Hi, Guys and Gals I am looking at a model 15 for carry purposes. I am wanting to know if the 2"HB is very durable. Does it have the same flat bottom barrel as the model 19 and 66??
any problems with them? I would be using
.38 special short barrel rounds in the gun.

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M.J.Hanna

Hi, Guys and Gals I am looking at a model 15 for carry purposes. I am wanting to know if the 2"HB is very durable. Does it have the same flat bottom barrel as the model 19 and 66??
any problems with them? I would be using
.38 special short barrel rounds in the gun.

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M.J.Hanna

You are comparing a 21,500 PSI 38 Special with a 35,000 PSI 357 Magnum. The 38 doesn't require any sort of special barrel for longevity.

Short barrel rounds? New one on me. What are these? Fast burning powder to reduce muzzle flash?

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No life story has happy end.

Saxon --

Speer has been selling the short barrel rounds for a while now. linky Low-flash powder, Gold Dot bullets; good for snubbys and small semiautos.

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50 Years of DSOTM

My department adopted the Combat Masterpiece soon after it was introduced. We issued them until about 1991, when we began switching to the Model 4006 .40 S&W Auto.

Some of the guys carried and shot the same sixgun for more than 30 years. The armorer said they only broke when people messed with them, and it was usually from the "messing" not the shooting. I saw one a deputy rechambered to .357 Magnum. I don't know how many magnums he shot but the gun was still pretty tight when I saw it in about 1985 (he had it from about 1965 until then).

I doubt you will be able to wear one out without using ammo hotter than Plus-P, and lots of it. If it does develop wear, minor tune-up parts are usually enough to restore it to like-new condition.

"barrel shrouds"... The Model 15 (and the same gun in stainless is the Model 67) do not have an ejector rod shroud under the barrel, just a short lug that holds the front latching pin and spring that holds the ejector rod in place when the cylinder is closed. Yhe Model 19 (and stainless Model 66) have an ejector rod shround on the bottom of the barrel that holds the ejector rod lock and protects the rod when the cylinder is closed.

While the M-15 and -67 were made with both tapered and bull barrels, the barrels on the M-19 and -66 were still just a bit heavier.

I have personally seen a M-15 consume way over 500,000 rounds of target loads with no adverse affects

The only drawback to the lack of shroud the 19 has is the chances of bending an ejector rod are higher. However, the snubby has a short ejecter rod and you'd have to be pretty much trying to bend one to do it.

Hard to beat a M15. The problems that the K frame magnums have is due to shooting full power magnums with light bullets. Shooting anything in even .38+P will not hurt these guns. Remember the K frame and the .38 special were designed for one another.

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Formerly know as Lucky Derby

A marriage made in heaven!

A M-15 rechambered for .357 Magnum? Is that what you mean't to say?

Originally posted by Doug.38PR:

"A M-15 rechambered for .357 Magnum? Is that what you mean't to say?"

Yep. Not a course of action that I would endorse, though.

The M-15 is basically the service version of the K-38 target revolver. I suspect target revolvers get far more rounds put through them than service revolvers. In his book Ed McGivern
shows pictures of tight groups fired through K-22s with 200,000 rounds through them.