Questions about ammo for a Snubbie

mannydog

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A friend of mine asked me if I wanted a couple hundred once-fired .38 Spl cases. I don't own a .38, or even any revolvers for that matter, but I said, sure I'll take them. So I ordered .38 Spl dies last night and was in a shop yesterday that has a S&W 442 coming in today. I told him I'd take the 442.

What projectiles/weights are you people using in your .38 Spls.? And, what factory carry ammo do you like?

Thanks.
 
As for factory carry: Remington Golden Saber +P. I put some through my wife's 638 snubbie and they were significantly hotter than Winchester "White Box".
 
For my Model 36, I use Federal Nyclad. It's a standard pressure load. Federal brought it back in response to request from law enforcement agencies for use in snubbies.
Brian at B&K in Natick ordered it for me.

Aloha,
Doug
 
As for factory carry: Remington Golden Saber +P. I put some through my wife's 638 snubbie and they were significantly hotter than Winchester "White Box".

I understand the +P loads don't make much difference vs. regular loads coming out of a 2" barrel, as the round doesn't have a chance to pick up any extra velocity, because of said barrel.

With that being said, I load my snubbie with +P self defense rounds (psychological advantage -- like the lock on a screen door) [laugh]
 
As for reloads, I use 125 gr. and 158 gr. Mostly 125 gr. recently, as that is what I carry in the gun.

I load them to chrono the same as carry ammo for best practice sessions. I also load some much lighter rounds to plink with. Easier on the gun, and me that way.
 
I just saw some Hornady "Critical Defense" ammo on a shelf. It's a 110 grain bullet, box says around 1,000 fps at muzzle but that's probably for something other than a <2" barrel, wouldn't you think?

There are some Laser Cast bullets locally, I'm going to see how they work out loading the 125 and 158 grns.
 
I understand the +P loads don't make much difference vs. regular loads coming out of a 2" barrel, as the round doesn't have a chance to pick up any extra velocity, because of said barrel.

With that being said, I load my snubbie with +P self defense rounds (psychological advantage -- like the lock on a screen door) [laugh]

Fair enough. I suppose I should have been more specific and spoken only to the increased percussion and recoil. My father in law in the next lane over stopped shooting and looked over to see what gun I had changed to, only to see the same 638 with five nickel-cased rounds shooting solar flares in three directions!
 
Pick up some of Winchester's PDX1 defense ammo, we shot some out of my friends model 49 and some out of my fiancees model 60. They are like light 357 loads, and they are pretty serious! try em out, they grouped at 5 yds very tightly out of our 2" guns.

Dom
 
Pick up some of Winchester's PDX1 defense ammo,

Saw some of that next to the Hornady, I picked the Hornady, no reason just maybe a a little cheaper.

Did pick up the new S&W but a 642 came in instead of the 442. Fine with me. I grabbed a bunch of 158 grain Laser Cast heads.

My RCBS tumbler crapped the bed today but I'm waiting on the dies anyway so I have some time to get the tumbler fixed or replaced.
 
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