Originally Posted by DWalt

I assume you do not know what you have there nor the other responders. PGU-12/B was a special .38 Special round loaded by Lake City AAP only during 1979-80 for use by the USAF in the USAF's S&W Model 15 revolvers. It was prompted by problems with the lower-powered M41 round, namely that some USAF troops were pulling M41 bullets and doubling the powder charge. That caused several revolver blow-ups. The PGU-12/B round was not only considerably more powerful (a 130 grain FMJ bullet having a MV of around 1150 ft/sec) vs the .38 Special M41 (a 130 grain bullet at a MV of about 950 ft/sec), but the bullet pull force was increased to over 130 pounds. The listed peak chamber pressure was around 25,000 psi. There were about 72 Million cartridges made at Lake City AAP, and this was the only handgun cartridge ever made there.

These cartridges are very scarce on the collector market, especially full boxes. No way would I advise you to shoot them up, as many cartridge collectors would love to have a full box. Most which were not used up (or stolen) were destroyed by the USAF after the M9 9mm pistol was adopted to replace the S&W Model 15 in the late 1980s.

Having said that, I am not sure that those in your box are actually Lake City PGU-12/B from the headstamp. The correct headstamps should be LC 79 or 80, not WCC 81. I would have to do some research to find out. I will check into whether any PGU-12/B ammunition was loaded outside Lake City for the USAF under contract by Olin. It may take a few days.