Questions about Coonan firearms

[Snowdog]

For those knowledgeable of Coonan firearms, can these handguns feed and function with .38 special ammunition if switching to a lighter recoil spring? If so, I have three questions.

First, if a number of .38 special cartridges were fired from the pistol, the pistol would likely experience significant failure-to-feed (out of battery) malfunctions after switching back to .357 magnum due to a ring of fouling, correct?

Would a steady diet of jacketed .38 special through a Coonan's barrel cause throat erosion? Initially, I thought this could be an issue, but I don't hear much of this happening with .357 revolvers that have seen large numbers of .38 special.

Finally, would the bullet jump of the .38 special in a .357 magnum chamber cause the accuracy to be noticeably inferior to that of the same handgun with barrel chambered in the shorter .38 special (assuming one existed for the Coonan)?

I’m just trying to satisfy a curiosity, thanks in advance.

 

[JoeHatley]

I can't respond to your questions, but I don't think the shorter .38 specials will fuction reliably in the .357 magazines. The round slides forward under recoil and then releases early from the mag lips. Lots of nose dive jams.

Joe

 

[Kamicosmos]

I believe Joe is right. For fun one night I loaded up a mag of Specials for my .357 Desert Eagle. It didn't want to feed them right.

That said, the Eagle also needs a very hot load to cycle properly, so I doubt a Special load (even in a handloaded Mag case) would cycle it.

I don't know if the Coonan is gas operated like the DE, but it might also need a strong recoil impulse to cycle well.

And besides, both guns are very heavy and suck up the magnum recoil very well. My Desert eagle feels like you're shooting specials through it!

 

[Zach S]

I'd guess it would work out about as well as firing .45 GAP in a .45 ACP pistol, which, from what I understand, doesnt work out very well.

 

[Chuck Perry]

I had a Coonan with the 38 conversion. The conversion consisted of a lighter power recoil spring and a magazine with a spacer in it. You had to use +P ammunition to get it to cycle. I never had much luck with it, and in the end it was much easier to just use magnums. I don't see where throat erosion would be a problem with low pressure 38's, even +P.

 

[Snowdog]

Chuck, did you notice any great change in accuracy when you were feeding your Coonan .38 specials? Also, I don't suppose went back to using .357 magnums before first cleaning the chamber. I'm curious how that would have effected reliability.

I'm primarily curious what drawbacks there would be from firing a shorter cased round in a auto besided magazine issues.

 

[macavada]

No offense, but if I had a Dan Coonan Arms .357 mag, I'd hardly even shoot the thing, much less toy around with the idea of shooting .38 specials in it. My 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Chuck Perry]

Snowdog,
I honestly don't remember about the accuracy. The feed reliability sucked, and I pretty much shelved the idea of shooting 38's out of it. The Coonan is a neat piece, though it can be finicky. I don't see where you would have a catostrophic failure if you didn't clean the chamber between switches. If anything I would expect sticky extraction and ultimately failure to fully chamber rounds. Then again, maybe the violent action of chambering the longer magnums would "scrub" the chamber out enough to be ok. I once shot a box of 50 40's through my 10mm 1911 just to see if I could. It worked fine, and I went back to shooting the 10's without a hitch. Hope this helps some.

 

[ktd]

I have a Coonan and I used to just download my .357s to +P 38 levels. I used a lighter spring. I generally found it reliable that way. It could feed fmj .38s but not too reliably. Never bothered with the .38 conversion, if I wanted that I would just use my 9.

As usual, you have to shoot a LOT of rounds to erode anything especially since .38s are not that abusive. And a lot of rounds (or very dirty ones) to cause fouling to be an issue, though ymmv. From my experience, (and others, and from reading), .38s in a .357 accuracy varies widely. You just have to try it. The biggest issue is that your sights may need to be readjusted.

k