.38 Special - Alliant 2400

hermiem

Can you load .38 Special with Alliant 2400?

My father stopped reloading a few years ago and gave me a lot of powder. He gave me about 5 1 pound cans of Alliant 2400. (This is how old this stuff is - It's in 1 pound tin cans and under the name of Hercules - LOL?!?! It has to be 30 years old.) I've been loading .357 Magnum's with it but even at a low powder weight it gets a bit "uncomfortable" on the hands, wrists, arms shoulder etc. Does anyone have a decent, not to hot loan for .38 Special or . 38 Special P+?

bambambam

This is a page from LOAD BOOKS USA. It has the 2400 load data on it. the 158gr & 200gr bullets are lead.These are MAX loads because they are +P rounds.

Best info I can find to offer.

charliemeyer007

It will work better in a .357 or 44 mag. The Allient Bluedot is hotter than the Hercules. Not sure about 2400.

If you need a load you should be telling us what: bullet, case, primer you have and the gun you want to shoot the ammo.

Smell the powder, should be sweet/solvent not acidic/bitter and be black not red dusty.

Save the cans they will be collector items.

Rocky Raab

You can reload .38 Special with 2400 powder, but it is far from ideal. 2400 is designed to burn well at pressures well above the maximum limit for the .38. You'll have a lot of unburned powder flakes and such in the gun. Fortunately, 2400 still produces fairly consistent results even at such low pressures (it is unusual in that) but there are far better choices for low-powered loads.

Pick up a can of TiteGroup, W231, Clays, or American Select for your .38 and save the 2400 for your .357 Mag.

dcs shooters

Unique is a lot better for 38spl. I used a lot of it and used a lot of 2400 for 357+44mag.
Trade some of the 2400 for a faster burning powder, like Unique or the ones RR said.

wtroper

I agree. Trade the Hercules 2400 for a faster powder. Find someone who still prefers the Hercules powder to the Alliant. There are some of us out there. Some even bought up a substantial supply of Hercules when things changed.

bpost

If recoil is the issue, try a lighter bullet. 2400 is my go-to powder for the 357 mag and accurate full power loads.

machine gun moran

quote:Originally posted by dcs shooters
Unique is a lot better for 38spl. I used a lot of it and used a lot of 2400 for 357+44mag.
Trade some of the 2400 for a faster burning powder, like Unique or the ones RR said.


Rightly said.

I tried 2400 in the .38 Special, but I ended up with a lot of unburned powder, even in 6" guns. The unburned powder got everywhere, including under the extractor during ejection, to the point where the extractor would not fully seat and the cylinder would not close.

nemesisenforcer

Just about any pistol powder will "work" with any pistol cartridge, the question becomes how well will it work for the application you're pursuing.

For any given application, there are better and worse powders.

Hawk Carse

At risk of contributing to the delinquency of a handloader (Cooper) I will suggest you look up ".38-44 Heavy Duty" on the S&W board; or Skeeter Skelton Load.
These are gross overloads by SAAMI standards, ammunition to be shot only in a magnum revolver or one of the discontinued .38-44 Heavy Duty or Outdoorsman models or a big old Colt New Service.