Underwood 38 Special Wadcutter very short review

[Magnum_PI]

I recently got a 340 M&P. Love the new carry piece. It's great. Light. Does everything my 640 Pro does except tame recoil as much.

I decided to try some Underwood 38 Wadcutters. They've been billed as being a good round for the lightweights.

My opinion. Hated them.

Good bit of recoil, smokey as all get out at the range, not comfortable or "lighter" in recoil as I've read, and did I mention SMOKEY! I felt like it was an old western with gunsmoke everywhere.

Long and short, I'll stick to my usual Federal Hydrashok rounds I get. They work, they're accurate, and don't smoke up the range like it's a Roadhouse Honky Tonk.

Also, I didn't feel they were as accurate as my usual rounds.

 

[Bald1]

Hydra shock is an expensive practice round ?

 

[Rammer Jammer]

Underwood and Buffalo Bore wadcutters are loaded so hot they defeat the purpose of standard wadcutters. Low powered and low recoil.

 

[Magnum_PI]

Hydra shock is an expensive practice round ?

To clarify, not for practice, but for carry.

I've heard wadcutters can be good out of such short barrels for a SD load. Wanted to test it out. Didn't like them.

 

[Magnum_PI]

Underwood and Buffalo Bore wadcutters are loaded so hot they defeat the purpose of standard wadcutters. Low powered and low recoil.

Now that I've tried it, I'd agree.

It was meant for snubby carry for SD, but I did not like them. Oh well. Better round (for me) wins out. Little smoke and no smell is a bonus. I like the smell of burnt powder, but these Underwood didn't smell... pleasant.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

I recently got a 340 M&P. Love the new carry piece. It's great. Light. Does everything my 640 Pro does except tame recoil as much.

I decided to try some Underwood 38 Wadcutters. They've been billed as being a good round for the lightweights.

My opinion. Hated them.

Good bit of recoil, smokey as all get out at the range, not comfortable or "lighter" in recoil as I've read, and did I mention SMOKEY! I felt like it was an old western with gunsmoke everywhere.

Long and short, I'll stick to my usual Federal Hydrashok rounds I get. They work, they're accurate, and don't smoke up the range like it's a Roadhouse Honky Tonk.

Also, I didn't feel they were as accurate as my usual rounds.

Nice review and thank you for sharing.

 

[crstrode]

Underwood is self defense ammo, not range plinkers.

Practice with regular stuff, defend with the good stuff.
Underwood is good stuff.

 

[stansdds]

Underwood advertises their 150 grain wadcutter load as having a muzzle velocity of 1000 fps. It's definitely not target wadcutter 38 Special, but a full power load using a polymer coated, hard cast lead bullet.

 

[tom2]

watched a new vid last night of a guy firing plus P 158 LHP loads(FED, REM) from a snub into gel. Well they penetrated enough but at best went from being a lead SWC HP to the nose flattening out to more resemble a WC, rather than expansion above caliber size. So he might as well have fired WC ammo. The tracks were also narrow as you would expect. But anything like that has to be better than LRN ammo.

 

[tom2]

And years ago I read a magazine article by a guy advocating for WC in snubs for SD due to the lack of expansion at that time, maybe late 80s timeframe. But his targets were styrofoam cups, a real challenge for a hard hitting load, Ha. Maybe it proved the accuracy factor which is a useful aspect.

 

[petepeterson]

If a HP doesn't expand, what did you really lose compared to a WC?

I thought the point of shooting WCs was to make a snubby a little easier on the hand. If you're going to hot-rod it, might as well shoot an expanding (maybe) bullet.

 

[robvious]

I thought the trick was to use HBWC backwards for SD use...

 

[markeb]

Get you some reloaded wadcutters from Precision Delta ammo. Great stuff. I keep it loaded up in my EDC 442 with a 5 round speed strip.

 

[tom2]

Yea the HBWC backwards is an interesting idea. I think I loaded some like that one time but do not recall shooting them. The problem with those might not be expansion but because of the thin skirt facing forward it might be unstable or break apart on impact. But I got no gelly to find out myself.

 

[Nevada Ed]

A lot of companies load wadcutter ammo with powders that just go "Bang" and let the bullet clear the barrel.

I only know of two companies that use minimum smoke powder and also light recoil.

Todays ammo is a lot different in these times.

 

[JMD999]

Try some std velocity 148 wadcutters 700 fps, punch clean hole, hard to deflect, goes deep, doesn't need to expand.
It works as good today as it has for the last 100 yrs.
My .02

 

[hardluk1]

MagnumPI I find your tread knocking the underwood wadcutter load as smokey not as comfortable to shoot as the Federal Hydrashok a bit of a joke . haha
So lets see , a 150gr wadcutter at a higher rated velocity 1000fps while the Federal Hydrashokat a +P level with a 130gr bullet at 900fps .

The underwood load has the ammo spec on there page of the ammo your interested but to late now . You could also try federal 130gr hst micro 38SP ammo that may reach a little under 900fps and with a special design hst bullet works very well .

Also since you bought a 357mag snubby you might concider getting into loading your own ammo at least for practice using a single stage kit . I have 148gr wadcutters 357mag loads for fun at 700fps from a snubby . Best part is No crud buildup from shooting 38sp ammo in a 357mag cylinder .

 

[Model19man]

To clarify, not for practice, but for carry.

I've heard wadcutters can be good out of such short barrels for a SD load. Wanted to test it out. Didn't like them.

Wadcutters are normally pretty mild. Try a different brand like Fiocchi for example. They are relatively cheap from Midway.

 

[SuperMan]

You may want to try the Lost River Ammo .38 Wadcutters.

The bullets polymer coated so there is little smoke. They come in both standard velocity and +P.

Bob

 

[Norton 750]

The Underwoods are a great choice, exactly what they advertise. Yes, they recoil. But a wadcutter cuts clean holes in the target and at 1000 FPS these are NOT target loads. Still they shoot good. For me, it is a lead semi wadcutter hollow point +P or a hot wadcutter load like this in a snubby .38 since velocity is low and expansion is iffy. They shoot just fine, but they are defense loads, not target loads. Shot this group yesterday...I will ride the river with Underwood.