Texas Star
US Veteran
1. Relatively weak powder charge;
2. Round nose jacketed bullet allowed for no expansion, which is where you get lethality from a .38 Special cartridge.
We did our best to obtain better ammunition when we could get away with it.
Boy, did you get that right! In our AP unit in Denver in the 1960's, the NCOIC took unit funds and bought Hi-Speed (.38-44) ammo off base because those 130 grain FMJ bullets had a rep for low stopping power. They were a primary reason why the USAF began agitating to adopt a 9mm pistol.
I've been baffled as to why that M-41 load was ever adopted. I think the idea was to generate low recoil, to help airmen who had very little experience with handguns to get higher target scores and to maybe allow use of the ammo in Aircrewman guns with aluminum cylinders. Those were withdrawn when the cylinder weakness became known, but the light powered ammo persisted.
