38 Special FMJ....????

[Topgun]

I got a box of 38 Spl 130 gr. RN FMJ.
Just musing about using as a carry round. I doubt that ANY 38 Spl would penetrate completely and wondering if more penetration would be better than a shallower mushroom wound. And even then, how MUCH would a 38 mushroom out of a 2" bbl?

 

[dasmi]

My personal choice, and this is not based on science, or research, or testing, is to use FMJ when using stardard .38 specials. +p, and I make them hollow points.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Shoot 'em up at the range, and load your 38 with 158gr semi wadcutters or sjhp's.

The .38 FMJ load is capable of being lethal... but it's last on the list of effective loads from the .38.

A lead bullet from a short barreled 38 MIGHT expand, an FMJ won't.

Many experts recommend the full wadcutter out of the 38 special.

 

[Old Fuff]

dasmi:

I would suggest that you don't do that. Pull one of the bullets and see if the jacket isn't crimped around the edge of the base, and the core is exposed in the center. If you drill a hone in the nose you may blow the core out of the jacket and leave the jacket stuck in the bore. The next shot could ruin the barrel by buldging it.

Hollow point bullets are made the other way around. The jacket is formed around the base, and drawn toward the nose.

The 130 grain FMJ load originated during World War Two, and was used primarily by Navy pilots in the Pacific. It is a good plinking load, but not particularly effective as a fight-stopper.

Concerning penetration. I once was called as an expert witness in a case where a reserve police officer discharged his 4" model 10 S&W loaded with a "standard" police load consisting of a lead 158 grain bullet going about 780 FPS. Within a manufactured home it entered a wall, went through a sliding door pulled back into the wall, and exited on the other side of the wall. It then struck a woman who was getting icecubes out of the 'frige, and penetrated her body almost to the spine. It was so close in fact that her doctor decided to not try and remove it.

 

[mec]

I have found very early factory .38 specials loaded with rn cupro-nickle jacketed bullets- same with black powder .44 specials. S&B is selling full 158 grain jacketed round to flat points loaded to the mid to high 800s froma 4".

I wouldn't count on them not over-penetrating-or any other round for that matter. The end-user reports don't have much to say about it, but I recall decades ago, the gunwriters considered the 38 rnl likely to go all the way through. I posed a question on a board that has a number of experienced law enforcement types as to whether or not the rnl 38 over penetrates. The only one who answered either didn't know or didn't want to tell. He is a widely known and acclaimed and self-proclaimed ammunition guru. All he did was urinate down from his pedastal and say " Anybody who uses a round nosed 38 for a defense round is a fool!"

You never know what will set somebody off

 

[Frandy]

+p, and I make them hollow points.

I suspect the meaning of this sentence was... "When I shoot +p, I use hollow points." As opposed to, "For +p, I turn them into hollow points."

Am I right dasmi?

 

[MICHAEL T]

Don't think a 38spl. won't penetrate. Several years ago a friend of mine had cancer. He shot himself in the bathroom Round went thru his head thru bathroom wall. Across hall in other hall wall exited that and continued across room into outer wall of house was stopped by the brick. He used a J frame snub and 158gr semi wad cutter.

 

[Hobie]

The FMJ rounds are good to shoot up so that you'll have brass to reload.

 

[LeonCarr]

If memory serves me right, and sometimes it does, those .38 Special 130 FMJs are sometimes referred to as "Air Force Loads", due to the fact that is what the USAF shot in the S&W Model 15s the Air Police/Security Police were issued before they switched to the M9 Beretta.

I have shot bunches of the WWB with the 130 FMJs, and they are a pretty accurate range load, and a good source of good brass for reloading .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Jack2427]

As an Army Aviator in SE Asia in the late 60s, I was issued a S&W M&P 4" HB and the referenced FMJ load. The current loading descended from the FMJ "Geneva Convention compliant" load of the US Military in WW II. Most of us immediately replaced it with whatever we could scrounge up that might work better if actually fired in anger. There were many who simply drilled holes in the nose of the bullet and thought they had HPs. I was fortunate enough to have a family member send me the first of the "Super Vel" loads. Which I practiced with, using a few, and held the remaining for serious encounters.
Our VERY unscientific experiments with the FMJ revealed that they not only did not open up(predictably), but were not all that great at penetration(at least in the local wood).
Shoot the stuff up, save the brass if so inclined, but don't depend on it for much else except paper punching.

 

[TexasRifleman]

It wasn't the Geneva Convention, it was the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and
1907, but carry on.

 

[JohnKSa]

He shot himself in the bathroom

Is that like Caesar being stabbed in the rotunda or a ganster being shot in the fracas?

I know, I know--extremely poor taste. But I couldn't help it...

 

[Onmilo]

stabbed in the rotunda, shot in the fracas, speared through the gloryhole,,,

 

[mec]

newspaper article "... and the bullet is in her yet."

Jim Bob, "Whar's the 'Yet" on a woman???"

Billy Ray, " 'hon't know. Ah ain't no groinocologist."

 

[Topgun]

The ones I have are Winchester current "Range" loads. ?????

I do remember getting some so called "Air Force" loads in an army surplus store back in the early 60's. WOW! HOT!!!!

Took em up to the ranch, fired them into the salt trough. Through the salt, 2" oak bottom and so far into hardpan that we never COULD find it.

But THOSE babies ....really.....went off. Wild report and ...fassssst.... Probably not safe for the gun, but as a kid who cared as long as it was cheap?

The guy at the surplus store said they were OLD loads for shooting from plane to plane. Doubt that, but it was a good story and they had enough poop to do it if anyone wanted to dogfight out the window.

 

[Newton]

The .38 Special has plenty of penetration even from a snubby so you definitely want to trade some of that off for expansion.

I use the new 135 grain Gold dot +P load from Speer, it was specifically designed for J Frames and has performed superbly in gelatin tests.