One of the reasons people had trouble shooting the M58 (and remember that back then the standard cop was a good sized male) is that much of it was one handed shooting. The revolution in technique coming from Cooper and his friends of the Big Bear/Leatherslap days was a decade off. One hand shooting unless one has no way to use the second hand (wounded, etc) is a bad choice. There were two types of factory ammo then - the mid range 210 grain SWC, which leaded like a monster and was a pain the backside as a result, and the full house (1400-ish fps) 210 grain JSP. There is no reason to use a JSP in LE if decent SWC is available, period, so using that hunting load was just dumb. (Command level idiocy is a constant in LE.
) It is really unpleasant to shoot, and hard to shoot well. (I carried a speedloader of it as a 3rd reload, just in case, but it was not a good general duty load.)
When I was younger and tougher, I did shoot the JSP. I took it to the range during my FI class and qualified with it. Under a covered firing point. My name was combined in all sorts of ways with nasty language - darned thing was loud and the concussion bothersome. Even those on the other side of the divided (10 foot high concrete wall) outside range were cussing me. I qualified with it for my first LEOSA qual a couple years back on an indoor range, with a lead restriction, so had to use JHP hunting loads. Nasty. Did ok considering I don't shoot revolvers often, but not a good choice.
We have learned in the 50 years since then that handguns suck and that a rifle should be the first choice if expecting a problem one cannot avoid (such if you're a cop). There is no real performance difference in terminal ballistics among service calibers as long as one shoots for and hits the right parts of the body. We did not really understand that back then; the targets used did not at all reflect anatomical reality, etc. Under those conditions, the .41 SWC was a better choice than anything in .38, especially in the many agencies stuck with the RN garbage. If one is shooting at and hitting the right spots, a .38 SWC is adequate, and as a general rule, in most revolver calibers, I prefer a good SWC for duty/defense over an JHP. (I rarely carry a revolver, and most of the time it would be in 45ACP, so I carry duty ammo for an autopistol in it of course).
