The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Personal Defence And Concealed Carry Best defense load for my little Taurus hammerless .38 snub noseGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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I'm not even really sure of the exact model. Looks like an 850. It's kinda heavy, 5 rounds in .38 and is hammerless. What I'm trying to find out about is the best over-the-counter defense load for my wife. I believe it is a +P rated gun. I don't know too much about pressure and I don't want to blow the gun up. What is the most powerful and lethal round/brand I should stick in this thing. I've always been a Hydra Shock fan but have no data to back up why. What do you think?? | ||
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+P is a STANDARD SAAMI pressure load (Sporting Arms & Ammo Mfg. Institute) It meets the specs for ALL guns in a specified caliber. http://www.saami.org/Technical.cfm Load for a J-Frame (five shot) snub revolver: 158 gr. JHP. I too am a fan of Federal Hydra Shok. Don't spend an arm/leg on "designer ammo." The 38 Spl is ample for defense, was the carry caliber for US police departments for years -- until they went to semi-auto. Someone here will doubtless post to the effect: "38 Spl. is worthless. That's why police stopped using it. I heard about some guy somewhere shooting someone with a 38 Spl. and it didn't even penetrate his jacket." Yeah, well . . . Those stories come out of the US Defense Dept. and the old 38 Smith & Wesson or 38 Russian loads. US Defense Dept. was using the 38 in combat against heavily dressed troops in cold weather. This WAS NOT the 38 Spl. And so the military dropped the 38 cal. went to 45 cal. Colt SAA revolvers. This was back in the 19th Century. 38 Spl in +P meets ballistic specs for low-end .357 mag handloads. 158 gr. JHP -- http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp 158 gr. runs in the realm of 950 fps. | |||
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The Taurus web site says the gun is +P rated, but the owner's manual has a warning against it. At least my 85UL does. Go figure. That being said, I like the size of the gun. I have Hydra Shoks in mine as well as Federal just came out again with some 125 Nyclads. The Nyclads were cheaper, so I bought them. Either should work. When I hand load for carry, I usually load 125 XTPs. Variety is the spice of life. Larry "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson | |||
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I carry Hydra Shoks in mine as well. ________________________________________________ Never met a Colt I didn't like. | |||
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Hydra Shocks, in my S&W. Wm. S. Ladd-did not want to disapoint you so I will post a story about 38s. I was in a little bar in Missouri when a disgruntled customer came back in (after being thrown out head over heels) and shot the barmaid and owner once each. Barmaid in the chest owner in the forehead. Barmaid beat the crap out of the guy while the owner just sat down with blood streaming out of his forhead. Barmaid later squeezed out a 158gr round nose out of her left breast and the owner went to the hospital and returned same night with 8 stitches. Turns out it was the disgruntled customers fathers gun from the 1930S and so were the bullets. The one that struck the owner was pulled out of the ceiling tile by the cops. I guess the lesson here would be don't trust 50 year old ammo, and never shoot a 350lb+ barmaid. You might piss her off. Customer got 15 years for attempted murder. | |||
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 Sounds like some of the barmaids in New Rhodes or Urania.Right Daniel77??  ________________________________________________ Never met a Colt I didn't like. | |||
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Damn strait,  I lived in New Roads, LA for about a year. This is a small South Louisiana town built up around a lake. One night I was looking for a place close by to have a few beers and shoot some pool. I wasn't really interested in company and didn't pay any attention to the other people in the bar. A pretty girl (pretty enough that i did notice her) walked past me and started up the juke box. After a few songs, I noticed that all of them were about women, with "brown eyed girl" jamming in the background. I also noticed, about that time, that if I chose to spend the rest of my evening in that particular bar, I'd have the men's room all to myself.  I know nothing about Urania, as that backwoods lil town is the sole territory of Griz78. | |||
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Ahh.... the good old days. The only requirement to "seeing the varmint" in Urania was to be the one buying the beer. Those girls saw wedding rings as a good challenge to see if you were loyal to the wife, or something to steal and pawn for food. Had a bud (we'll call him Chuck) who always seemed to strike out down there. Even with the bigger girls. That was bad. ________________________________________________ Never met a Colt I didn't like. | |||
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I'm betting it was NOT 38 Spl. Likely it was .38 Ruskie or .38 Smith & Wesson -- both of which are pretty puny. Taurus is making a decent gun these days, solid, rugged. +P Ammo will "shoot loose" a cheapo gun, but it's SAAMI spec load for any gun chambered in the caliber. I'm a fan of 158 gr. bullets for this caliber. "Slow Freight" -- I prefer bullet weight over velocity. No particular "hard data" on this idea. But I'll go a heavier bullet every time. Seems to work for elephants. 38 Spl. is my all time favorite reload ammo. No caliper. The load is entirely "eyeball" . . . Cheap, easy to load. Fun to shoot. I bought a Smith Mod. 10 heavy frame in 38 Spl. It's not chambered for .357 mag, although the same model gun is often chambered for .357 mag. Trigger job, and Magna Ported. It was someone's IPSC gun. 4" bbl. One of my favorites. | |||
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Thanks so much for the info guys. I wasn't about to get talked out of the .38 caliber. Now maybe a .22 LR might not be a good choice but I guarantee that even if you are hopped up on meth, if I punch you 5 times in the chest......yer goin' down!! | |||
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borrowed from a post on TheHighRoad.org: The November 2005 issue of Combat Handguns featured an article "favorite loads in the .38 snub". The Federal 158gr +p LSWC-HP out-penetrated every load by a wide margin. I believe it went 21.5" in gelatin covered in four layers of denim. Nothing, including three flavors of Corbon, came close. _____________________ A 300# thug requires penetration. Steve "He wins the most, who honour saves. Success is not the test." Ryan "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Stalin Tanzania 06 Argentina08 Argentina Australia06 Argentina 07 Namibia Arnhemland10 Belize2011 Moz04 Moz 09 | |||
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I also have used the Hydra Shok in my S&W 38 Airweight with good results but just recently switched to the Speer Gold Dot made for the short barrel. It is a 135 gr +p and designed for the 1 7/8 inch barrels. The biggest thing I notice was during my low light shooting was muzzle flash was cut in half. Though I did not do any penetration tests yet they performed pretty good in the FBI tests. Recoil was very manageable as well. | |||
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If you ever find a Model 10 in 357 magnum, BUY IT, as S&W only made the Model 10 in a very small prototype run for 357. The model 13 was the 357 version, and was discontinued because the frames could not take the 357 pounding. The L-frames were the replacements. Larry "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson | |||
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I was always kind of fond of the old Federal Nyclad 158. Pretty good results, and didn't beat the crap out of you when firing. Then Cor-Bon brought out their copy of the Treasury load. That was a big step forward for the 38. But, go with what you can get, and try really hard for CNS hits. Only way to be sure with a .38. Best of luck with your choice. Cheers, Dave. Aut Inveniam Viam aut Faciam. | |||
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since she might have to shoot some perp; I would find out what your local PD issues and buy two or three boxes of that. If something happens and she has to go to court, there isn't much anybody can say bad about her choice. Rich | |||
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There is some question about the weapon being certified for +P loads, so I can only say I'd call up Taurus and find out if you can load the Speer Gold Dot 135 grain round. I carry them in my Smith 649. Speer has come up with a fast-burning proprietary powder that really works. Recoil is noticiably higher over standard Hydra Shoks, but the Speer people developed this load, as noted, specifically for the .38 snubby. It is a very effective load. Accurate, too. | |||
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Never heard of a "38 Russian". | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Personal Defence And Concealed Carry Best defense load for my little Taurus hammerless .38 snub nose
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