bmcgilvray
Member
Quick! What handgun cartridge is the most vilified, despised, and unloved of all? Has to be the standard velocity .38 Special 158 grain round-nose lead loading. 9mm FMJ ball gets more respect. Even the paltry .25 ACP is sometimes acknowledged to be occasionally deadly.
It's been roundly condemned in the firearms press since before I began reading the gun rags in about 1970. The rise of the internet firearms forum has heaped fuel to the fire.
I shot off the occasional box of factory 158 grain round-nose lead ammunition off for the first several years after I obtained a .38 Special revolver in the mid-1970s. There was also a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I purchased large quantities of cast lead 158 grain lead round nose component bullets for cheap. The 500-round bulk boxes of these bullets were rubber stamped: North Side Gun Shop Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. These bullets were lubed with a vile black stuff much like the old Remington component bullets and leaded like fiends if pushed to +P velocities in enthusiastic handloads. Oh, face it. They leaded like fiends when shot at standard factory velocities, especial if shot in great quantities on a single outing as I was wont to do in those days. However, if the bore was clean they were fairly accurate for hunting use.
During this time period I read of a Wyoming gun writer, who was known for his consuming fascination for the Thompson Center Contender, but who on an occasion bashed the 158 grain round nose lead .38 Special load and bullet in a published article. He claimed it was utterly worthless for stopping cottontail rabbits and that they were hopping off to their holes to get away after been shot with this load.
Wyoming rabbits must have been more tenacious of life than Texas rabbits for our rabbits keeled over readily and permanently to nothing more than the introduction of a Benjamin .177 pellet to the right place when I was a kid. The .22 Long Rifle was most efficient and the accurate .38 Special revolver was an embarrassment of riches. I snacked on a number of rabbits that succumbed to any reasonable hit from a .38 Special revolver loaded with round nose lead bullets.
For other Texas varmints and critters, even to larger sizes, these 158 grain round nose lead bullets served just as admirably as semi-wadcutter or wadcutter bullets driven to the same velocities in actual observation. All it took with any of them was a good hit.
Blessedly, I've never had need to commit a .38 Special revolver to a self-defense situation. One "hears of" failures of the .38 Special when loaded with plain ol' round nose lead bullets but I have to wonder if there is such a lot of substance to the accepted notion that the round nose lead bullet was a poor stopper. Good hits are golden and bad hits are just that, bad hits.
Perhaps we could take a thread here and "tell the tales" both pro and con, examining the standard velocity .38 Special 158 grain round nose lead load.
It's been roundly condemned in the firearms press since before I began reading the gun rags in about 1970. The rise of the internet firearms forum has heaped fuel to the fire.
I shot off the occasional box of factory 158 grain round-nose lead ammunition off for the first several years after I obtained a .38 Special revolver in the mid-1970s. There was also a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I purchased large quantities of cast lead 158 grain lead round nose component bullets for cheap. The 500-round bulk boxes of these bullets were rubber stamped: North Side Gun Shop Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. These bullets were lubed with a vile black stuff much like the old Remington component bullets and leaded like fiends if pushed to +P velocities in enthusiastic handloads. Oh, face it. They leaded like fiends when shot at standard factory velocities, especial if shot in great quantities on a single outing as I was wont to do in those days. However, if the bore was clean they were fairly accurate for hunting use.
During this time period I read of a Wyoming gun writer, who was known for his consuming fascination for the Thompson Center Contender, but who on an occasion bashed the 158 grain round nose lead .38 Special load and bullet in a published article. He claimed it was utterly worthless for stopping cottontail rabbits and that they were hopping off to their holes to get away after been shot with this load.
Wyoming rabbits must have been more tenacious of life than Texas rabbits for our rabbits keeled over readily and permanently to nothing more than the introduction of a Benjamin .177 pellet to the right place when I was a kid. The .22 Long Rifle was most efficient and the accurate .38 Special revolver was an embarrassment of riches. I snacked on a number of rabbits that succumbed to any reasonable hit from a .38 Special revolver loaded with round nose lead bullets.
For other Texas varmints and critters, even to larger sizes, these 158 grain round nose lead bullets served just as admirably as semi-wadcutter or wadcutter bullets driven to the same velocities in actual observation. All it took with any of them was a good hit.
Blessedly, I've never had need to commit a .38 Special revolver to a self-defense situation. One "hears of" failures of the .38 Special when loaded with plain ol' round nose lead bullets but I have to wonder if there is such a lot of substance to the accepted notion that the round nose lead bullet was a poor stopper. Good hits are golden and bad hits are just that, bad hits.
Perhaps we could take a thread here and "tell the tales" both pro and con, examining the standard velocity .38 Special 158 grain round nose lead load.
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