Shooting 38SPL in 357 Revolver

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CZ-75BD

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I've heard lots of opinions, guesses, and remarks about shooting .38 special loads in a .357 revolver. Many of them boil down to "Just because it will fit doesn't mean you should do it" with no further clarification. Others go on to add that a regular diet of .38 special will make it hard to chamber .357 when you want to. Reading some shop manuals lately I encountered the idea that the buildup before the cartridge case of .38 special in the chamber of .357 can cause a constriction of the case mouth and a subsequent potential extreme increase in pressure of an otherwise normal .357 load--with the result being a catastrophic failure of the shell case and possibly the revolver.
I just bought EAA Windicator 357 and it clearly mark on a barrel 38SPL - 357MAG.
But manual not mentioning anything about shooting 38SPL.
I have quite a few 38SPL and from financial point prefer to use it for target shooting rather than 357.
Can someone point me to any reliable source on that matter.
 
You're at a great source now.

The crud rings from shooting .38SPLs in a .357 cylinder, if allowed to get bad, can indeed make it harder to chamber .357s and possibly cause more serious issues. That's why we clean our cylinders.

Regular cleaning precludes the problem.
 
I'm surprised you've found very many negative comments anywhere.

I thought they were still teaching about .38-.357 and .44 Special-Magnum compatability in kindergarten! Sometimes you really have to wonder about the state of our educational system these days. :uh-oh:

Yeah, if you fire a lot of the shorties, you might want to scrub the chambers out well (or use a flared Magnum case as a scraper) before you load up your Magnums.
 
In my testing the 38s will lose a small amount of velocity fired from the Magnum chambers. Also, a dedicated 38 revolver will be a trifle more accurate that shooting 38s from the 357 revolvers likely due to the long jump the bullet makes before engaging the rifling. But most shooters would never notice the tiny differences.

As noted, scrub the chambers after shooting as a ring of carbon will form that will prevent loading the longer Magnum cartridges. Not harmful, just requires cleaning.

I have enough guns in 38 caliber that I don't shoot 38s in my Magnums. But there's nothing harmful in doing so.
 
I'm new to reloading so I have yet to try this, Here is the disclaimer I read it on the internet so proceed with extreme caution regarding it's veracity.

Load your 158 gr 38 specials in 357 brass, if the formula for 38 special shoots 158 gr bullets out of a gun chambered specifically for 38 special it will safely shoot it from a gun chambered for 357.
Doing this avoids the dreaded burning the cylinder using short rounds.
The caution I received is that you can load them too light and cause a squib. Follow factory formulas and you should be ok, but as stated before
BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL

People with experience doing this chiming in would be appreciated.

I'm still using 38 Specials in my Ruger GP100 and cleaning the cylinder judiciously.
 
Doing this avoids the dreaded burning the cylinder using short rounds.
Click to expand...
What dreaded burning? I've got over 10,000 Specials through my .44 Mag and have experienced no burning of any chambers. And mine's just a "youngun" compared to many.
 
With a 158gr cast boolit, 5gr of Red Dot in a .357 case is a 'light magnum' load...

3.5gr RD in either a .38 SPCL or .357 Mag case (.38 SPCL pressures) shoots to the same POA in all my .357 Mag revolvers, and is an amazingly accurate target/small game load...

Putting it in a .357 Mag case just keeps the carbon ring from forming in the chambers, but I have never found it to be more or less accurate than a SPCL case; even with my scoped 8-3/8" 686...
 
I thinking about this the other day, and I remembered that one of the extremely rare instances that a revolver can fall victim to ammunition failures it's because a bullet jumps the crimp with the tip of the bullet sticking out of the cylinder and causes the cylinder to bind up. Maybe an actual benefit of 38spl in a 357 is that it removes even the slight possibility that this will happen.
?
 
Maybe an actual benefit of 38spl in a 357 is that it removes even the slight possibility that this will happen.
Click to expand...
Another tremendous benefit is that short cases eject much more positively than full-length cases. As the ejector rod is set up to be able to get Magnum cases to clear the cylinder (just...) the Special cases are pushed another 0.1" or more free where they stand a much better chance of falling clear without hanging up.

That's a HUGE benefit in timed competition.
 
Thanks for that Sam I was always a little dubious about this process and was of the opinion that cleaning the cylinder was all that was really needed.
I heard about it, and thought I would try it but now may not, I'm actually getting some mixed info about my suggestion so I will retract and agree with you. Just clean the cylinders and all will be well.
 
The most accurate revolver I own is a pre WWII S&W 357 Magnum. I clean the chmbers after every use with a bronze brush and Hoppes #9 to remove the crud which inevitably builds up.
 
Since RCModel hasn't dropped by to say it yet I guess I will..... A .40Cal bore brush in a hand drill does a very quick job of removing the crud ring that forms from shooting a lot of .38Spl in the .357 chambers when at the cleaning bench.

If you shoot a LOT of .38Spl and then want to shoot .357Mag you may find that it is a bit sticky to insert the .357's due to the crud ring buildup. If that has happened then I'd suggest it's a good time to stop and clean the gun first before shooting the magnums. I guess it depends on the powder used and how quickly it builds up the crud fouling but I've found that it takes a few hundred rounds of .38Spl before I can't easily seat the longer Magnums.
 
I have fired thousands of rounds of .38 Special, mostly wadcutter, from a Model 19 and Model 28. Not only have I seen no "burning" of the chambers, I have not seen any "rings" that required any more than normal cleaing to remove. I think that for the most part, the ".38 in a .357" is a lot of BS over a non-issue.

Jim
 
Jim K said:
I have fired thousands of rounds of .38 Special, mostly wadcutter, from a Model 19 and Model 28. Not only have I seen no "burning" of the chambers, I have not seen any "rings" that required any more than normal cleaing to remove. I think that for the most part, the ".38 in a .357" is a lot of BS over a non-issue.

Jim
Click to expand...
Got to agree, in PPC competition, Distinguished Revolver and Duty Revolver, many if not most, of the competitiors used 357 revolvers and 38 WC ammunition. A good cleaning and the revolvers were good to go with Magnum rounds.
 
To recap what everyone else is saying:
There is no harm in shooting .38 Spl in .357 magnums.

There is no such thing as chamber erosion or "burn rings".

There are some things to be aware of.
1. Hard carbon rings ironed into the chambers and left to it's own devices is harder to clean out then if you clean it out right after firing .38's.
2. Hard carbon rings can give a place for rust to hide under them.
3. Hard carbon rings can make chambering .357 more difficult.
3. If bad enough, they can prevent full expansion of the .357 case and clean bullet release which Will raise pressure.

Other then that, Gofer it!
It won't hurt the gun in the slightest if you clean it occasionally with a chamber brush.

rc
 
I keep a bin of 38 spl loaded with 158 gr SWCs & moderate loads with 231, Bullseye and/or Unique (labeled in bags) so that when we go to the range with the M&P, M13, 442 & 686 we can grab a bunch & shoot the loads in all of them. If I want to shoot hot mag loads in the mag pistols, they're separate (but equal :evil: ). I also use a Lewis Lead Remover in all of them from time to time just to be sure I get all the lead & carbon out of the chambers & barrels... :cool:
 
I wondered the same about shooting .357 magnum through a .357 maximum barrel. The longer chamber is not a plus for accuracy if you are shooting a shorter cartridge. You will give up a slight amount of velocity with the longer forcing cone. For .38s and paper it is a non issue, for boars with 4" cutters I want all the velocity I can bring.
 
No it will not. That will just iron it on to the chamber wall and make it worse. Clean your gun while it is still warm. You'll have a much easier job. The longer you leave that crap in there the harder it is to get off.
 
Will a few .357's clean out carbon rings from .38's?
Click to expand...
Not FIRING them, but if you take a .357 case back to the press and bell the case mouth until it JUST barely fits into the chamber, you've made a handy scraper to knock out the carbon rings.
 
Using clean shooting ammo may help. I have shot more than 25,000 rounds of .38 spl with 158 gr copper plated (no dirty burning lube needed) bullets over AA#5 or Winchester 231 with no problems other than needing to run a brush through the chamber on two occasions.
 
I've shot tens of thousands 38s from wadcutters to +P+ in 357 revolvers with no ill effects. If you clean the cylinder well, not just a quick brushing, you will not develop an kind of ring in the cylinder.
 
I've shoot probably a 1000+.38 SPL & .357 MAG reloads through each of my .357 MAG (S&W & Ruger) revolvers annually, at probably a ratio of 5:1 in favor of .38's will no ill effects or issues of any sort to report. I do scrub out the cylinders after each use with a brush & patches.
 
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