I don't think you will have any brass life problems with the .38 S&W, no more than with any other caliber, even with hotter loads. There's really not much point in trying to magnumize the .38 S&W, although it's no trick to reload to .38 Special ballistics, or beyond. One of my favorite loads is a 125 grain lead truncated cone bullet for the .38 Special which moves out at about 850 ft/sec. That load groups well at any reasonable distance and should be adequate for any SD purpose.