Lets get in the way back time machine and go back in time when revolvers were on the hips of LEO and discuss this cartridge. Lately I've been doing a quite a bit of reading on this cartridge and have had my interest piqued by it. From what I've gathered it was devised sometime back in the late 1970's. Initially it was intended for federal LEO use, however other agencies such as CHP also used this as their issue load. The two companies that made this cartridge were Federal and Winchester, the latter actually still has it as a catalogued item. The cartridge was issued to LEO only due to the fact that this is a +P+ load and there is no SAAMI standard for +P+.
Because of the +P+ designation a lot of people seemed to think that this ammunition operated somewhere close to .357 magnum pressure levels, and as such was to only be used in .357 magnum revolvers. However here in the real world the real operating pressure of this cartridge is in the 23,500 PSI range which puts it roughy 15% above +P ammo, This is actually printed on the back of the Winchester boxes that I've seen from others that posted pictures, here is the Winchester spec sheet from Winchester's site http://winchesterle.com/Lists/CatalogAmmo/Attachments/7/RA38110HP.pdf
There was a long discussion going on on another board about this ammo and of course a lot of half truths were being flung about. That is until a couple retired LEO that used this ammo was nice enough to chime in and share their experiences. First of all no this ammo won't turn a good mechanically sound all steel revolver such as a S&W K frame into scrap metal. But I'm sure without a doubt that it will shorten the service life faster than +P ammo. Actually on the back of the Winchester product it was printed that the use of this ammo in alloy framed revolvers was verboten.
The two LEO that posted also stated that their service weapons did not show any signs of undue wear and tear from use of this ammuntion, and they did shoot a good deal of it, one of them still has his S&W M15 which he purchased from his dept. Contrary to popular belief this was not supposed to be a hot load to be used in 4"-6" barrel service weapons. Instead the intended purpose was to get roughly 1020fps from the short barrel revolvers that were being used by some of the federal agents. When fired from a 4" service revolver this ammo would net around 1100fps give +/- a few fps. So it certainly wasn't the mini magnum that many were lead to believe that it was.
This ammunition also was not meant to be used through barriers either, but rather at close quarters man to man distances. From what I've been able to find the performance of this ammo in actual use was hit and miss. In some cases it worked in others not so much. I'm not really sure why Win and Fed had to go to +P+ pressures to get the performance that this load generates. The Hornady +P Critical Defense load pretty much duplicates the performance of the "Treasury Load", Hornady claims 1090fps when used in a 4" barrel. Those that actually ran this ammo over a chronograph found that it produced anywhere from around 1077fps to around 1130fps when used in 4" barrels.
So does anyone else have any info to offer up on this old school load?
Because of the +P+ designation a lot of people seemed to think that this ammunition operated somewhere close to .357 magnum pressure levels, and as such was to only be used in .357 magnum revolvers. However here in the real world the real operating pressure of this cartridge is in the 23,500 PSI range which puts it roughy 15% above +P ammo, This is actually printed on the back of the Winchester boxes that I've seen from others that posted pictures, here is the Winchester spec sheet from Winchester's site http://winchesterle.com/Lists/CatalogAmmo/Attachments/7/RA38110HP.pdf
There was a long discussion going on on another board about this ammo and of course a lot of half truths were being flung about. That is until a couple retired LEO that used this ammo was nice enough to chime in and share their experiences. First of all no this ammo won't turn a good mechanically sound all steel revolver such as a S&W K frame into scrap metal. But I'm sure without a doubt that it will shorten the service life faster than +P ammo. Actually on the back of the Winchester product it was printed that the use of this ammo in alloy framed revolvers was verboten.
The two LEO that posted also stated that their service weapons did not show any signs of undue wear and tear from use of this ammuntion, and they did shoot a good deal of it, one of them still has his S&W M15 which he purchased from his dept. Contrary to popular belief this was not supposed to be a hot load to be used in 4"-6" barrel service weapons. Instead the intended purpose was to get roughly 1020fps from the short barrel revolvers that were being used by some of the federal agents. When fired from a 4" service revolver this ammo would net around 1100fps give +/- a few fps. So it certainly wasn't the mini magnum that many were lead to believe that it was.
This ammunition also was not meant to be used through barriers either, but rather at close quarters man to man distances. From what I've been able to find the performance of this ammo in actual use was hit and miss. In some cases it worked in others not so much. I'm not really sure why Win and Fed had to go to +P+ pressures to get the performance that this load generates. The Hornady +P Critical Defense load pretty much duplicates the performance of the "Treasury Load", Hornady claims 1090fps when used in a 4" barrel. Those that actually ran this ammo over a chronograph found that it produced anywhere from around 1077fps to around 1130fps when used in 4" barrels.
So does anyone else have any info to offer up on this old school load?