45 Long Colt, 200-300 grains - Accurate No. 44 Magnum, Maximum loads, 200-300 grains - Accurate No. 44 Magnum, Midrange loads, 180-200 grains - Accurate No. 44 Special, 200-250 grains - Accurate No. 44-40 Winchester, 200 grains - Accurate No. 41 Magnum, Maximum loads, 170-220 grains - Accurate No. 41 Magnum, Midrange loads, 170-220 grains - Accurate No. 9, HS6, HS6, 800x, Ramshot Silhouette, Win. 10mm Auto, 155-200 grains - Accurate No.38 Super Auto, 115-147 grains - Accurate No. 38 Special +P, 125-158 grains - Accurate No. 38 Special, Standard loads, 125-158 grains - Accurate No. 38 Special, Lead wadcutter loads, 148 grains - Accurate N100, Bulleseye, W231 357 Magnum, Maximum loads, 125-160 grains - Accurate No. 9x18mm Makarov, 90-95 grains - Accurate No.32 H&R Magnum, 85-100 grains - Accurate No.
Other powders may work as well or better in your pistol, but these should be suitable to at least get started. For specific powder charges, consult an appropriate reloading manual. My reasoning being that if my experience and their recommendations agree, while the powders so chosen may not be optimum in a given situation or pistol, at least they are unlikely to be disastrous.īecause most retail stores that sell reloading supplied do not carry every brand of powder, I will try to list at least one powder from each of several major powder companies for each cartridge.
(They may work with lead bullets, but that's not how I use them.) Besides my own 40 years or so as a reloader, I used as source material the major reloading manuals from both bullet and powder manufacturers. 38 Special Wadcutter loads, all of these powder recommendations are for use with jacketed, not lead, bullets. Here are some powders that I can recommend for handgun cartridges that normally give good results with the bullet weights specified. Then I experiment with different powders (if necessary) to refine the load. I usually test bullets first in any new pistol to find a projectile that it prefers using a powder generally recognized as suitable for that cartridge and bullet weight. All handguns are different, but normally bullets have a bigger impact on accuracy and performance than powders.