38 snubby pet load?

I’m getting back to my roots. The Glocks will not be retired but I’m going to start carrying a j frame a little. The 38 special is not a fast mover by any means. Nor is it capable of slinging big heavy bullets. So… how do you make up for this? What’s most capable man-stopping load in your cook book? I prefer to use Unique, Power Pistol, or 2400 but that’s not set in stone. What about +P? Do you think high pressure loads are safe in a S&W 642 airwieght?

I was looking through my Lyman book and stumbled across a load that uses a 170 gr cast bullet and Power Pistol. It was pushing 950 fps from a 4 inch barrel. That was the hardest hitting load I could find in my books but I'm not a big fan of cast bullets.

Yea. I'm weird. May be it's because that's the missing link in my reloading room. I'm not making my own bullets yet. There's really been no need to so far. The Glocks only get jacketed bullets and everything else that I shoot is too fast for lead.

May be I'll just buy a few cast bullets and try them out.

I picked up some bullets at Van’s yesterday. 158 and 125 grain Hornady XTP. I also decided to go with Power Pistol. It’s not the most pleasant thing to shoot but it was the only powder in my load book that would push the bullet as fast as I wanted. The +P loads are averaging 19K CUP according to the load data. That should have some considerable recoil from a revolver that only weighs 15 oz. Should be fun to shoot.

I also found some 170 Speer monolith bullets. May be I’ll try those later. There’s no way they’ll expand but the others are not likely to expand either. Might as well sling a big brick of a bullet.