I need to convince a friend that you can shoot.38 special loads out of a .357

[dmazur]

I ran into this question re: my SBH in .44Mag. I have no desire to shoot .44 Specials in it, but another shooter wanted to do that in his revolver.

I believe the situation is almost identical to the .38 Special / .357 Magnum situation. The .44 Magnum case is longer, and is commonly loaded to higher pressures. .44 Specials can be safely fired in .44 Magnum chambered revolvers, but not the other way 'round (case length prevents it.)

dihydrogen monoxide should be banned

Yes. I always thought this was safe, until I read about some college hazing ritual involving drinking large quantities of this stuff, resulting in death. I'm expecting an MSDS sheet on this shortly.

 

[greener]

Quote:
dihydrogen monoxide should be banned
Yes. I always thought this was safe, until I read about some college hazing ritual involving drinking large quantities of this stuff, resulting in death. I'm expecting an MSDS sheet on this shortly.

http://www.dhmo.org/msdsdhmo.html
http://www.dhmo.org/

The purer the dhmo, the faster it corrodes firearms. A very dangerous chemical. I have it on good authority that over-exposure can result in rapid death and anyone who has had any contact with it will eventually die.

 

[dmazur]

greener -

Thanks for that. Other than this is shameless thread drift, I appreciate the information. I had no idea anyone had put this much effort into explaining the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide. I was especially concerned about the tissue damage that can occur from exposure to the solid form, and I will be careful this winter.

(Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing? We can all thank Al Gore... )

 

[JeffDilla]

Happy to report that all went well We put a box of .38's through it and almost a whole box of .357's, but then the rain came. I was really impressed with the blackhawk, its a straight shooter, I was really impressed with the accuracy, and it was definitely more to do with the gun than the shooter

 

[greener]

JeffDilla: Good to see your .38 special trial went well with the Blackhawk. The first 50 rounds I put through mine were .357. I was darned impressed with how well it shot and the low recoil. I checked the ammo to make sure that it was really .357 and not some light load. The low-recoil probably has something to do with the weight and grip. Mine now gets a steady diet of .38 specials.

dmazur: Remember that contact with the vapor can be rather dangerous, also. About 10 years ago, I made some contributions to the on-going research into dmho, hydric acid and hydrogen hydroxide. Goes to show that my 3 degrees in chemistry were not entirely wasted.

 

[JeffDilla]

Greener, I was really impressed too. This was the first time I had ever shot a handgun larger than .22 caliber. I started off shooting the .38's and after about 18 rounds, moved up to the .357's and was pleasantly suprised. We mostly shot the box of remington .357 loads I bought but we shot 30 rounds of the reloads he bought at a gun show last weekend. Luckily we had no major incidents with the reloads, but they were very inconsistent regarding power, some felt like .38s and some felt like very hot .357 loads. You never really knew what to expect with each pull of the trigger, it was enough to make me never want to shoot reloads from an unknown source again. All in all it was a great day of shooting and made my urge to buy my own .357 A LOT stronger. I just have to work on saving up...

 

[greener]

You certainly started with an excellent revolver to move up from .22. I've bought reloaded ammo from Georgia Arms and Dick's Sporting goods. Those were very consistent. The only inconsistent reloads I've had were just after I started reloading and decided to try light loads with Unique. Mostly "bangs" but enough "pops" that I decided not to try that again.

 

[Catherine]

Jeff,

GREAT news about your day at the range! I am glad that both of you had a fun and safe day.

Catherine

 

[foghornl]

I shoot quite a bit of .38Spl ammo in my 2 Ruger SA revolvers... a short barrel "Sheriff's Model" Vaquero, and a 50th Year .357 Blackhawk. Most of the serious .357Mag ammo has A LOT of muzzle flash from the Vaquero..I havent measured, but is is only about a 3-5/8" barrel.

I did make a special 'tool' to clean the cylinder after shooting a bunch of .38Spl ammo..took a fired .357Mag case, punched out primer, notched the open end a bit, and epoxied that case to a short piece of cleaning rod. A quick push-in-and-turn breaks up the .38Spl leftover crud ring

 

[S&Wfan]

Jeff,

I can't encourage you enough to determine if your friend's "older" Blackhawk is one of the original "3-screw" designs or the newer "2-screw" one.

The 3-Screws do NOT have a firing pin block and thus if the hammer gets accidentally struck from the rear (due to a drop, etc.), it WILL go off with the potential to kill.

The original Colt Peacemakers were of that design too, and shooters learned more than a century ago that this type design MUST be loaded so there is no round in the cylinder in front of the firing pin!

Ruger offers a free factory conversion for all original 3-screw models to add a firing pin block in a way that does mess up the gun.

Please, check it out in the Ruger manual to see how to identify the differences. It is super-easy to tell.

T.