686 Ammo

[mheideman]

Im new to revolvers, and just purchased a 686. What ammo do I buy? The 686 says its a .357 MAG/.38 +P. I understand about the .357, but what about the .38? Is it .38 special, .38 S&W, or only .38 +P? What brand do you recommend for all around shooting? What brand do you recommend for home defense?

Harder and harder to find ammo lately. Cabelas has just about everything on backorder, and my local Sportsmans Wherehouse only has .22's and shotgun ammo.

Any suggestions on a good website for ammo?


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[mheideman]

Im new to revolvers, and just purchased a 686. What ammo do I buy? The 686 says its a .357 MAG/.38 +P. I understand about the .357, but what about the .38? Is it .38 special, .38 S&W, or only .38 +P? What brand do you recommend for all around shooting? What brand do you recommend for home defense?

Harder and harder to find ammo lately. Cabelas has just about everything on backorder, and my local Sportsmans Wherehouse only has .22's and shotgun ammo.

Any suggestions on a good website for ammo?


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[stevieboy]

One of the great assets of the 686 is its versatility. Your gun will fire any commercial ammunition in .38 special or .357. The +P refers to .38 special ammunition that is somewhat hotter than standard .38 special but not so powerful as .357 magnum.

I feel your pain when it comes to ammunition shortages. I buy mostly from Midway Sales. As of yesterday they were out of stock of virtually every brand and every type of .38 special and .357 magnum ammo. However, they allow backordering for most of the items in their catalogue and my experience has been that an item on backorder usually ships within a week or 10 days from date of order.

My guess is that the Great Ammunition Panic of 2009 will end eventually once the hoarders top off their stocks. There have been panics like this one in the past and they never last forever. So, be patient. That doesn't mean there will be an ammo glut, however, or that prices will tumble.

 

[stevieboy]

I should have added one cautionary note about firing .38 special ammo from your 686. The gun will handle the ammunition just fine (I shoot .38s from my 686 about 90% of the time) but, if you shoot it, it's very important to keep the chambers clean. That's because the .38 cartridge is 1/10 inch shorter than the .357 cartridge and, after even moderate firing with .38s, a ring of carbon will build up at the front of the chambers. That ring may eventually narrow the chambers sufficiently to make it difficult to load the longer .357 cartridges. The solution is simple. After each trip to the range brush out your chambers vigorously, using a bronze brush and solvent and then, remove the residue with solvent soaked patches followed by dry patches. Keep your chambers clean and you'll never have a problem interchanging ammo.

 

[mnhntr]

i shoot alot of the remington UMC 38+p 125gr jhp ammo because its cheap

 

[Careby]

[deleted]

 

[mheideman]

Thanks for the responses.

Finding ammo right now is like a grown-ups version of an Easter egg hunt, except alot less fun.



-Mike

 

[JayDubya]

I have a 4" 686+, the seven-shooter, which I take to the range usually weekly. At home, it is loaded with a no-longer produced Cor Bon +p .38sp that bought seven years ago along with my 637 Airweight, and found to be WAAAY too much for an Airweight. When the Cor Bon is gone, I will load the 686+ with what I keep in my 637: Remington's .38sp +p LSWCHP -- the FBI load. I doubt if I will ever fire .357 ammo with it -- don't need it for home defense. But I love shooting that 686+. For range ammo (in other words, 99% of my shooting), I recommend www.mastercast.net. I have fired off more than seven thousand of their reloads, mostly 158gr SWC and 148gr WC. Reliable, prompt and inexpensive. To really get the price down, send them your spent brass (same type and number ordered) in exchange. I send them mine in thousand case lots by USPS Priority Mail for nine bucks and change. Any other way I know of costs more than twenty dollars.

I've pretty much standardized on the 148gr WC. It is accurate, easy to shoot, and cuts beautiful holes in the target. I also get my 9x19 range loads from Mastercast. Excellent stuff too. Check the site.

Cordially, Jack

 

[mheideman]

Those are some good prices, it looks like I need to collect some brass first though.