I love coming here to the accurate reloader. You can ask questions and not get berated for asking a stupid question and get quality real world answers. I was listening to a reloading pod cast the other day. One of the hosts made a comment about feeding a 357 a steady diet of 38's would somehow make it hard to load or shoot when you wanted to put a 357 through it. Did I hear him wrong or am I missing something out there? Any in put or discussions from you folks? Thanks

The .38's might build up enough crud in front of the case mouth to make chambering a .357 case (.1" longer) difficult. A good scrubbing would eliminate the problem. I have fired 1000's of .38 special rounds in my .357's with no permanent damage.
C.G.B.

quote:

Originally posted by cgbach:
The .38's might build up enough crud in front of the case mouth to make chambering a .357 case (.1" longer) difficult. A good scrubbing would eliminate the problem. I have fired 1000's of .38 special rounds in my .357's with no permanent damage.
C.G.B.

Agreed, I have a new model Blackhawk that I bought in the mid seventies, no idea how many 38 special rounds I've put through it, but many thousands. I can't detect any problems as a result of the use of those rounds. Of course I also clean the revolver on a regular basis.

There would be, yes, a build up of powder residue and possibly bullet lubricant if used .38 with cast or swaged bullets. In time if you don't keep on top of cleaning this build up may indeed stop .357 cartridges from chambering.

This is one of those topics that MAY qualify for the title "urban legend" or rather "gun writer's legend".
It is certainly true that after firing a lot of rounds through a revolver, without cleaning/scrubbing with a bronze brush, careful examination of the cylinders WILL show a build up of something around where the case ends. I personally have NEVER experienced a failure to chamber 357 cases after firing a bunch of 38 spl. rounds. Neither have a met anyone who has personally had this happen to him. However, several knew someone who knew someone who had it happen to him. So, could it happen? Yes? Would it happen with normal care and maintenance? I doubt it. Real world experience would be from a police armourer responsible for distribution and maintenance of firearms at a police academy back in the old days.
I suspect that the buildup is just ahead of the forcing cone in a 357 chamber.
Peter.

I’ve never had it happen where I could not get the .357’s in the cylinder... hard insertion, yes, but not unable. This was after like 200 rounds of dirty HBWC ammo.

So it is conceivable but pretty unlikely if you don’t bother to clean the cylinder.

I agree with all of the above. The S+W mod. 19 that I bought in 1970 has had a steady diet of both over the years but as stated above + just good common sense,keep it clean.

After reading all these responses it makes sense. The guys I was listening to make all their own bullets. But it somewhat confuses me that after all of the responses about cleaning they would have said that? I guess that being I clean and inspect my weapon that I would have taken that for granted that a blogger would have done the same thing. Anyway thanks folks for the great info.

I shot many 10's of thousands of 38spl in 357 revolvers and still do.

Had enough build up to make 357 hard chambering even few times they wouldn't chamber.


How many rounds did it take never kept track.

Many hundreds maybe a thousand or more.

Yes I shot them until they were very dirty.

Not my carry guns. They are cleaned after I shoot them every time.

When one owns many using one until it so dirty that it starts having trouble is not big thing.

Nothing a brass brush and a little scrubbing didn't take care of.

Yep,X2.

Keep the cylinder clean as lead build up can cause problems in several ways I suppose..Ive seen that problem with wadcutter 38s at the range..maintenance is the cure.