38 S & W Bullit Size

[terryt]

Hi:

As I recall the bore dia. on this caliber is .361. I have just bought a S & W M&P revolver and want to shoot it. I slugged the bore at .362. If I use a bullet cast at .359 how welll do you think it would work. At the present time I do not have a mold that cast any larger than .359.

Thanks,

Terry

[dualsport]

You need to slug the chamber throats. Or measure them if you have the tools. The chamber throats will determine what you can use. If it was me I'd try the .359s if they will chamber ok. Congratulations on your new gun.

[NickSS]

I have three revolvers in 38 S&W and each of them slugs out differently the latgets is .363 and the smallest is .359. I have shot bullets sized to .360 in all of them and they give reasonable accracy considering the age and sights on them. I do not push the loads and most are at 650 to 700 fps. I can keep all the shots inside a 3" group at 15 yards. My guns are an Iver Jonson break open, Colt police positive from around 1913 and an enfield break open from WWII. They are fun to shoot but not what I would call long range pistols.

[Bret4207]

Just to be clear to anyone new to the hobby, your groove is around .361, not the bore. That should be running in the .350+ area.

[JIMinPHX]

A lot of people shoot hollow base boolits in those things. They are much more forgiving on diameter & work well at the low pressures that many people favor in that caliber.

[shotman]

Jm is right hollow base is what the factory was back years ago and do work good 3gr or less bulleye what a 135 hb is a good shooter.

[saskgunowner101]

I have used undersized bullets(.356-.358) in my Enfield pistol since I purchased it a few years back. They shoot fine at 10 or 15 yards, for what they are. I do have some cast bullets from a buddy that run .361 and they do seem to shoot better with a lot less leading.

[leadman]

My neighbor lady has an old Iver Johnson she keeps in the house. Her ammo was so old I bought her a new box a few years ago. I pulled down her old ammo and some was blackpowder in balloon head cases! Hollow base bullets in all the cases.
I would try very soft lead for the bullets as they may bump up some.

[shotman]

ok a follow up does anyone know where you can get the 135 HB lead boolit?? there was a company that made 38 wad cutter HB but think they are gone now

[terryt]

Hi:

Thank all of you for your input.

Terryt

[9.3X62AL]

Both Speer and Hornady still offer swaged-lead 148 grain hollow-based wadcutter boolits. The Speer Manuals have data in 38 S&W for their use.

My S&W M&P and Webley-Enfield both have .363" throats, and do their best work with 200 grain boolits of that diameter. 3.3 grains of Unique drives them to their factory service-load velocity of 710 FPS.

My Colt Police Positive also has .359" throats, and run Lyman #358477 in it over 3.0 grains of Unique for 725 FPS. These shoot right to the sights at 25 yards.

[Al_sway]

You could also try the swaged 158 grain bullets from Hornady, as they will likely bump up quite nicely.