KCSO
02-07-2013, 03:28 PM
I will admit when I bought my first P38 in 1974 I was cautioned that it was 8 loud nooises and a modestly accurate throw. That first P38 was a wartime issue gun in well used condition and I don't think I ever got a better group with it than 4" at 25 yards. At that time I was shooting PPC and my K38 would shoot into 2 1/2" at 50 yards from sandbagged rest so I didn't keep the P38 long.
Now a couple years ago when they started re importing the P38/P1 I picked one up just so I could say I had one. The gun was in like new condition with the holster and two spare mags and the feed ramp had not one mark on it, I would guess the gun was unfired. It was marked P38 on the aluminum frame and was dated 2-69. I also ordered a box of spare parts for the shop and so i was able to work up a good white dot front sight.
Since this would be a plinking and small game gun at best I looked to see what moulds I could use and ended up with an old Ideal mould that cast a 138 grain bullet (358212 ?) The other bullet was a truncated cone Lee 124 grain mould. Bullets were cast from 1 /2 and 1/2 wheel weight and lino and sized 356 to fit the chamber of the gun. I was more than a little surprised that my first groups from this gun were all around 2" at 25 yards and the heavier bullet would actualll go under 2" when i did my part. I shoot a mild load of just 3 grinas of Bullseye under the rn bullet and 4 under the 124. I did have some usefull advice from a friend on loading 38 super and 9MM that is what I attribute the accuracy from. he told me to load both ctgs as if I were loading got a gun with excessive headspace. He said you want the bullet to sever as the headspace on the ctg and not to rely on case length. He pointed out that for some reason 9mm's are never as long as they are suppose to be and even the same brand of ('s will vary in case length. This necessitates having the ammo marked for the specific gun but really helped with the accuracy. Now that light weight P38 is one of my favorite plinking pistols. I can't help but wonder what the old P38 would have done all those years ago I I had known then...
Now a couple years ago when they started re importing the P38/P1 I picked one up just so I could say I had one. The gun was in like new condition with the holster and two spare mags and the feed ramp had not one mark on it, I would guess the gun was unfired. It was marked P38 on the aluminum frame and was dated 2-69. I also ordered a box of spare parts for the shop and so i was able to work up a good white dot front sight.
Since this would be a plinking and small game gun at best I looked to see what moulds I could use and ended up with an old Ideal mould that cast a 138 grain bullet (358212 ?) The other bullet was a truncated cone Lee 124 grain mould. Bullets were cast from 1 /2 and 1/2 wheel weight and lino and sized 356 to fit the chamber of the gun. I was more than a little surprised that my first groups from this gun were all around 2" at 25 yards and the heavier bullet would actualll go under 2" when i did my part. I shoot a mild load of just 3 grinas of Bullseye under the rn bullet and 4 under the 124. I did have some usefull advice from a friend on loading 38 super and 9MM that is what I attribute the accuracy from. he told me to load both ctgs as if I were loading got a gun with excessive headspace. He said you want the bullet to sever as the headspace on the ctg and not to rely on case length. He pointed out that for some reason 9mm's are never as long as they are suppose to be and even the same brand of ('s will vary in case length. This necessitates having the ammo marked for the specific gun but really helped with the accuracy. Now that light weight P38 is one of my favorite plinking pistols. I can't help but wonder what the old P38 would have done all those years ago I I had known then...