Various .38 Special Revolvers Endurance and +P ammo

[Southern Shooter]

I have several 4" barreled .38 Specials...S&W Model 10 and Model 15 both from around 1980, a Taurus Model 82 from around 1995...tight lock up...no slop, and a Rossi Model 851...pre-Taurus days but tight as any S&W I have ever handled. I also have a 2" S&W Model 10 from around 1993.

I practice with standard loads. But, I have a ton of +P .38 ammo for these guns in storage. I was wondering if these guns could handle much of that load if it ever came time for heavy usage of them? You know...if the world was getting totally out of hand and you had to take of yourself.

Thanks

 

[mikec]

Rule #1, a handgun allows you to fight to a long arm. If you follow that rule, the need for say 250 rounds of handgun ammo on your body goes away.

The S&W 10's and 15 should be OK with normal quantities of +P that you may shoot. I doubt that in a survival situation you are going to fire 50 rounds per day of handgun ammo. If you are, where is your rifle?

As for your Brazilian guns, I have no experience with them.

 

[8830]

Everything but the Rossi should stand up fine to a steady diet of +p. Of course if your in a defensive situation you use whatever you need to. I just wouldn't practice with a lot of +p in a Rossi.

 

[Southern Shooter]

Rossi?

What makes the Rossi weaker than the others? It is very tight on the lock-up. The frame seems strong.

 

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

The rossi will hold up to +p ammo just as good as any of the others. Too many people give their opinions here from the stuff they read on other posts not from personal experience. My first handgun was a rossi 461 and it held up fine to 357's I finally sold it for the same price I paid for it.

 

[Slamfire]

Shoot up your +P ammunition in your Taurus. According to Taurus, http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=291&category=Revolver the M82 is +P rated.

And, if the revolver gets out of time, Taurus has a lifetime warranty.

I have a Model 10, crosspinned, I did not feel comfortable shooting cases of +P through it. So I shot up all my +P in a M66. Now I am shooting the reloaded cases, standard velocity, in my M10.

 

[Moonclip]

HD George, how many full power .357's did you fire out of that gun? In my experience most plus p .38spl ammo is'nt all that much hotter than standard pressure and some brands not marked as plus p can actually be a bit on the hot side.

All the guns should do ok but go with the Taurus if you want the warranty protection or the circa 1993 mod 10, S&W's made around and after this time period had some internal differences that were suppose to make them stronger, this had more impact on the .44mags but I believe they were done across the board.

I'm sure the older mod 10's you have though should do ok also. Exactly how much plus p ammo do you plan on firing out of any one gun?

 

[RON in PA]

You folks need to go to the web sites of the manufacturers and see what they say. Smith does state that any steel K frame revolver made after 1957 and marked with a model number is fine with +P.

The question on +P ammo comes up very often on this and other web pages. Use the search function.

 

[pinkymingeo]

Modern +P ammo is loaded to about the level of standard ammo fifty years ago. Certainly in the case of a S&W revolver, if after many thousands of rounds it gets a little loose, a competent gunsmith can fix it for a reasonable price. Shoot what you want.

 

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

I shot 1/3 357 and the rest +p ammo and also the rossi is a +p rated 38.

 

[1 old 0311]

I bought my 10-2 used. I put almost 30,000 handloads through it.......HOT handloads. It is still going today.

 

[Southern Shooter]

amount of +P ammo

"I'm sure the older mod 10's you have though should do ok also. Exactly how much plus p ammo do you plan on firing out of any one gun?"

Moonclip,
I have a number of .38 Specials. These are for home protection and to be loaned out to friends or family members in need who have little handgun experience. I want it to be simple to use, controllable, durable...and dependable. Anyway, I only have about 250 +P rounds per gun. If this gun was needed for long term usage and ammo became in short supply...as it did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina...that person would not feel the pinch.

So, I guess each gun would not have that many rounds put through them. But, if the call came for large number of rounds to be fired I would want them to be up to the task.

 

[Trumpetman]

I have a Rossi Model 351, which is a five-shot Taurus-made snubnose .38, weighing in at 24 ounces. I love my small/medium framed S&W, Ruger, and Taurus guns, but they don't seem to be any tighter or stronger than my Rossi. I like to shoot +P's, and I don't hesitate to fire them through my Rossi.

As a matter of fact, about four times a year I fire either one or two boxes handloaded +P's through my Rossi, all in one session. I also fire a couple of cylinders full of my carry ammo through it every now and then to rotate fresh ammo into the mix.

My +P ammo includes some of those 1970 Speer #8 loads using modern Alliant 2400 in place of the old Hercules 2400 powder. NOTICE: I worked up my load from the published minimum, ending up with an "FBI" knock-off of 158-grain LSWCHP Hornady bullets over a hefty load of said 2400 powder, exactly .5 grains short of the maximum published load. This produces 919 feet per second out of a 2" barrelled revolver (NOT a test barrel), according to Speer. My Rossi has no problem with this load.

I don't know much about the pre-Taurus Rossi J-frames, but you might be pleasantly surprised at the functional quality of the newer ones, including the grips they put on them. My Rossi fooled a guy at our local range last year. He was chronographing some of my loads, and he fired about half a box of my handloads through my Rossi. Afterwards, the guy complimented my action and my "trigger job." I told him my gun was as-purchased except for an after-market mainspring. He looked more closely at my Rossi and commented that he just assumed by the way it felt that it was a Smith with a nice trigger job.