.38 Special Ammo Velocity

[poordevil]

I got an ad from Target Sports online this morning and looked at .38 Special. Most is out of stock, but because a lot of discussion has been going here lately about velocity, I thought I would check out the various ammo makers velocity claims. These are velocities for 158 gr weight bullets Lead and FMJ.

Fiocchi 158 gr Lead RN 920fps

Fiocchi Cowboy Lead 640fps

Fiocchi FMJ 960

Federal LRN 770

American Eagle LRN 760

PMC LRN 840

RWS FMJ (red box) 850

RWS LRN (red box) 755

RWS Sport Ammo (gold box) FMJ 945

Sellier and Bellot FMJ 889

Remington LRN 755

Remington SWCLHP +P 945

Winchester Cowboy Lead 800

The .38 Special 158 gr bullet, from different makers, seems to be all over the board.

P.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Most of the makers will not list the length of barrel used.......

Some load lower and some higher than the accepted fps for a load as listed by SAAMI.

The "Cowboy" load is listed at 800fps...............

target 755
+P .... 890
usually with a 4" barrel.

 

[DWalt]

Nothing is certain. Different manufacturers use different methods of obtaining MVs. There is no such thing as an absolute MV standard under SAAMI and CIP specifications, although some manufacturers may have internal MV standards for quality control purposes. And of course barrel length, bore diameter, and cylinder-barrel gap differences among revolvers will have a great effect upon measured MV.

The only way to be sure is to chronograph your own loads in your own revolver.

For example, I have a 6" K-38 and a 6" Colt .357. The Colt always gives about 75 ft/sec greater muzzle velocity (more or less) than the K38 using the same .38 Special ammunition.

 

[Maximumbob54]

Euro ammo is usually loaded pretty hot. Our stuff isn't. For whatever reason lead everything is usually pretty mild I guess because swaged bullets are cheaper for mass production.

 

[Swed]

S&B

Sellier & Bellot - Pistol and revolver cartridges


S&B LRN does feel a lot hotter than Magtech LRN by personal experience

 

[chief38]

One of the reasons I bought my own Chronograph is that in 98% of the cases what the manufacturer states as velocity is meaningless. There is no standard, no specific barrel length, no common controls at all.

Buffalo Bore ammo (ALL I HAVE TESTED) does EXACTLY what they state (they test from actual guns) and the Speer Gold Dot 135 grain short barrel +P 38 Spl. will do pretty close to to what Speer states. All the rest is sort of hog wash from what I've actually Chronographed.