You’d need to test to find out.  Some semis can reliably feed empty cases while others choke on anything much different than a RN profile.  It really depends.

Nice, Looking good. Also looking forward to the data other people get as well. I have a ladder of silhouette and unique Loaded up for my next round of testing. So far CFE has been my favorite and Titegroup second.

@ARHutch I’m interested how you picked your starting charges?  

I want to work up a Power Pistol load and a W231 load.  I’m thinking about starting at 4 gr of PP and 3ish grains of W231, but these are pretty much a SWAG on my part.

I’m curious if you had a method to your starting points, or just picked a pretty low charge for the particular powder as it relates to .38 loads?

@AeroEngineer I picked my loads by starting very low, basically by using HBWC load data. And for powders I wanted to try that I didn’t have wad cutter data for I used starting charges (or even slightly under) for 158 grain jacketed bullets. From this point it was load up a ladder of a few shots and then work my way up using a chronograph and checking for pressure signs and velocity along the way (sticky ejection, primer pressure symptoms, any abnormal cases, etc) until I reached what I was looking for. I wanted a load that will do low 800’s in a snub nose.

With Power pistol in my experience 5.0-5.2 grains would be about max. I like Power pistol powder a lot, but just not for this load. I didn’t like the recoil impulse at all compared to the factory round when reaching the same velocities. I’m getting great velocity with CFE and the recoil in a light weight J frame is better than the Power pistol to me.  3.8-4.0 grains of Titegroup is also a great shooter that gets me factory velocities with very manageable recoil, the lightest of all the loads tested.

The fact Federal’s factory charge in the HST’s of 5.3 grains tells me they are using a very slow burning powder to get a charge that high in there from my testing. I’m gonna possibly test a couple more powders after the Silhouette ladder and unique I have loaded up before moving on to .357 with this bullet. Report back and let us know how it goes.

I skipped over 231 as I didn’t think it would reach the velocity I was looking for with out pressure signs, so I’m curious to see how that performs for you.

The powder appears to be a semi-shiny smashed spherical.

I don't think I have anything on hand with an appropriate burn rate that matches the description.

Glad to hear Titegroup works well. The fast burn is probably pretty efficient and pressure should be very consistent.

I have more testing to complete with Silhouette, but so far I am pretty happy with it. I also intend to test AA#5 which I suspect will also work very well. I recently received some factory ammo that I can compare my reloads with.

@mb3

I Worked up a Silhouette ladder today. I stopped at 5.3 grains.

5.3 grains of silhouette Using CCI 500 primers, seated to factory COAL of 1.168” I got an average velocity of 866 FPS, SD 28.9. From a 4” barrel. Silhouette worked fine, but didn’t care for the larger extreme spreads  and higher standard deviations I was getting with this powder. Curious to hear your results. I haven’t tested with AA5 yet.

Also tested 4.7 grains of Unique today, CCI 500 primers, seated to factory COAL of 1.168” I got an average velocity of 881 FPS, SD 17.2 from a 4” barrel.

ARHutch, thanks for the Unique report.  I just got a couple of boxes and I was wondering where to start for load data.

On a side note Lucky Gunner Labs reported 854 fps for a 5 shot average from a 4" barrel GP100, so you seem to be right in the factory ballpark.

No problem, just allow yourself some room and start lower and work up as pressure signs in all guns can vary.

The factory load for me in a 4” Barrel only averaged 779 FPS, With a SD of 10. I tested it several times and used two different boxes of factory ammo. I looked online as I thought those numbers seemed to low for a 4” revolver and I ran across a Mrgunsandgear video on you tube where  he chronographed this factory ammo also and he used both a snub nose and a 4” revolver in his test. I believe his 4” velocity numbers where about the same as my 4” numbers.

The odd thing was (even though lucky gunner saw an increase by going to a 4 inch barrel) his results were similar to mine in that he got a slightly lower velocity in his 4” revolver than his 1 7/8” snub nose. So in my opinion the powder Federal is using in the factory load is getting a complete burn in snub length revolvers and is not really gaining much by being used in a longer barrel, unlike most factory ammo offerings. So Federal did a good job in my opinion at making this “micro barrel” ammo for snubbies, as some powders are more sensitive to barrel length for velocity than others.

My goal was to find a safe load that was about 30-50 FPS faster than the factory offering to eliminate that occasional factory round that dipped under 750 FPS, resulting in inconsistent expansion. I will say though it doesn’t take much more FPS to accomplish this as the hollow point is huge on this bullet and it does a great job at expanding even at low velocities. My water jug/homemade meat target type testing had excellent result.

ARHutch, thanks for your work and testing. I have been reading and studying this reloading of the 130 HST. Of all I have found in other sites this is the most detailed I have found. I loaded up some of the 400 I bought from Midway with 5.0gr of CFE to start. I will test them in my NIB S&W model 60 no dash 2" barrel. Testing will be on paper target for accuracy and ultimately be EDC in the snubby. Thanks again for your work!

@RASCAL49   No problem, you are welcome. How did the CFE work out for you? I really enjoyed testing this bullet, It’s a great choice in .38 special. Glad midway offered it and I was able to stock up on it before they sold out. Hope Federal one day brings this bullet to market as a reloading component for us hand loaders instead of only the rare “seconds” bullet that was sold at midway. But seeing as how ammo manufacturers at the current times can’t keep up, I highly doubt that will happen anytime soon.

ARHutch, I test fired in 4 of my snub Roscoes. LCR 38+P,  SP101 357mag 2", S&W Model 60 2", and GP100 3" 357. All shot to point of aim out to 7 yds. Recoil most noticeable in LCR with a good finger pinch on the trigger finger, S&W was noticeable but easy with a T grip, SP101 less noticeable, GP100 very little recoil. Very satisfied with the accuracy and might go up to 5.3 grains for another testing. I have a good supply of primers now to get me through the shortage hopefully, but not enough to go on a plinking spree.  CFE didnt burn dirty at all and cleaning was a breeze though about 20 rounds in each wasnt much to dirty them. Compared to factory 38Special 158gr rounds shot previously these were an pleasant round at the range. Will show pictures as soon as I can figure it out...