38 special

[Judan_454]

I have a bunch of 38 special cases I was wondering if you going to shoot it out of
a .357 revelover. Can you load the case to push a bullet at .357 mag velocitys?
Dan

[Char-Gar]

"Back in the day" we used to shoot 358156 out of 38 Special cases with magnum powder charges. But that bullets had two crimp grooves and we seated the bullet to the bottom one which gave the same powder capacity as the magnum case.

Even so, the Special case is not designed to handle the pressure of full snort magnum loads, at least for very long. So we ended up using 38/44 loads in the Special case in our magnums.

So with 50 years behind me of loading for the .357 Magnum round, my counsel is to use magnum cases for magnum loads and keep those Special cases for lesser pressure loads.

[Larry Gibson]

"Back in the day" I did the same as Char-Gar mentions and others did because 38 SPL brass was plentiful and .357 Magnum brass was neither plentiful and was expensive. However, these days is it really necessary? Only you can answer that question. I load and shoot lots of .38 SPLs in my .357 handguns. However, I generally load standard level .38 SPL loads (358477 or Lee TL358-158-SWC over 4 gr Bullseye. The maximum level .38 SPLs I load any more is some +Ps with the 359477s over 5.5 gr Unique. That way they are safe in my own .38 Special revovlers or any other s they may in advertantly get into.

Just my own way of it.

Larry Gibson

[David LaPell]

Pushing a .38 to .357 revolvers is fine. A good cast bullet like the 358156 or 358429 works great. The 358156 has two crimp grooves, one to use in .357 cases and then seating in the lower groove works well using it in .38 Special cases. Try to find an article in Handloader from 2006 (October I think) and there is an article on the .38-44 loads, the predecessor to the .357.

[fishhawk]

I would like to add can you be 100% sure no one is ever going to use one in a standard 38spl revolver? Would hate to ruin a nice model 15 Smith with a magnum loaded 38 spl.

[uscra112]

Me, I hate cleaning that carbon ring out of my chambers when I shoot .38s in the .357 Magnum. I don't do it on purpose anymore. Also I fear that a hot loaded .38 might get into my pre-War Colt O.M.

When I got a bagful of random .38 reloads in a box lot at an estate auction last year, I quickly went to the range and unloaded them all through the muzzle of my 681. Some of 'em were exciting, to say the least. I knew better than to trust 'em, but would every other buyer know?

And then I had to clean out that *&#$% carbon ring.

[Bret4207]

I have a bunch of 38 special cases I was wondering if you going to shoot it out of
a .357 revelover. Can you load the case to push a bullet at .357 mag velocitys?
Dan

Yup. Sure can.

[MGySgt]

+1 with Larry Gibson - I shot a bunch of 358477's in mil speck 38 cases - those hard and thick walls need a stout load to seal the chambers well.

I was shooting 5.5 grains of unique, use to be high end load in the Lyman manual, now it is a +P load and some manuals have it as a +P+ load.

I would not want any of those to get into one of my 38's. I shot them from a Security Six and a pair of Mod 28's. ***** cat loads in the heavy Mod 28's. Not in a lightweight 38 though!

I still load my 358477's heavy, but my real 38's get topped off with a 358311 158 round nose.

if I want Magnum velocity - I load mag cases.

The ridge from .38's - use the same bore brush wrapped in chore Boy you use for leaded barrels - only use a low speed drill - takes less than a minute per cylinder to clean it out. I also use a lot of WD 40 with it.

Works for me!

[Walt]

Me, I hate cleaning that carbon ring out of my chambers when I shoot .38s in the .357 Magnum. I don't do it on purpose anymore. Also I fear that a hot loaded .38 might get into my pre-War Colt O.M.

This is where I stand on this issue also. I hever have to worry about my grand daughter, daughters, or ole' lady blowing up an airweight Smith because of my reloading practices. I also HATE to spend more time cleaning (chambers) guns than I absolutely have too.

[Tristan]

Sorry for the thread drift, but I've made a 'tool' to aid getting the carbon ring out, and it definitely helps.

Take an old 357 mag case, and incrementally bell the neck until it *just* fits the chambers of your revolver; press it into each one and it scrapes most of the build up out in one or two passes. Adds about 30-60 seconds to the cleaning job. Periodically I bell the mouth a bit more, to keep it a tight fit.

Finish cleaning as normal. Slick as a whistle.

[David LaPell]

One way I make sure that my hot .38-44 loads don't end in my M & P is that I take a black permanent marker and mark the primer by drawing a line over it. The only time that line comes off is when I tumble the brass. I also use .38 +P brass for it since my M & P is older and I keep standard loads in it. PLus I mark the daylight out of the boxes that these loads go in.

[smkummer]

Just to put my .02 in the hat. Yes I have done it. Nothing bad happened in guns with medium to large steel frames. Since I have plenty of .357 caes, I don't do it anymore. Since I have small aluminum frame revolvers all the way up to large steel frame chambered in 38, I don't do it anymore. Any 38 I have loaded now is to published plus P data or less so it won't hurt any gun. Hey, if I die I don't want my son shooting these 38-44 pressure ammo out of a Colt Cobra.
I run a brush with solvent through my .357 chamber guns everytime I shoot 38 special in each chamber and never have a issue chambering .357 the next time I want to shoot them. I too have notice surplus military 38 cases being harder to resize so maybe they are thicker. Be safe and have fun.

[Bwana]

[QUOTE=uscra112;1622846]Me, I hate cleaning that carbon ring out of my chambers when I shoot .38s in the .357 Magnum. I don't do it on purpose anymore. Also I fear that a hot loaded .38 might get into my pre-War Colt O.M.
When I got a bagful of random .38 reloads in a box lot at an estate auction last year, I quickly went to the range and unloaded them all through the muzzle of my 681. Some of 'em were exciting, to say the least. I knew better than to trust 'em, but would every other buyer know?
And then I had to clean out that *&#$% carbon ring.[/QUO

So you KNEW BETTER and yet you went ahead and fired them anyway. AT THE RANGE. I just hope nobody else was there. Now normally I don't get all "nannyish" but I am making the exception in this case only because of the possible proximity of others should the gun disintegrate. I don't even trust what appears to be a factory round if I don't buy it myself and I haven't purchased a factory centerfire round in over thirty years. The rounds I find at the range and that I pick up during a USPSA match go into my "found loaded round" buckets ( I have about five gallons so far). These will be pulled down for the bullets/boolits as desired but will never be fired.
Now you may have figured that your 681 could handle any load in that batch and it apparently did. Congrats.
I am going to leave you with this senario: Suppose I were a rabid anti-gun person and wanted to cause damage to shooters. Sort of like the people that put put nails on hunting roads or "spike" trees. What I would do is go to a range and leave loaded rounds there that were crammed full of say 231. I have talked to several people at the range who have stated that they have found rounds at the range that fit their guns and they picked them up and fired them. Well, you know what would happen should they do that with one of the spiked rounds. Thats my two cents.

[Alan]

+1 to what Bwana said. I pick up rounds at the range, but I bring them home and pull them down immediately. A compressed case full of Bullseye would ruin your day.