Shooting 38's out of a 357 Mag Revolver.

[Velocity229]

Pros and cons would be nice.

Are the 38's less accurate out of 357 mag revolvers? Thats my main concern.

There must be some advantage from 38 only revolvers.

I'm thinking about a 6 incher 686P, if that matters.

 

[pauli]

38 out of a 357 is at least nominally less accurate... but near as i can tell, a 357 firing 38's is still going to be more accurate than the shooter, generally.

 

[countertop]

There must be some advantage from 38 only revolvers.

They are lighter and don't require as much engineering or steel so therefore generally cheaper.

 

[warriorsociologist]

cleaning the chamber holes afterwards so you can shoot .357 again is a pain in the but sometimes (esp is you shoot several hundered .38 specs). A .40 cal phos/bronze bruse on a short cleaning rod inserted in a cordless drill works wonders on this though...

 

[dogngun]

In the 1970's there was a lot of gunwriter crap about this. There is so little accuracy difference you probably won't notice it, in fact the easier to shoot specials may group more tightly than hot magnum ammo.
The cleaning is pretty much all you have to worry about - I have never seen pitted or rough chambers in any .357 mag revolver I have owned over the last 30 years, and I have fired specials in all of them.

Many police depertmente REQUIRED .38 Special revolvers because the magnums were subject to negative publicity and were deemed too powerful by the politicians who controlled the police departments. Some departments were even given loaded down .38 special ammo because the "hot" +P ammo was felt to be too powerful. Many police officers carried a six-shot .38 special and 12 extra rounds of ammo as their only weapon.

Things have changed due to widespread gangs, drug use, etc. and weapons of higher capacity are the norm.

Actually, a good quality .38 special revolver is an extremely accurate, reliable and adequate defense weapon for most civilians today, and easy to learn to shoot.
Used police .38's are still great buys. They are getting harder to find though, and prices seem to be climbing.

FWIW.

Mark

 

[PaladinX13]

I asked a similar question not too long ago in the following thread, maybe it'll help:

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=147735

 

[dfariswheel]

The big advantages of shoot .38 Special in a .357 Magnum is price, comfort, and wear on the gun.

.38 ammo is cheaper than the .357 and you can shoot more for less.

Since there is much less recoil and muzzle blast, the .38 is more pleasant to shoot.

.38 Special, being a less powerful round is much easier on a gun. In the case of guns like the S&W "K" frame, extensive shooting with full-power Magnums can cause accelerated wear on the gun requiring repairs.
Shooting standard load .38 Special ammo in a Magnum gun will cause the gun to last just about forever.

The only real "problem" with shooting .38 in a Magnum is possible chamber fouling causing chambering problems when you attempt to load a longer Magnum round.

The "Fix" for this is to simply buy a bronze chamber cleaning brush from Brownell's.

Unlike using over-caliber bore brushes, these chamber brushes are made of a special extra-stiff bronze bristle.

To use, simply push AND "screw" the brush through the chamber. Usually, one pass is all that's needed to remove ALL fouling except for really bad leading.

This is better than other methods, since there's no risk of damaging the chambers, and the chamber brushes work FAST.

One word of warning: I DON'T recommend using the stainless steel chamber brushes.
These, along with stainless bore brushes are for gunsmith use in guns so badly neglected, you have nothing to loose.
They can and WILL damage the bore and chambers.

There WAS a real problem with shooting short rounds in revolvers, but this was a problem of the 1920's and 30's.
In those days, ammo was corrosive, and there were many now obsolete short cartridges that could be fired in a .38 Special revolver.

What would happen was, the corrosive ammo would cause the chamber to corrode causing both a build up of fouling AND a ring in the chamber.

When longer ammo was fired, the case would swell into the ring and fouling and cause stuck cases.

This CAN happen today, mostly in carbon steel revolvers.
If shorter ammo is fired in a blue steel revolver, and NOT cleaned out properly, moisture can allow the steel to rust UNDER the build up.
When the gun is finally cleaned, you find a corroded ring in the chamber, and if it's bad enough, you can have extraction problems.

The answer: A Brownell's chamber brush and a good cleaning EVERY time you shoot your revolver.

 

[albanian]

When I was shooting Bullseye, I did notice a slight difference in accuracy. The .38s out of a .357 are still very accurate but a nice mild handloaded .357 LWC is going to be more accurate than the same load in .38spl. Unless you are at a level where you can tell 1/2" difference at 25 yards offhand, I doubt you will ever see any difference.

.38s out of a .357 are still going to be more accurate than just about any semi-auto unless you have a target gun.

 

[Elmer]

Back in my PPC days, a few guys tried getting bull barrel guns made up on magnum guns, and the consensus was the .38 guns were more accurate than .38's out of a .357. Kinda unscientific, but you are talking guys that shot little tiny groups at 50 yards.

 

[rich636]

Here's a Massad Ayoob quote, take it for what it's worth.

"Don't worry about the folklore that a .357 won't shoot a .38 cartridge as accurately as a revolver dedicated to the smaller caliber. I've won many tournaments shooting .38s from .357s."

 

[another okie]

I sometimes load some really light .357 loads for target shooting, figuring it will save me some cleaning and perhaps be more accurate. I haven't found any real difference in accuracy. Light .38 loads in .357 brass does mea the brass lasts forever. I do wonder if the slightly longer case makes the ammo more sensitive to variations due to the position of the powder (forward or back.) Haven't really done enough chrono work to know.

 

[Ala Dan]

Shooting .38's Out Of A .357 Magnum Revolver

That's why I keep a fired .357 Magnum case in my range bag!

 

[P. Plainsman]

.38s from a .357 will still be more accurate than (real) .357s from a .357 -- at least that's my experience. But I know that wasn't exactly your question.

 

[OldWolf]

I have been loading 6.4Gr Unique with a Remington 140gr JHP in 38 Special cases. Velocity is 1031fps according to my old RCBS loading manual. These are +p or +p+ loads and are suitable for magnum sized framed revolvers.

Medium light recoil and good accuracy in my GP and Blackhawk.

 

[The_Antibubba]

I'm a pretty big guy (6'2") and .357s out of my S&W 66 are harder to control than any of the .38s.

Who was it who said that one hit with a .32 is better than eight misses with a .45?

 

[Geno]

Police in my home county were required to carry .38s in their .357 S&Ws

My brother-in-law had to repeatedly qualify with that revolver and load combination. He qualified as "Marksman" each and every time. The police did not like this combination. They wanted to carry the full-load .357s, but the boss is the boss. For what it's worth, he carried two rounds of wadcutter, two rounds of hollow point and the final two rounds armor pierce. Whatever they were specifically, I do not know.

My daughter's new Ruger Blackhawk .357/.38/9MM fires the .38s just as well as the .357s. It also does a great job with the 9MM cylinder. So, for what it's worth...two examples.

Doc2005