I just took delivery of these cool old school 3D Innovations 148gr 38spl Wadcutters from the 80s. New old stock. Long out of business.

I picked them up for $11.49 per box of 50.

I can't wait to try them out. Anyone ever shoot these before? What kind of results can I expect? Are they really dirty?

We used to use them (in RN) for quals back in the 80s. Went bang, hit where you were pointed, so GTG!

We used those to qualify each year back in the '70s. They were the most inaccurate ammo that I have ever used in a revolver. We would fire a course with those, and afterward we'd fire it again, just to see how much higher score we could get with real +P ammo. The difference was simply amazing, but the 3-D rounds were the ones that counted. My HBWC reloads will shoot circles around those.

Assuming properly stored, etc., they will be fine. I cannot say that every police department in the world that had 38 Specials used these for practice "back in the day," but I am willing to say that ALMOST every police department in the U.S. did so.

That load is mild shooting and is very good for range practice. It is not really a true "match" load. It is strictly a target practice load. But, it is an excellent load for that purpose.

It is a shame that 3D went out of business. I always felt a shooter, either individual or department, got excellent value for the money with 3D brand 38 Special loads.

I bought about 1000 rounds of this from Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore and think it is still available. It has worked fine for me.

we too used them for quals....... watch out for protruding primers. upside primers...... other than that, they were a decent quality, short range practice ammo that was FREE........... a very good thing for small town police officers & deputies back in the day.........

Our local indoor range stocked them and when we had our informal PPC league shooting every other week, they were always a good fall back if we didn't have time to do any reloading the week before. I never noticed any QC problems with the ones any of us shot back then.

Froggie

Good stuff.

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The box says guaranteed accuracy. It doesn't mention good.

They are very soft shooting and reasonably accurate for plinking.

they loaded other bullets too. I happen to have a couple boxes of SWCs. I shot wabbits with them out of an old 1st year Highway Patrolman...I even hit a few...LOL

Sold truck load to local PDs, Sheriffs and the Police Certification School. I also shot many my self. Some ordered WC and others 148gr RN. Don’t remember any problems with them.

Definitely a low-buck Reman company from the late 80's and possibly early 90's. Black Hills ran circles around them. The ammo was certainly priced right when I was buying on a high school kid budget. I think they had some newly manufactured ammo also.

One thing nobody else has mentioned...

Often a box of their reman ammo had all different head stamps and brass/nickel mixed but what I found particularly obnoxious with 3-D is that they would hard-stamp "3-D" right over the original head stamp on the cartridge case.

Somewhere here in the gun room I still have assorted .357 Magnum brass that was obviously Winchester Super-X but with a "3-D" stamped over it. The net result is a case head that just looks like someone tried to stamp it twice and neither is all too easily legible.

I think it was a dumb idea and I suspect that 3-D eventually thought it was also a dumb idea because lots of their stuff didn't have this treatment.

Judging by your picture, it doesn't look like these are so stamped.

First ammo we had for training in 1980 was 3-D SWC remanufactured. It shot 10 ring from 25 on in but was not so good at 50yds. I dont remember it having very many or any failures to fire.
I was on a small (42) man dept in IA. then and it was cheap enough the dept could afford to let guys shoot 50 rounds a week during the warm months if they wanted to do so. I happened to be the R/O, assigned to run the range 1 day a week also mow/trim/paint and cleanup. But I shot enough of it through my S/W NEW model 586 6", at a set of plates the reserves made to sink a boat.
EOW was 1600 and I didnt quit shooting until it was too dark to see most range days. When I started shooting PPC it was fine for 25 and in.
I used my own reloads or Remington W/C, the US Secret Service left me after using our range, for 50 yards.

I loved that company and their ammo.

The last boxes that I got, were "Red Box" 110 gr jhp for my .357 Magnum.

Lots of good stuff has floated down stream, over the years.
If lucky enough, you will stock up before the gate closes.

I have been left on the dock, several times , over my years of shooting
but still manage a small smile, to this day.

3-D owned a large portion of the law enforcement training ammo market during my time in that arena (early 1970s and onward). The boxes were blue back then, and I still have dozens of them I use to stock my own reloaded .38 Special ammo (when I run out of old boxes I use zip-lock sandwich bags).

WC, HBWC, SWC, probably a few other selections. We burned them up in practice and range qualifications for years with no significant complaints that I recall.

I was working for a mid-sized city police department. We bought all of our own uniforms and equipment, but for some unknown reason the department provided ammo for range qualifications and training. Never figured that out.

__________________
Life of the party until 8:00PM

3D didn't own just the LE ( training) market , but " range or practice " ammo generally .

It was NOT terrible ammo , rather it was mid level , mid price commercial reloads , and was the yardstick that all commercial reload .38 ammo was judged .

I did use the World's Worst Reload Ammo , back in late '80s it was $28/ 1000 , brass exchange . It gave 105 fps ES in 5 shot string , and was So Dirty , took over an hour to clean . I quickly declined to shoot it for free ( employer supplied practice ammo).

Of course it had mixed brass , that was the norm for commercial reloads .

Yes , Black Hills Reloads were excellent ammo . But they cost almost twice of 3D , and nearly as much as basic new ammo .

However , the 3D .357 Mag , lead SWC did give severe leading .

Hornaday purchased 3D , but after a cpl years the let the ammo and component lines die off with little fanfare .

I remember buying those and Zero brand reloads for $3.99 when I started shooting handguns in the early 90s.

That was a good deal ! Typical retail for individual boxes was about $5 .