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.38 special
irtuff
Member Posts: 36 ✭✭
I need some help identifying a make and model on a gun. It is a .38 special. It is black It has a warthog carved under the cylinder release on the left side. It has a 3 inch barrel. It has brown wood grips with a waffle type pattern. I was told it was made in brazil. Does anyone know what the make and model may be?
Comments
Thanks
John (irtuff)
carann@suddenlink.net
38spl. +P operates at about 19,000cup pressure while 357mag. with only 15gr. H110 is about 28,500cup. Max 357-H110 load is 19gr.
Alliant 357 load is 14.8gr. They list 9gr. with a 146gr.JHP 38+P
But, maybe you didn't give us enough information to correctly interpret your question. I thought you were asking either:
1) "Can I load a .38 spec case to +P or .357 mag specs & safely fire it in a .357 mag revolver?"
AND/OR
2) "Will my favorite .357 mag loads fit in a .38 spec case for use in a .357 mag revolver without compressing the powder & producing dangerously high pressure?"
I've loaded a fair amount of .38/.357, & I find that it's usually best to stick with the manufacturers' recommendations. I used to know a commercial reloader who made some really hot .38 loads for LEO's whose agency prohibited them from carrying any other caliber, but he (& the LEO's) knew the guns, the loads, & what was at stake. For the rest of us, it's probably best not to push the envelope. The best reason for NOT doing what you propose is the possibility that someone else might fire your hot loads in a revolver not up to the task, resulting in catastrophic failure with lethal results.
Neal
Can .38 special and +P be loaded to 357 mag. specifications
Well, of course you *can* load them that way, the question is can this be done SAFELY.
The question is a little bit ambiguous. I'll break it into two:
1. Can you safely run .357 magnum pressure loads through ordinary .38 special revolvers?
Nominally, NO, you do NO want to do this, because .38 special loads run at 18,000 max PSI, and .357 magnum loads run at max 35,000 PSI.
Run even one .357 magnum pressure round through the wrong gun and you can detonate the cylinder like a hand-grenade.
Possibly worse, overpressure rounds can cause metal fatigue, which will be invisible to the naked eye, but can lead to catastrophic gun failure later. So even if it looks like you've gotten away with firing a few rounds like this, you may still have damaged your gun.
Now, that said there are ordinary modern .38 special guns that almost certainly CAN handle full .357 magnum pressures. Without naming them, the only differences between the .38 special versions of the guns and the .357 magnum versions is the cylinder length. In guns like that, the GUN, at least, should be able to handle high-pressure loads.
Still, just because you "can" do this, I see no good reason to actually do it.
-Can you load .38 special cases to .357 magnum like pressures and fire them safely through .357 magnum revolvers?
Well, again, its probably possible to do this with the right brass, but why push your luck?
I don't know if in general .38 special cases are strong enough to handle .357 magnum pressures, but I would operate under the assumption that at least some of them are NOT, and a burst case is nothing to sneeze at.
Also, lower case volumes in .38 special cases mean that they could run higher pressures even with loads identical to .357 magnum loads.
So even if the brass were just as strong (EG you were using trimmed .357 cases), that doesn't mean the exact same loads would be safe in the shorter cases.
Repeating what was said before, the chance of an overpressure .357-like load ending up in a .38 special gun isn't zero.
In short, I just don't see any reason to push the envelope here especially given that 357 brass and guns are so readily available. If you want to shoot 357 rounds, just load them properly and into a .357 gun. Its not particularly difficult or expensive to do this the right way.
As for .38's, the +P loads or their equivalents, in the proper guns, are not slouches.
Interestingly, in the trials conducted by the British between the World Wars, the Brits found that a 200-grain .38 at moderate velocity was just about as effective as the .455. They fired at live animals in the 150-pound weight range (which could never be gotten away with, today). This led them to adopt the .38 S&W with a 200-grain bullet, which they called the .380 MkII. In ballistics research conducted by pathologists in Phoenix about 20 years ago, it was found that 200-grain .38 Specials at moderate velocities would generally cause more tissue destruction than lighter bullets at higher velocities, as they often penetrated a human cadaver completely, from any angle. In pursuing the high-velocity hollow-point route, we may be missing something.
This brings up the subject of 'shooting through' the target and endangering bystanders. But the FBI says that bystanders have never been wounded by rounds of any kind that managed to penetrate through their primary targets, but rather have been made casualties only by those bullets that missed their primary target completely. This may indicate that the 'bystander problem' is less what kind of bullet someone shoots, than it is a marksmanship problem.