.38 Special 158gr. Semi-Wadcutters for Home Defense

[heavyshooter]

Shoot Straight; Gotcha.

 

[novaDAK]

I'm in a house with other family members. I keep a S&W K-frame loaded with 125gr +P Gold Dots next to my bed for home defense.

 

[greener]

The never ending discussion of which caliber and round for SD is fun and never has a conclusion. Since I'm not worried about defending my home from bears, my guess is any .38 round will do the job, or at least get the BG's attention if you are on target. I have medium load 158gr lswc's in my 442 because that's what I practiced with yesterday. HP's are probably better, but I don't think it will make that much difference if you put a couple in the target. Use whatever makes you feel better.

 

[golden]

Not bad

LKB3rd,

I have used the 110 grain .357 magnum loads at night qualifications. I did not think they were really bad.

If you want a fireball, try the 125 grain loads. The range officer said he could see a foot long fireball at 1100 hours during a very hot August day!

My experience with the 110 grain load, which is loaded to lower velocity and pressure than the 125 grain round, is that it kicks much less. I found it preferable to the 158 +P .38 special ammo.

It is also, at least as effective, if not more so.

Jim

 

[Carl Levitian]

Some years ago, the new York city police dept. did a survey of 5,000 shootings. They came to the conclusion that it really did not matter what the victim was shot with, as much as shot placement.

I did some shooting on wet phone books, and found that in most 2 inch barrel .38 revolvers there was not enough velocity to open up the hollow points in over the half the recovered bullets. On top of that, a 150 grain SWC out of an old Colt detective special, did not penitrate as deep as a .22 high speed hollow point bulk box Federal out of a 4 inch model 63 kit gun. The .22 hollow point did expand into a nice misshapen piece of lead.

Its all gonna depend on what you hit. Take out a liver, heart, brain, your target goes down. Get a hit in one of those empty cavities the human body is filled with, you're gonna have to keep shooting.

Use whatever gun and load your comfortable with, and then practice till you know that weapon combo better than you know the back of your own hand. Do your part, and you'll be fine. A mild target load out of a snubby .38 should work if it gets in the right place.

 

[golden]

NYC Dropped the .38 not long after

NYPD was one of the last major departments to drop the .38 Special. It was a politically motivated decision, as well as a financial one.

They did not want to tell the political establishment in NYC that they need a more powerful weapon because of all the flack from special interest groups who scream whenever police adopt a more powerful weapon.

The NYPD did not go to the 9m.m. because they realized they needed a more effective caliber or for the welfare of the officers and citizens they protect.
Rather, they were afraid that the N.Y. state legislature might make the decision for them and the police union was threatening a lawsuit.

After going to the 9m.m., they ORDERED that 10 round magazines were the largest that could be carried in pistols that could hold 15 or 17 round magazines and tried to get away with FMJ (non-expanding) ammo. This also caused problems when the 9mm.m. ball ammo went right through some suspects.

NYPD knows a tremendous amount about tactics, but lets politics into their decision making when it comes to guns.

The snub nosed .38 Special is marginal for self defense as it is. The MARSHALL statistics put the non-expanding, standard pressure loads at @ 50 % effectiveness. The expanding bullet +P loads run from 63% to 67%. If

I could not carry a more effective caliber, then any improvement could be the difference between winning or being killed.

Jim