Ruger security six \ 38 super

[beechbum444]

Question , how difficult would it be to have a ruger security six's cylinder reamed to shoot 38 super ?????? Whatcha think ???

[Outpost75]

THE. .38/.357 CHAMBERS are way too long and accuracy will be poor if rechambered.

(Hate autofill on the phone and haven't figured out how to disable it).

[TheGrimReaper]

Interesting....

[NSB]

Having owned a couple of 38 supers, I’m trying to figure out what the “improvement” would be when you got done? The 38 Super is kind of like a 357magnum light....also known as a 38spl +p

[Outpost75]

Some Ruger .38 Special Service Sixes have chambers which are sloppy enough to accept .38 Super rounds. Mine will. But the 0.050 semi-rim is thinner than the usual .38 Special, go case heads set back against the recoil shield and pierce primers. Also the semi-rim is too small for reliable extraction. A 9mm Ruger could be rechambered to .38 Super for use with clips, but the 9mm base is larger and fired cases coming out of a rechambered 9mm look about 3 month's pregnant. With 9mm ammo being plentiful and cheap I don't see why anyone would want .38 Super, unless they lived someplace that "military" calibers were prohibited and you wanted more juice than a .38 Special.

[Larry Gibson]

The Ruger security Six chamber does not need "reaming" to chamber and shoot 38 Super ammunition. The cartridge will chamber and shoot just fine.....just maybe not accurately as Outpost75 mentions. The 38 Super is a semi-rimmed cartridge but of smaller diameter than 38/357 rim diameters. The muzzle must be vertical so the cases fall out without slipping under the extractor. I shot 50 or them out of my SS with out problems otherwise. Probably won't do so again though as there's really no need.

[country gent]

For best accuracy you really need the supers to head space on the case mouth not the rim. Set up to use moon clips would make for a fast loading revolver though. I believe with standard cases and chambering you would have issues with the rims dropping under the extractor star when ejecting. Moon clips would be the fix for this. I dont see alot of gain other than adding another ammo that could be used.

[chutesnreloads]

Not long ago I had a nephew come out to shoot. We'd shot several different guns and eventually he pulls out a
DAO .38 snubnose. (NOT a .357 Mag I know.) Don't remember make or model. He fired a cylinder full from it
and brings it to me asking if I thought the trigger pull was too heavy, stating he'd bought it for his wife and she
wouldn't shoot it because it was too hard.
I immediately started explaining that it was a double action revolver and would be noticeably different from the
auto loaders he was used to while pointing down range and squeezing the trigger. Wow was it heavy and felt like
gravel in the works. Opening the cylinder right away I see a chunk of jacket stuck on edge of the forcing cone.
Thinking that was the problem, I scraped it off, closed the cylinder and tried again. Same thing. Opened the
cylinder again and this time I noticed the brass was not .38 Spcl. but .38 Super. Got the brass out and with the
empty chamber was still acting same. Pointed out the wrong ammo issue and suggested he get it looked at by
a competent smith.
I would advise against altering a good Security-six

[FergusonTO35]

Love my 1988 Service Six. Unlike my S&W's it will shoot just about any boolit weight equally well.

[JMax]

My COVID project earlier this year was to convert a takeoff 627 8 shot cylinder to 38 super/9mm. I could get 3” groups at 25 yards DA off sand bags if I did not peek using a 158 gr RN bullet, .356 9mm bullets would group about 4” at 15 yards with definite yaw. But when I cast the same Lee 120 gr TC bullet a bit soft and sized them in a modified push thru sizer at .3575” things became fun and is a constant companion when I go to the range. Now the 627 cylinder is setup for moon clips and 9mm/38super moon clips are available.

However I would not modify a Security Six for moon clips if they are even available. I had an extra cylinder, reamer and cylinder parts to make the extra cylinder. One thing that I discovered is that Smith has at least two stepped hands used in timing up 8 shot cylinders and luckily both cylinders timed up right out of the chute.