Low recoil/standard pressure options include the generic 130gr FMJ rounds and 148 gr wadcutters from various makers. (Try www.midwayusa.com.) With somewhat more recoil, you can use standard pressure 158gr SWCs. The 148gr WCs are available as tracers from Laser Match.
My opinion, load it with the FBI load or SB Gold Dots. If the gun holds up, great. If it doesn't it wasn't worth having as a weapon anyway. If money is an issue and it's all you have and can afford, load it with standard pressure wadcutters. Burn up the 110 Hydrashoks as range ammo or sell them. I don't like bullets that light in a .38. Do most of your range shooting with standard pressure and occasional +P to stay familiar.
Don't carry a gun because of what may happen today. Carry because once, just once, and at the least likely time imaginable, you may run into the worst monster you ever could imagine. Be their worst nightmare and resist them with all the stubbornness that our pioneer ancestors posessed. To do less is to be unamerican.
Posts: 3056 | Location: The Rust Belt Buckle/Michigan | Registered: 06 September 2006
People who have tested them say the 110 gr Federal usually does not expand. Winchester makes a 110 gr Silvertip that is a better design but I've had erratic velocities and EXTREMELY erratic expansion from this ammo, using up my stash as range ammo only.
Posts: 698 | Location: Illinois | Registered: 05 November 2002
As to the Federal non-expansion issue: that's the flip side of the adequate penetration and reliable feeding (in a semiauto) issues. Federal's are designed to be able to go through clothing and stuff before they hit the real target, and the trade-off is for later, but more reliable expansion. True, if you're shooting at a cat, the Federal bullets are going to have about the same effect as FMJ's. I prefer Federal's ammo, myself. I've also heard a lot of stuff about people testing Winchester ammo and finding an excessive degree of separation; and I no longer trust Remington's ballistics tables, so I don't have anything to say about 'em except I have to clean the gun more thoroughly after firing them than I do with Federal or Hornady.
