.38spl short barrel SD load

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Choclabman

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Just wandering what the consensus was on this. The revolver's are a Smith and Wesson 642 and a Ruger SP101 with a 2.25" barrel.

My uncle is a retired policeman and suggested the old FBI load. .38spl 158 +p semi wadcutter

I can get 500 rounds of these pretty cheap.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this, and what your suggestions might be.

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I carry my S&W 442 with the classic 158 gr. +P LSWCHP, from what I can tell it's still a very popular load among snubbie owners.
 
My uncle is a retired policeman and suggested the old FBI load. .38spl 158 +p semi wadcutter
Click to expand...
I believe this is still considered a good loading for .38 snubbies. Speer also makes a .38spl 135gr Gold Dot load specially designed for short barrel guns if you want something newer. Its probably going to be a little pricier, though. ;)
 
S&W 638 here.... I use 158gr Hornady XTP hollow point, +P. Works great for me. I like the heaviest bullet weight I can get for SD.
 
The LSWCHP shoot very well out of most short barrel revolvers and like said many people still use them. I'm not sure +P's are needed but if you can get them cheap....Why not? If you decide against them e-mail me I'll buy em and shoot em up....:)
 
158 grain soft lead hollow points (like Remington R38S12), or 148 grain full wadcutters.

The only problem with wadcutters is they are slow and awkward from a speed loader.
 
The only problem with wadcutters is they are slow and awkward from a speed loader.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the answer would be to keep it loaded with wadcutters, but for a reload use a load with a rounder bullet profile.

Oh, and to the OP, please keep in mind that the FBI load is not a semi-wadcutter. It's a semi-wadcutter hollow-point.
 
I may be nuts ( always possible) but I think I remember reading where Lou Ciamillo used wadcutters in his short barrel .38 revolvers. He had lots of experience going against bad guys.
 
Well if you are a Marshal and Sanow fan then 148 grain full wad cutter is NOT a good choice as the "street numbers are low. I on the other hand am impressed with the fact that it does cut a wadcutter on paper style hole on exposed flesh at least in my experience. Unfortunately Hollow base wad cutters can not be loaded very hot or the hollow base is deformed so penitration and retintion of power in not so good. On the other hand a Double ended Wadcutter (DEWC) can be driven hotter and some can even have a gas check swaged on to get down right silly.

Loading HBWCs "backwards" was interesting and we did it but they lacked accuracy....to put it mildly.

For a bit my carry load in the 1980s was the german Copper washed hollow based wad cutter hollow point developed for GSG9 after their experience with a .38 Special snubbie failing to quickly stop. The bullets seemed quite hard, whether from the copper wash or lead alloy I never could tell and could be driven rather hot even in a .357 Magnum 6 inch Model 19. I wish something like that were avialable in the US for reloading now. I bought mine in Germany. Loading them backwards was worse for accuracy than standard soft lead US HBWCs though. The bulets were marked as "manstopper" bullets after the old pre WWI Webley rounds the Brits used.

My most carried load in a 2 inch .38 Special was a fairly warmloaded somewhat hard 158 grain SWC in the late 1970's. This was before the current crop of expanding bullets though and I was concerned with getting max penitration in defense just as in hunting.

I think the 158 LSWCHP "FBI" load has a lot going for it.

I honestly believe that the "best" load for a 2 inch Snubbie .38 Special is the load you can hit with fast, repeatedly, and accuratly with, what ever the bullet shape hardness or weight is.

-kBob
 
I load the 442 with three Corbon DPX .38 P rounds (110 grain all copper Barnes bullet traveling at 1050 Ft/s). These are very accurate out of my 442, expand exceptionally well, and in testing penetrated the steel door of a Dodge Dakota. I follow those up with 2 shots of the Speer Gold Dot 135 grain .38 + P round (approx. 900 ft/s) because I like the load and it performs well in academic testing and on the street with the NYPD.

If I had an SP101 that was dedicated .38 special and could not load it with magnum rounds, and if soft lead didn't bother me, I would load it with Buffalo Bore 158 grain LSWCHP (1000+ ft/s).
 
Back in the Olden Days when my primary CCW was most usually a 2" .38 Spl. revolver I originally used the so-called "FBI load" of a 158 gr. LSWCHP loaded to +P levels. I found that an exclusive diet of them was sort of tough on my M36 S&W, which would loosen up to the point of needing a factory refurb after about 2000 rds. That gets prohibitively expensive pretty fast. In fairness, the "J" frames weren't approved for +P ammo at that time.

When S&W introduced the "Chief's Special" 125 gr. Nyclad load, I switched to them and it worked out very well for me. Accuracy was quite good, recoil very mild and expansion from a short barrel in various then-available media proved to be consistantly reliable, especially when compared with the few standard pressure .38 Spl. JHP/SP loads of the time.

After Federal acquired the rights to the Nyclad design I used the standard pressure 125 gr. HPs in my M60 S&W and the 158 gr. +Ps in my 4" Dan Wesson M15-2. I was sort of sad when the improvements in "conventional" JHP design and manufacturing technologies rendered them essentially obsolete and they were discontinued.

Today I keep +P 135 gr. Speer Gold Dot "Short Barrel" loads in the M640-1 that resides in my desk drawer along with a couple of Bianchi Speed strips full of them for "just in case". Main reason is that I eventually ran out of my hoard of +P 158 gr. Nyclads.
 
I appreciate the help. I have ordered two boxes of the 135gr +p Gold Dots to try out.
These seems to be the most popular.

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The problem with modern factory .38 wadcutters is that they are low velocity TARGET loads. When loaded to higher pressure they are the most effective non-expanding shape possible as the meplat (working part of the bullet) has the maximum possible surface area.
 
The most powerful round you can shoot accurately. I just sold one of my LCR 357 revolvers but still have one that my mother is using for a home gun. I keep 110 grain wadcutters in it for her because she has very limited strength and is recoil shy. Wadcutters make impressive wounds and I'd rather be very sure she can make a 38 caliber hit in center mass than not very sure with a more powerful round.
 
No name,

neat tag line stuff. Monday AM the neighbors Bull and three hefiers were in my yard. All went well on moving them back to the hole in the fence until I stepped between the Bull and preiviously unseen third hefier. Pocket pistol in front right pocket seemed rediculously small at that moment. Amazing how fast a crippled up old man can get back to and into his F150 with a good strong incentive.

.....and in that case if I HAD to use a .38 SPL snubby then my afore meantioned hard SWC loads would have been preferred over any HP.

-kBob
 
I know that there's a lot of debate about carrying reloads, but wouldn't a handload loaded to 50+ year old exact FBI specifications be pretty hard to refute by a lawyer? $38 for a box of lead tipped cartridges from Remchester is pretty outrageous when you could load the exact same for a fraction of the cost.
 
Remington's soft lead version of the factory FBI spec +P load for me, all day long.

The only exception, somewhat appropriately, is my 2 1/4" SP-101: that little tank gets the supercharged version of the same by buffalo bore.

JMO.
 
mainmech48, I believe Federals producing the Nyclad ammunition again. 125 gr. .38s, not +P.

HiCap
 
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