Getting A .38

[Oldtimer]

I can remember back 40+ years ago when I was guarding the flight line- the Air Force issue for Security Patrols was a .38 S&W model 10 with ball ammo and the long gun was a M2 carbine....Both pretty puny- except the M2 carbine was light and nice to carry and could lay down a pretty fair string of fire on full auto...
But that 38 ball ammo couldn't even kill a rat.....

 

[upfrombottom]

My weapon of choice is the SW model 66 357 MAG. I can shoot all the .38 ammo in it.

 

[F350]

Going to get a .38 pistol. Looking at the type that is hammerless; less chance of catching it on anything when it's in the purse.

Does anybody have a favorite model or make?

Yes OT I am getting a concealed weapons permit so I can carry in my purse. Just not on fire or 911 calls.

I bought my wife a S&W 642 Airweight (hammerless). Nice gun for concealed carry.

 

[Ryder]

If you can get it in .357 I suggest you do that.Practice with .38s when you shoot a lot then pracice with .357 and carry that.I would carry on EMS unless illegal.

VERY GOOD ADVICE. The .357 gives you real good options for real personal protection. Believe me you do need to practice some with .357 so that the recoil won't be such a terrible shock. I have taught growm men to shoot with my .357 and slippped a 357 round in with the 38's just to show them the difference in recoil. Believe me when I say it takes some getting used to.


BTW your friend was right 9mm is NOT considered a stopper, and 38 ain't much better.

.40
.357
10mm
and .45
pretty much in that order are your stoppers.

JUst remember Stay Calm, and Shoot Straight.........and practice a LOT

Practice is necessary for confidence and profeciency. Also,like drycreek said, enough practice with larger calibers will make that recoil much less of a problem. When you get used to it and quit worrying about it it becomes much less noticeable.
Rule of thumb (I made it up) is that you should shoot a new gun at least 250 rounds to sort of get to know it.

I believe rank top to bottom would be,
.45
.44
.40
.357
.38
9mm
I am not familiar with and don't have numbers at hand for 10mm, so I am not commenting on it.

 

[Ryder]

Going to get a .38 pistol. Looking at the type that is hammerless; less chance of catching it on anything when it's in the purse.

Does anybody have a favorite model or make?

Yes OT I am getting a concealed weapons permit so I can carry in my purse. Just not on fire or 911 calls.

To each his/her own. But I would practice grabbing that gun with my thumb on the hammer. This protects hammer from getting hung on something and you still have single action capability. Doesn't take long to cock the gun and is much more controllable single action.

 

[3waycross]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

 

[TexasBred]

Just found this...might be helpful. Calculates "knock down" power.

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/rescour ... ornily.htm

 

[Rangenerd]

Like every else has said, get the 357 and then shoot 38s. But I would get it in Titanium. it is much lighter than steel.

 

[Ryder]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

I don't take it as arguing. If I am in error I appreciate correction.(Of course I will never speak to you again )
For years I have had the opinion that big and slow beat small and fast in pistols. There is more involved than just muzzle energy in stopping power, but the reference TB posted makes me stop and consider concerning the .40.

 

[bear]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

The .357 ballistics listed above are quite interesting. What length of barrel was used to obtain that velocity and energy. Some rifles are chambered in .357 mag. Was this a rifle ballistic. I have never seen .357 mag factory loads anywhere close to this for a handgun. The 1343lbs of energy is approaching that of a .454 Casull and the velocity of a .460 mag. Probably wouldn't be very much fun to shoot in a .357 frame handgun. The .357 mag handgun does have a slightly higher one shot stop percentage at 96% and the .40 at 94%. The .357 mag is also inheritly more controllable at longer ranges than the .40. Most of the factory loads, including hornady, comparing bullets of similar or same weight are very close between the .357 mag and the .40 S&W.
Bear

 

[3waycross]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

The .357 ballistics listed above are quite interesting. What length of barrel was used to obtain that velocity and energy. Some rifles are chambered in .357 mag. Was this a rifle ballistic. I have never seen .357 mag factory loads anywhere close to this for a handgun. The 1343lbs of energy is approaching that of a .454 Casull and the velocity of a .460 mag. Probably wouldn't be very much fun to shoot in a .357 frame handgun. The .357 mag handgun does have a slightly higher one shot stop percentage at 96% and the .40 at 94%. The .357 mag is also inheritly more controllable at longer ranges than the .40. Most of the factory loads, including hornady, comparing bullets of similar or same weight are very close between the .357 mag and the .40 S&W.
Bear

It's straight out of the Hornady reloading manual. Look it up for yourself. It comes from the ballistic charts in the volume 2 section of the manual page 389 muzzle velocity and energy for a 125grhollow point xtp SD.14, BC,151. It seems excessive but it's published data. Under the handgun section of the manual.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Stopped at a store today and looked at the .357's and "The Judge"

I must admit I really liked the Judge. The flouresent front site is a good point towards it just in case I do not have my contacts or glasses on.
There were a couple of S&W .357's that I really liked too.
Going to be tough deciding.

I'm still going to look around and I am taking what everyone is telling me with me. I really appreciate all of the advice.

 

[bear]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

The .357 ballistics listed above are quite interesting. What length of barrel was used to obtain that velocity and energy. Some rifles are chambered in .357 mag. Was this a rifle ballistic. I have never seen .357 mag factory loads anywhere close to this for a handgun. The 1343lbs of energy is approaching that of a .454 Casull and the velocity of a .460 mag. Probably wouldn't be very much fun to shoot in a .357 frame handgun. The .357 mag handgun does have a slightly higher one shot stop percentage at 96% and the .40 at 94%. The .357 mag is also inheritly more controllable at longer ranges than the .40. Most of the factory loads, including hornady, comparing bullets of similar or same weight are very close between the .357 mag and the .40 S&W.
Bear

It's straight out of the Hornady reloading manual. Look it up for yourself. It comes from the ballistic charts in the volume 2 section of the manual page 389 muzzle velocity and energy for a 125grhollow point xtp SD.14, BC,151. It seems excessive but it's published data. Under the handgun section of the manual.

I will call hornady tomorrow. It's just that a handgun load, be it a handload or a factory, that shoots 25 to 35 percent faster and harder than what you can get out of an 18 inch or longer rifle barrel is probably not a realistic handgun load comparison for the average person. I don't usually use one manual to form a load and definitely not the hottest load in the manual. Excessive loads hurt people and damage guns. Bear

 

[Caustic Burno]

No Joke I reload and I can make some mean 44 Mag loads you can shoot in a pistol. If you miss the first shot you have to reattach your arm before the second shot. You would be much better off in a handgun shooting Cowboy loads with low recoil and hitting your target than magnum and missing. FPS and ft/lbs mean nothing if you are uncomfortable and are scared of the round you would be better off with a 22.

 

[dun]

Ryder the last thing I want to do is argue with a Looosiana man about guns but I am pretty sure the .357mag had a LOT more punch than a 40. Source Hornady Reloading manual.

40 cal w/125gr bullet---1400fps---544lbs of energy at the muzzle

10mm(40cal) w/155gr bullet 1400fps---674lbs

.357mag w/125grbullet---2200fps---1343lbs of energy

The .357 ballistics listed above are quite interesting. What length of barrel was used to obtain that velocity and energy. Some rifles are chambered in .357 mag. Was this a rifle ballistic. I have never seen .357 mag factory loads anywhere close to this for a handgun. The 1343lbs of energy is approaching that of a .454 Casull and the velocity of a .460 mag. Probably wouldn't be very much fun to shoot in a .357 frame handgun. The .357 mag handgun does have a slightly higher one shot stop percentage at 96% and the .40 at 94%. The .357 mag is also inheritly more controllable at longer ranges than the .40. Most of the factory loads, including hornady, comparing bullets of similar or same weight are very close between the .357 mag and the .40 S&W.
Bear

I just checked the Hornady manual. For the 357 pistol data they show for the 135 gr bullet 3 loads of 1550 (those are the highest) all the rest are 1400. That was with a 8 inch barrel.
Years ago we did some testing with 3 inch 357 magnums and the same gun with 38s, Found that to get anymore velocity from the 357 it took more poweder and had much more muzzle flash and muzzle blast with a lot more recoil. The load has to be optimized for the length of the barrel. Snubbys don;t do much except make more noise with 357s then they do with 38s

 

[AngusLimoX]

Snubbys don;t do much except make more noise with 357s then they do with 38s

Exactly, hence the wadcutters.

 

[dun]

I handled alot of guns before I decided on my wheel gun. I chose the ruger lcr with crimson trace laser grips because the trigger on it was exceptional for a revolver I had never fired a 38 with a trigger that smooth. I have a taurus public defender and I like it real well but the trigger pull is horrible. Winchester is coming out with a new 410 shell that will have three 000 buckshot/pellets/discs and 12 bb sized pellets in it. For now I shoot the four pellet 000 buckshot federal .410 out of it with buffalo bore 200 grain hollowpoints for defense in it.

I put springs in my 642 and compared it to the LCR. The LCR pull is looong and it isn;t any smoother or lighter then the 642

 

[dun]

Dun did you buy the springs for your 642 at wolff?

Wolff springs from Brownells

 

[dun]

Don;t have a gauge, just the wifes finger strength which isn;t much. We didn;t have problems with lighter springs unless we bobbed the hammer too. Then the Rugers were really bad for failures, the Taurus weren;t too bad and the smiths were about the same. Problem is one failure when it's an emergency is way to many. That's why I went with the 642, the geometry seems to be better on them to prevent failures.