Although most of my guns are Smith& Wesson revolvers, I do own a great Colt Lightweight Commander chambered in .38 super caliber. A number of years ago I happened to be in the right place at the right time and "lucked" into the purchase of seven boxes of Winchester Silver Tip ammo at less than $9.00 per box. Since that time I have considered this pistol and it's "stash" of ammo to be my primary home defense gun and occasionally I take it to the range and shoot it with the ordinary Winchester and Remington rounds. While looking for additional ammo at a gun show last weekend, I was told that the Silvertips were "old" ammo and there are several types of .38 super that are better than those that I have held in esteem. What do you think? Have you used or read about any brands that outperform the Silvertips? Comments will be appreciated.

IMHO, your ammo has been superseded only by a very small amount. I often carry an all steel Colt Combat Commander in .38 Super as my EDC. I wouldn't hesitate to load it with your ammo. The only thing that really counts is where and how often one 'hits' the BG. I have been known to load mine with either silver tips or Super Vel. I have every confidence in your pistol and your ammo. ....... Big Cholla

Silvertips are hard to beat even today. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of any .38 Super round. They're that good!

I can't think of any 38 Super load that isn't good!

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Was in wally world and as usual walked by the ammo counter. 4-50 round boxes of federal 40S&W hollow points at $4 bucks a box. Course this was before the ammo crazyness. Frank

I think the all copper Barnes bullet is loaded by one or two entities, and that bullet has some good test results in Doc Roberts' tests. I'd look for and try such loads.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

Thanks for your quick responses. They are greatly appreciated!

The Winchester 125 Silvertip +P is really only a topend 9mm...velocity is only in the 1200s...

If you want your Commander to be the best that it can be then try any of the following:

CorBon 115....Uses a Sierra bullet at 1450+ fps...I have had some boxes that chronograph 1494 average. If you believe in expansion this is the round...

CorBon 124...uses a Hornady XTP at 1350+ fps. Pushed at this velocity the XTP both expands like no 9mm and penetrates better than the 115.

CorBon PowR'Ball....a 100 grain capped bullet that doesn't come apart and doesn't depend on a fluid filled cavity for expansion. Velocity out of a Commander is 1500+ fps...

CorBon DPX...uses the 125 Barnes all copper HP at 1350 fps...it turns inside out but the copper base holds everything together.


I tested several of the above in these tests...

...a few bullets tests... - 24hourcampfire



Buffalo Bore also now has a line of .38 Super....

Handgun Planet: "Super" Super: Buffalo Bore 38 Super +P Ammo



From the late great Stephen Camp....

Corbon

How Does



.38 Super Homepage...

38 Super



If you are going to run topend loads in your Commander, and I have several aluminum frame Commanders that have well over 5K rounds of 1300 fps+ ammo through them, use a 18-20# recoil spring. I have also always used a now discontinued Kings Recoil Buffer. It looks like a regular recoil spring guide but has a spring loaded tip that slows the slide down the last 3/8" of travel...

You can also add barrels in 9mm and 9x23 with minimal modifications to the gun...

Checkout MidwayUSA...they have some of the ammo in stock and a lot of rounds from different makers...Buffalo Bore, DoubleTap...and more...

I've carried a .38 Super Commander every day for 34 years... Daily carry ammo has been the PowR'Ball.

Hope this helps...Bob

One other thing... If you have a Colt .38 Super made before 1990 you really need to replace the barrel before using any of the topend loads. You will end up piercing primers if you don't.

Colt cut the Super chambers to headspace on the case rim instead of the case mouth like the 9mm and .45 ACP from 1929 till 1990+-...the below link tells all about it...

The Old Super .38 Barrels - 1911Forum

ROTO4M barrels from SARCO are not much money and I've had excellet luck with them. That 7" in the ammo test pics is a ROTO4M and it is an excellent shooter...

Kart, BarSto, Wilson, Clark, Nowlin all make excellent stainless barrels...

Bob

wow! I had no idea that this kind of info was available. Thanks Bob.

^^^ I tend to agree with this.

Though I have been shooting my Commander .38 Super since the summer of 1969, I haven't nearly the day-to-day .38 Super experience that Superman has, so my comments are "old think," I guess. To my credit, I do have a couple boxes of Corbon DPX ammunition with the Barnes bullet. I haven't shot enough of it to comment - except to say it is pricey (!).

My little stash of .38 Super Silvertips seems to run about 1250 FPS, which is a little improvement over run of the mill 9x19s. But it is also probably the most accurate .38 Super ammunition I have tried. I have a P220 .38 Super that you can almost count on to cut a cloverleaf at 50-feet if you are doing the best you can. It shoots very well in every gun I have tried it in.

I have always wondered if .38 Super Silvertips were "deficient" in penetration, like it was rumored .357 Magnum Silvertips were... ? I think most of those complaints were based on police shootings where the suspects had barricaded themselves in or behind automobiles. If so, I am not sure how much that worries me. In any case, I am just old fashioned enough that I still prefer Silvertips. If I were carrying a full-length, steel .38 Super, I might be inclined to switch over to the Corbon DPX. Might...

Hi:
In a bygone era I was issued a Colt Combat Commander (Stain Nickel) .38 Super. The issue ammo was Winchester Silver tips. Good combination. I had negative complaints.

There is an article/test of a Colt .38 Super within the last 3 months in SWAT magazine. You should snag and read that, too.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

Jimmy...are you allowed at this point to tell what department or agency that was... I have heard of some places that issued Supers but it was eons ago...

Bob

The Agency was Levy County (Florida) Sheriff Department. (1990)
In that region/era weapons from evidence of cases closed were issued out to Deputies. Most anything that was safe to fire was issued. At the present the Agency purchases Sig-Sauer .40 cal to everyone.

Too bad they didn't let you buy the gun....

Bob

I can state that if there is a 38 Super Expert on the Planet, it is SuperMan, also for the 41 Mag.

Bob and I worked and shot together, back in the day and he was a 41 Mag and a 38 Super "kind of guy" way before IPSC ever heard of it.

His handloaded ammo was actually approved for Duty use on our Dept, which was one of the 10 largest cities in the USA. A LOT of guy carried it.

I have always been a 44 Mag, 45 ACP kind of guy, so when we got together, we never had to worry about one of us shooting up the others ammo....

I too carry a .38 Super every day, usually my custom CCO (normally with Crimson Trace grips).

I load it with Pow'Rball as it is totally reliable in feeding and extracting, particularly in short barrel autos. I also use it in my Colt Defender (w/Bar Sto .38 Super barrel) and AMT Back-up.
In my full size guns, I use Georgia Arms 124 grain uni-bond (Gold Dot) load. It's never given me a bit of feeding or extraction problems and is as accurate as I can be.

Very nice selection of guns safearms....

Who did the work on the CCO? I thought about doing a CCO or a Defender in Super but the Commander just balances so well for me I would end up not carrying it...

Bob

I love the specs of the Buffalo Bore 124 gr.

__________________
Cheers, Charles
SWCA #2442

I carry Silvertips in my .38 Super. They shoot well and I strongly suspect they will do the job if you can hit what you are aiming at with them.

Groo here
As with most older rounds, the 38super is loaded down in the US.
The original loading , 130gr fmj at 1300fps , can still be found in some
imported ammo but the US companies seem to stay around 9mm +p
or +p+ range.
BB,Double Tap, Corbon, Underwood and some others use modern powder and exceed these loadings.
As noted 357max is now 357mag-357mag is now 38-44, 38spec is
maybe 38+p And on,and on, and on!!!!!!!

People try to give the silver tip bullet a bad rap due to the FBI Florida shoot out...............

They even bad mouth the load for its lower fps vs "Modern" ammo that is a little faster.

The fact is.................
at 8 to 15 feet this load has all the SD power and bullet expansion that you will ever need.

Not shooting 50 yards at bad guys with bullet proof vest, be it a 9mm or 38 special.

It may be a "Minimal" carry load but it can do the job if the shooters do their part with good shot placement................... and the 38 Super has plenty of velocity to get the job done.

The best deal for the money right now and a very good load for a defensive round would be Georgia Arms...The Speer Bonded HP 124 gr. @1350 fps
$51.50 for 100 rnds. They did a 147gr. Speer Bonded HP @ 1200 fps
years ago. I still have a little stash left.

All the others are all good too..But for the price GA is hard to beat!!!!!
I have tried all the others too and have most of them on hand now.

If it goes in my gun for carry, I have ran at least several boxes before hand and several more over time.

Right now my load for carry in my full size Colt is the GA 147gr. GDHP.
Next would be the Win 125gr. STHP, only for the fact that I have a lot
of this on hand. If I needed to buy new, GA 124gr. Speer GDHP would be
my choice for the money.

I've been a fan of the .38 Super for several years now. It started when a friend sold me an old Sig P220 euro model. It was a laser beam, and I quickly began loading my own for it. I later sold it to a very good friend when I stumbled across this one for a song. It was still unfired by the original owner. It doesn't suffer from that affliction anymore. I had a very nice Colt Government Model, but I recently sold it to finance a 657-4 3".

A Sig P220-1. My chief has one still NIB he purchased new back in the '90s.

I have a Star Modelo Super chambered in 9mm Bergmann-Bayard (9mm Largo), and I stoke it with Silvertips when its rotation as house gun comes up. It's as accurate as my Model 10s, and shows no evidence of excessive anything on the recovered brass. The ST 125gr HP consistently outshoots the 130gr FMJ, either W-W or R-P, at least in my pistol. I would be quite confident w/this load in a SD situation.
After some initial "plunk tests", I found that the STs would headspace on the mouth, but would kind of "wedge" in the chamber without the relief in the barrel hood. After cutting a very minor relief, I expected the cartridge to go deep, but found that it stopped just flush w/the hood, just as the Blazer and Spanish milsurp Largos do. Big-fun pistol, and reliable enough for defense.

Larry

My choice is the Corbon 124 DPX.

...scott...selling a Super to finance a 3" 657...you are my kinda guy!!!

I need to try some of that GA ammo with the 124 grain Gold Dot HP bullets...I really like the way they hold together out of a .357 SIG...

Bob

I have an old stash of ammo for my Colt Lightweight Commander and my Springfield 5".I have a box of black talons in .38 super(in a reload case the box was gone)that I won't shoot(part of the black talon collection).Aside from having many brands of ball I have the Corbon 115gr jhp that states 1425 fps and 519ft/lbs.I wouldn't want to get hit with it.

I have personally put ball ammo through the windshield of a junk car and through the door as well.Love the round.

__________________
RIP Charles P Moore

...never knew that Winchester made BTs in .38 Super...you sure they are not reloads???

Bob

Can't be sure.I don't have any literature to verify that they did make them but these are visually identical to all of my other BT and it is Winchester brass so I don't know.

__________________
RIP Charles P Moore