38 Super Help

[geargnasher]

My old LE Comp Wilson is still very accurate after maybe 70-80K rounds. Just broken in well
at this point. Hotter is often better with .38 Super. My loads were always raggedy edge because
of the need to make major caliber. Current 'major' is much lower than what we had to meet, 180,000
boolit wt X vel. 158 gr at 1250 fps gave me a good margin. I can drive 9mm 124 Hornady JHPs
at an honest 1400 fps. Yahoo!

Bill

Lawdy, Bill, who needs a Desert Eagle, eh?

Gear

[MtGun44]

Pushing on the edge of .357 Mag. My hottest ever chronoed factory .357 125 JHP was
some S&W brand ammo, chronoed at 1495 fps from 6" Sec Six. At 1400 fps
the .38 Super is not far behind. The competition load of 158 SWC at 1250 was
no slouch either, again pretty much match a .357 load from a 4"bbl.

The IPSC load was 7.1 W571, which did show up as a max load in one of Hodgdon's
little reloading books in the 90s, after I had been using it for many years. Right
at 35,000 psi, IIRC. Rock and roll load, made the comp work well. LOUD, and is
safe in Rem +P, PMC, and Starline brass. Win brass of any flavor (+P,+P+, etc)
would blow out at the unsupported area, so I had to carefully check headstamps
because on the range I would occasionally wind up with a few of someone else's
brass - maybe Win.

Neat old gun.

Bill

[Bzcraig]

I just used the barrel as a case gauge and gave it about .005-8" clearance in a clean throat, if nothing else it headspaces on the boolit. That's my MO with all my automatics. Using generic OALs from the books never got me where I wanted accuracy-wise with any of my autos.
Gear

Gear.....thanks for this post. I have never read anything as clear as this to determine OAL or it just didn't sink in when I did read it. I have always used published data, now I should hit the next level in my accuracy with all my autos.

[Legion489]

My .38 Super Taurus PT1911 is FAR AND AWAY a better gun than the Kimber I have! First the PT1911 worked out of the box, the Kimber didn't. The PT1911 had an EXCELLENT trigger pull out of the box, the Kimber was off the charts (I am a dealer so I get the joy of checking every gun that comes through and an amazing number of them don't work out of the box). The list can (and does) go on and on. Bottom line, buy a good gun and you will be happy. Better send the Kimber back and see if they can (or will) do anything with it. I have not been impressed with the majority of the Kimbers I have seen.

[felix]

Apparently, they are not the gun they used to be when they were first made. But, what name brand is? It seems the newbees getting guns have no idea of quality from past experience, so why would the manufacturers do otherwise? It is really sad to see our manufacturing going into the pits. If a company does not use computerized machining, you can bet the accountants are draining the operations and paying their investors (owners) off. The Turkish manufacturing plants are all brand new (computerized) for the most part, and their average quality is top notch these days. Their pistols are for sale over here, and have been for a few years. If I were buying a rifle made now, it would be a CZ brand for the same reason. They started renovation ten years ago. ... felix

[Master_Mechanic]

My father owns two kimbers (one gold match stainless 2 45acp, one stainless 2 38 super) and a rimfire target upper. The 45 is an amazing gun shoots well trigger is good and the 38 super is very accurate (had a club member put 5 rounds in a 1" group at 25 yards offhand) so to say kimbers arnt good guns seems a little harsh from my experience. I've narrowed the inaccuracy in the 38 super to be the load and the shooter, gun works mint.

[blaser.306]

I am shooting a Springfield armory Custom built by Mike Johnson I beleive he is in either Montana or North dakota. It started life as a 9mm but when it finnished growing up it turned into a 38 super. It shoots very accurately with a water dropped 130 gr truncated cone boolit from a Lyman mould sized .357" and propelled by 6.8 gr of power pistol. My other Major load is 9.2 gr of sr 4756 lit off with a win Small rifle primer . I cannot remember the exact velocity , but suffice it to say that with a 124 gr copper coated thingy it make major with a "small" margin!

[sbeatty1983]

I would send it back to kimber, the one I had would do 1" groups at 25yrds from a bench. I screwed up and sold it when I got in a tight spot for cash one time.

[Master_Mechanic]

I would send it back to kimber, the one I had would do 1" groups at 25yrds from a bench. I screwed up and sold it when I got in a tight spot for cash one time.

The gun shoots tight groups, it shoots jacketed (I have to fine tune the cast loads to shoot tighter) but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the gun

[geargnasher]

I have owned two Kimbers and most likely will not own a third. When they started making 1911s they were excellent, on par with most "custom" tuned raceguns, and a much greater value than buying a base Colt or Springfield and having it "built" to the same fit, function, and feature level of a top-of-the-line, box-stock Kimber. But then the Kimber automatics got a reputation, and they couldn't make them fast enough. Then they took on LEO and (I think) some military contracts, expanded production capability, and things fell back to "decent production-level" quality instead of fine-tuned custom quality. The price is still going up. The value has diminished greatly in my estimation. I won't say that they aren't still good handguns, but I think "overpriced average" has been a good label since about 2006-8 or so.

Gear

[Cherokee]

38 Super is a great cargridge. My fav load is with Hornady 124 TC (now I guess its a HAP) and lots of Bluedot. Power Pistol does well with the bullet too. For everyday use I use the Lee 124 TC (lube grooves) over AA7 in Starline SuperComp cases for 1260 fps. Boolit size .356 with CR Lube, no leading.