factor of 199! New 185g. Silvertips produced a disappointing 918FPS.