38's vs 357's

[petepeterson]

I was always fascinated and wanted to try some of the lead wadcutter hollow points sometimes referred to as the FBI load in my GP100 and Tracker 692. Some of you guys on here are Hilarious!!!!(meant in a good and positive way)

A quick search will find you a box for 25-30 bucks. There's nothing magical about them, other than a good rep. It's a good load, but anything they stopped from happening most likely would've been stopped with another .38. Shot placement uber alles.

 

[stansdds]

.40 S&W has entered the chat

LOL!!!! Four it is!

 

[rwsmith]

I was shooting....

I was shooting wadcutters out of my .357 last Thursday and the recoil was pretty dang stiff. Of course they were loaded with 14.5 grains of 2400.

I'm getting older so I should probably move to a poo poo loading like "light specials" in a model 29.

 

[Patrick L]

I belive the " light Special" quote was from Magnum Force, not The Enforcer.

The .38s ricocheting off windshields was indeed The Enforcer.

I loved those movies as a teenager. It seemed to me the guns were as much the stars as the actors. Dirty Harry was very much the Model 29 vs the Walther P38 (at least the ending.) Magnum Force was clearly the Model 29 vs the Colt Python throughout, both on the range and for real. The Enforcer was M16s and LAWs rockets. And Tynne Daly had the snub Python. Then of course Sudden Impact (I thought it was getting old by then) was the Automag. By Dead Pool I just lost interest.

And let's light a candle to Albert Popwell, who was in the first 4 films, always a different tragic character. Poor guy was a bank robber who gets shot but survives in Dirty Harry ( and didn't feel lucky) the pimp killed by motorcycle cop in Magnum Force, a black activist who get arrested in The Enforcer, and finally Horace in Dead Pool, also unfortunately killed.

 

[charlie sherrill]

Several years ago near Lumberton.Ms. the police chief and another officer were chasing bad guys who had robbed a bank in nearby Poplarville, Ms. One of the bad guys jumped in the back seat of the getaway car and hanging out the window emptied a 1911 at the pursuing chief. He hit the windshield of the cruiser three times, one right in front of the steering wheel, and all three rounds cracked the windshield and bounced off without penetrating. They were captured a few miles later when they ran off the road.

 

[Three Tees]

You guys are all missing the point! Just watch some of the early gangsta' movies and you'll see the goblins shooting their 45s laid over on their sides and shoving their guns forward as they're fired which gives the bullets an additional 3,000 fps muzzle velocity.

 

[stansdds]

Several years ago near Lumberton.Ms. the police chief and another officer were chasing bad guys who had robbed a bank in nearby Poplarville, Ms. One of the bad guys jumped in the back seat of the getaway car and hanging out the window emptied a 1911 at the pursuing chief. He hit the windshield of the cruiser three times, one right in front of the steering wheel, and all three rounds cracked the windshield and bounced off without penetrating. They were captured a few miles later when they ran off the road.

That's because the 45 ACP was designed to kill a man (and his soul), not a car. Most windshields are pretty hard to defeat. It is laminated glass, which spreads out impact forces, and it's angled, so it deflects objects rather than absorbing the full impact.

 

[Doug M.]

^ Without knowing the loading, hard to judge. We trained on windshields and other stuff with issued 45 ACP ammo and did fine. There is a reason for that aspect of the FBI testing. I am pretty are that 45 app ball ammo would not do well on a windshield.

 

[clang444]

If we got all our guns & ammo facts from movies, many more people would be carrying .32s since they "hit like a brick through a plate glass window"...

 

[SWFan27]

If we got all our guns & ammo facts from movies, many more people would be carrying .32s since they "hit like a brick through a plate glass window"...

And if we took advice from gun grabbers, we would all know that a 9mm will blow lungs out.

Was Dirty Harry Right About Windshields? - YouTube

 

[Sgt. Buzzard]

Went OTJ in '73 and issued 158gr, LRN. Not only bounce off windshields but direct square hits on a door panel they'd get stuck in the interior panel. Worthless.

Super Vel caught on and at twice a year inspections the shift Commander would check for 18 issued rounds of LRN and shake your mace to make sure you haven't been using it without an arrest or report filed.

The night shift bosses would leak the word on upcoming inspections. Less paperwork for all involved. Night shift in the east side sector's were war zone related. Always action. We'd get off duty at 0400. Yes, choir practice was a real thing. Fun times.

 

[Malysh]

And Tynne Daly had the snub Python

Good post. But, Tynne Daly was toting a Colt 2.5" bbl. Diamondback 38 Sp., not a Python.