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Here's why 38 Special +P was invented.
Doc
Member Posts: 13,898 ✭✭✭
The world was flooded with cheap, imported revolvers in 38 Special caliber. The ammo makers didn't want to get sued by the owners of such guns when they blew up. So in 1972 +P was invented. It wasn't a new level of performance, it was simply a new name for what had been the accepted pressure level for the cartridge. Then they started calling loads that were some 2,000 PSI lower than standard the new standard. The new lower pressure loads usually worked out OK in the crappy guns and the ammo makers were protected because they could say use +P only in guns approved for it. Of course +P is zero concern in a well made gun like a Smith or a Colt.
People think +P was a new, high power load. Nope. Just a new name is all. The mainstream +P is loaded to around 20,000 PSI and that is no higher than the standard loads before 1972.
Here's an RG that blew up on the 3rd round of +P. I'm surprised at this but maybe the gun was flawed, really worn, or perhaps it wasn't mainstream +P but one of the specialty loads that run 22,000 PSI. I wouldn't expect such a dramatic event. Instead I would envision greatly increased wear with +P is this revolver. But it blew up, so there you go. I also wonder that the barrel blew and not the chamber. Might have an obstruction? But the owner blamed the ammo.
The owner actually asked if the gun could be repaired. I said throw it away. In fact, it should have been thrown away before firing.
People think +P was a new, high power load. Nope. Just a new name is all. The mainstream +P is loaded to around 20,000 PSI and that is no higher than the standard loads before 1972.
Here's an RG that blew up on the 3rd round of +P. I'm surprised at this but maybe the gun was flawed, really worn, or perhaps it wasn't mainstream +P but one of the specialty loads that run 22,000 PSI. I wouldn't expect such a dramatic event. Instead I would envision greatly increased wear with +P is this revolver. But it blew up, so there you go. I also wonder that the barrel blew and not the chamber. Might have an obstruction? But the owner blamed the ammo.
The owner actually asked if the gun could be repaired. I said throw it away. In fact, it should have been thrown away before firing.
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Too old to live...too young to die...
Too old to live...too young to die...
Comments
I also wonder that the barrel blew and not the chamber. Might have an obstruction? But the owner blamed the ammo.
I could almost guarantee you that there was a bullet lodged in the barrel that caused the barrel to blow instead of the cylinder.
Well that is an interesting nugget of knowledge! Thanks![;)]
++
So they picked up a bunch of Model 10s and let us have the Chiefs for $65. I got an Airweight. I would never fire +Ps in it.[8D]
I know a man who shot 1,000 +Ps through an alloy S&W as a test. Nothing happened. Elmer Keith wrote of shooting 38/44 ammo (makes +P look like a BB gun) in an alloy J frame with no effect to the gun.
All the hype over +P is just that...hype.
I fired 500 Remington +Ps and 600 of my own +P+ loads (125 JHP at 1150 FPS) through this already well worn M&P made in 1942. Nothing happened.
Too old to live...too young to die...
Too old to live...too young to die...
Before that last trigger pull, nothing had ever happened to that RG either, Doc.
The wife always asks me if it is safe to shoot a pistol or rifle that I just purchased that is at or over 100 years of age.
I always tell her that it looks like it worked fine the last time it was fired.
Brad Steele
This pic shows a frame fracture caused by a mis-aligned round. The barrel is not shown but I would imagine it has little or no damage.