Black Hills remfg. 38 Special - does it fit in your J frames?

[Malysh]

Years ago I bought a box of Black Hills remanufactured 38 Special ammo by mistake.

I tried it in a few of my J frames, but the cylinders would not close with this ammo. I tried every one of the 50 cartridges in the box, full cylinders and individual cylinder charging holes.

I left the box for years. Yesterday, I went out to test fire the 1957 Mod 38 I recently got and a 1955 Colt Agent with hammer shroud. I brought this old box with me along with some other loads.
As I expected, the the Black Hills remfg. ammo would not work in this J frame either. It fit in the cylinder and shot well in the Agent.

Anyone else have the same experiences with this ammo?

 

[Maximumbob54]

I have fired a mountain of different branded .38 ammo and never had one that wouldn't fit a cylinder. I have had some that wouldn't extract, and some that I think may have been a bit more than +P. But not once have I had one that wouldn't go in. Now... handloads... I have set some as far from my shooting bench as I could reach... Some I wouldn't subject to a GP-100 even... Now I load my own.

 

[Frank46]

As a rule of thumb or personal safety I never shoot any ammo that may come with a firearm. You have no control over what the loader did or didn't do properly. Case in point. Some years back while at a county range I met a new shooter who had just bought a semi custom 6mmx284. He had remarked that this was the first time he had to shoot this rifle. And that the ammo had come with the gun. When the range officer called out you may load and commence fire he loaded one round and closed the bolt. None too easily I might add. When he fired the rifle nothing happened. Upon opening the bolt the case full of powder came out spilling powder all over the action. I had a steel cleaning rod in my car so I told him don't mess with the rifle until I get back with the rod to push the bullet out. Upon returning I found the shooter trying to cram another loaded cartridge into the breech. I reached down and pulled the bolt back and the bullet in that case was pushed way down into the cartridge. Well I did get the first bullet out with the cleaning rod. So our hero asks me what do I do now. I asked to see his ammo. Appeared to be handloads but no loading data on the box. I told him trash the ammo and have someone instruct you how to properly load your own. If he had successfully chambered that second cartridge is is almost certain that he would have been seriously hurt or worse. and maybe myself as I was standing next to him. Over the course of the years have seen folks fire 7-08 in 308's, 222 rems in a 223 chamber, and even a 20 guage shotgun shell lodged in a 12 guage bbl. while this post may not entirely be germaine to the origional posters problem in detirmining the proper caliber cartridge for his inherited revolver it is something all of us as shooters to think on. Please take this in the spirit in which it was given. Frank

 

[Malysh]

Frank, that's a good experience to share with our membership as a safety reminder and I thank you for posting it. Everybody should always strive to be safer around firearms.

As you noted, this remanufactured Black Hills ammo was not a hand-me-down I got with a gun deal. I merely bought a box at a local gun store.

It doesn't appear that anyone else has had similar experiences with this ammo, which is actually good news.
At least know it can be used in my Colts. It functioned fine in my old Agent a couple of days ago.

Thanks to you and Maximumbob54 for sharing your experiences.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Since Black Hills is a reputable ammo manufacturer I'm sure the box of ammo you got was a mistake and not the normal. You should have contacted them "years ago" when you first found the problem and I'm sure they would have made good on the ammo.

 

[Malysh]

Since Black Hills is a reputable ammo manufacturer I'm sure the box of ammo you got was a mistake and not the normal. You should have contacted them "years ago" when you first found the problem and I'm sure they would have made good on the ammo.

I did contact the company. If fact, the president of the company got on the phone. I explained my confusion about this and he asked for the lot number, which I gave him, and said he'd get back to me.
He never did.
He also said that sometimes older J frames had a problem with the reloaded ammo. I really don't know what to think about that.
J frames are very common 38 Specials and I would have expected that a 38 Special load should work in any 38 Special gun.

After posting this thread here I pulled out a Mod 640 yesterday, It's from the early 90's and is the newest J frame I own. Well, the ammo fits fine and the cylinder closes with no binding. It worked fine in the old Colt Agent, too. It just didn't fit in old J frames I own - a 1962 Mod 37, a 1954 Centennial Airweight, a 1961 Mod 40, a 1974 Mod 38 and most recently, a 1957 Mod 38.

I didn't post the thread to complain about the company, just to see if anybody else had similar experiences. Nobody at Coltfourm had had this type of experience either.

Just one of those things I guess......

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Well you can't force them to answer you but that stinks they didn't. I agree, it's probably just one of those things and at least you can fire it in a few of the revolvers you have...

 

[OFT II]

It may be that your J frame has tight chambers that are still in tollerance. The ammo may be slightly oversize but still in tollerance. I have had some of my reloads be tight in one of my guns but fit well in another.

Engineers call it "a stack-up of tollerances".

 

[Malysh]

It may be that your J frame has tight chambers that are still in tollerance. The ammo may be slightly oversize but still in tollerance. I have had some of my reloads be tight in one of my guns but fit well in another.

Engineers call it "a stack-up of tollerances".

Maybe, I'm not a gunsmith, but you have to remember I checked the load with 5 different older J frames of different years and it wouldn't work in any of them. It's hard to believe that all of these various J frames made from 1954-1974 had tight chamber tolerances. In all tests, the ammo inserted easily into the various revolver cylinder charging holes and ejected freely when tipping the barrels up as you would to eject spent cartridges. The ammo DID fit in an early 90s Mod 640.

But, it's not a write off as it fit in my Mod 640, Colt Agent and a Colt Cobra. It was bought as practice ammo and it won't go to waste.

When I bought the box I didn't pay attention, I thought I was buying new production Black Hills 38 Special. I didn't realize until I opened the box a few weeks later that I bought their remanufactured 38 Special.