.38 cartridges in magazine......

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Palolosj

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Which would be the best magazine to carry extra .38 Special cartridges? Obvious choices are:. S&W 52,. Desert Eagle .357, Koonan pistol?
 
What do you mean by best, and what is the purpose of this?
 
I want to carry spare rounds for my J-frame loaded into couple of pistol magazines. I'm thinking it will be easier to strip out rounds from partially loaded Koonan or Desert aEagle mags. The S&W can only store five cartridges.
 
Unloading pistol mags by hand is usually not very fast, and I’d think there is a good chance of dropping some of the rounds. Why not carry a speedloader or two?
 
Going on a camping trip. I want to be organized. Reload speed is not important. I used G17 mags when I owned 9mm revolver. The problem is I know nothing about rimmed cartridge magazines. I guess I'm asking whether extracting loose rounds by hand is more difficult due to presence of a rim?
 
Have you seen a speed strip? organized, light, same size or smaller than a magazine.

To answer your question, NOT the S&W 52. It was designed to fit only wadcutter rounds.
 
I do this for my .22 revolver it works well enough for me but I have a magazine that is specifically for .22 and doesn't fit anything I've ever owned (I think it came home one day in a box of "Gun stuff five dollars OBO")

I'm not sure that .38 wouldn't be better served with the speed strips.
 
S&W 52 mags are around $150 now and hold 5 rounds of WC ammo only.

Coonan isn't cheap at $60 or so per mag. Not sure about the new DE .357 mags.

Speed strips would be more flexible and a LOT cheaper. Several different makers out there that I would look into now aside from the old Bianchi stand by.
 
I’d thought before about using a Desert Eagle mag as an ammo carrier for a single-action revolver. But I’ve never actually tried it.

I’ve used some magazines before that are really difficult to unload by hand. Some also have some sharp corners and tend to tear up the thumb when pushing rounds out. As a revolver loading tool, some of these would be less than ideal.

But for discussion sake, I just now grabbed a Desert Eagle mag and a S&W 581 and tried it out. The DE mags actually unload fairly smoothly. They are marked as 9-round mags, but I’ve always been able to load 10, making for two sets of reloads for a 5-shot revolver. Overall, I’d rate it as not be a terrible way to carry revolver reloads.

Having said that, I carry a speed strip when I throw the J-frame in a pocket. They’re inexpensive, flat, and can load 2 chambers at a time.

If you still want to try it, factory DE mags are usually around $45 ea, or aftermarket mags can be found for $20 or so.
 
SKS stripper clips

Back when I used to carry a .38 snub, I found that SKS stripper clips carried ten .38 special cartridges nice and securely in a flat profile. The stripper clip weighs next to nothing, so the weigh added to that of the cartridges themselves is negligible. One stripper clip would provide for 2 reloads of your typical snubnose carry revolver.

I stumbled upon this myself but when I mentioned my discovery to others, it seemed it was all but common knowledge.

They're fairly inexpensive if you shop around. On average, 60 of them would cost the same as a single DE magazine. Just another option to consider, especially if you have these laying about as I did.

Image lifted off Google for demonstrational purposes
SL_08.jpg
 
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What about the speed strips and a nylon or leather mag holder, that's what I do if you alternate them you can load 3 into a nylon pistol mag case. I purchased some from amazon, I think about 2 or 3
 
You can get speed loaders that are designed to straddle a belt, three rounds on one side, three on the other. Hold them in place with a simple strap and stud, and that's the fastest revolver reload I know of.
 
Going on a camping trip. I want to be organized. Reload speed is not important. I used G17 mags when I owned 9mm revolver. The problem is I know nothing about rimmed cartridge magazines. I guess I'm asking whether extracting loose rounds by hand is more difficult due to presence of a rim?

Reload speed aint important until those 5 shots have been fired and the threat(s) aint stopped.
 
nowdog I really like the stripper clip idea. I'm gonna thy that in a little while. What pouch is that?

Ratshooter, that's a google images pic that I lifted to show what I was talking about. I haven't carried a revolver since the early 2000's but I did just purchase a 1976 S&W 60 (a bucket list firearm) that I may carry. I might have to see if I have any stripper clips left.

I carried mine in a pocket much like I do currently with a spare magazine, when I do carry a spare mag. It's flat and doesn't resemble anything, so printing never was a problem.
 
And don't forget the good old dump pouches worn by cops for many years. I saw Mayberry RFD a few days ago and Barney Fife was wearing a double dump pouch. I have one in the attic that belonged to my mother when she worked at the Sheriffs dept.
 
If you are reloading a single action which isn't fast to speak of and you say you are not in a hurry anyway why not just get a belt pouch that is the appropriate size for your needs.
 
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