[cooterMN]

I've recently added a S&W M-686 to my arsenal and am looking for some nice light target loadings. I've tried some loads with a 158gr SWC and 3.3 gr of Bullseye, but it seems they are still a little heavy on the recoil for my combat league shooting. I've got a pretty extensive inventory of powder- Titie-group, W-231, Unique, Clays, 700x. I suppose I could go through all of these and try their lightest loadings, but I thought maybe some of you would have some suggestions to save me some time.

Also- When purchasing my dies I noticed that RCBS offers taper crimp and rolled crimp. I bought the rolled crimp, but was wondering if the heavier the crimp, would produce more recoil.

 

[cooterMN]

Thanks. I'll give some of your suggestions a whirl. I may have crimped my cases a bit hard (difficult to change my mindset from loading my .454 Casull rounds). I'll try less crimp as well.

The recoil was not terribly uncomfortable with the 3.3gr Bullseye loads, I was just expecting them to feel lighter since they were the bottom of the loading level in my recipe book. In my opinion the muzzle jump and felt recoil seemed heavier than my normal weapon I use for this league, .45ACP Springfield. I was hoping that the .38 Spl would allow a faster return to target and since it is a revolver, I could load light loadings which obviously would not affect the action like on the 1911 .45 ACP.

I'll ask some of the other shooters in the league what kind of loads they're cooking up as well since it seems most of them are shooting the .38 Spl.

Thanks Again.