Just purchased a older green and yellow box of Remington .38 +p 95g sjhp. Are they a good round for sd or should I just send them down the range?

Just purchased a older green and yellow box of Remington .38 +p 95g sjhp. Are they a good round for sd or should I just send them down the range?

I hate to say this, but those rounds will sort of turn your fine .38 Special or .357 Magnum revolver into a .380.

When I first got into shooting in the mid-'80s, muzzle energy was pretty much all I was told to consider. I bought and carried some .38 +P Silvertips that were 95 grains in weight. I have to say that I'm very glad that I never had to use them to defend myself - nowadays I carry 158-gr +Ps in my .38 Specials.

Anyhow, they're not a terrible round for self-defense, but they're way down on the list of what I'd use. Sorry.

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Range ammo, unless the alternative is throwing rocks. Light .38 +P rounds have fallen out of favor in recent years owing to questions about penetration.

Erich is more of a "facklerite" (for lack of a better term) and I'm more of a "marshallite". We don't agree on all of the finer points of ammo and ballistics, but actually do agree more often than not (unless Erich thinks I'm nuts and hasn't told me yet ). This is one of those occasions where we agree. That bullet is too light for caliber. I like muzzle energy in more powerful calibers, but .38 spl. is a hole poker. Giving up momentum and the ability to penetrate well and work against bone to gain muzzle energy in a cartridge that weak is wrong headed.

No, I'm a stalactite and you're a stalagmite. But sometimes we meet in the middle!

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Thank you gentlemen for the insight. Down the range it goes.

I look at old out of production ammo in a particular manner - if it's "Out of Production" there is likely a good reason. The only exception to this would be the old Winchester Black <STRIKE>Felon</STRIKE> Talon which took a hit from the AMA and ended up being repackaged and is still sold but just under another name.

It's the only right thing to do.

Once upon time, they were the probably the cutting edge in ammo design, but I'd not recommend them for self defense. How much is your life, or the lives of your family worth? Self Defense ammo is no place to go cheap. Every major ammo maker produces a variety of state-of-the-art self defense ammunition. By all means shoot the old stuff on the range, but you need to get modern SD ammo for that purpose.

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