Many years ago, I spent some time
with a sheriff’s reserve unit, and my duty piece was a .38 Special Smith & Wesson Model 15 Combat Masterpiece. That gun with target sights is superbly accurate, and with the 4-inch barrel it is convenient to carry. A few groundhogs were taken with that handgun because it was available so much of the time. I remember taking one very large old fellow that had only the front half of his body projecting from his hole. In that case, a 158-grain round nose struck him just forward of the shoulder. Another was dispatched with a hot handload using a 125-grain jacketed hollow-point. Neither animal moved when hit. I never mounted a scope on my Model 15, but I believe had I done so that hits out to 50 yards or so would not have been too
difficult. Another factor to consider when
using centerfire handguns for varmints is that shooters who are sensitive to recoil and blast (one of us included) may not want to touch off a magnum handgun just to take out a groundhog. Consequently, an accurate .38 Special with appropriate loads makes a fine choice for a shooter who wants to use such a handgun within its limitations. The .38 Special cartridge is now
more than a century old. The develop- ment grew out of a need for a handgun that provided better stopping power than did the older .38 Long Colt. Al- though the improvement back then was substantial, the effectiveness of the cartridge is much greater now owing to the outstanding developments in
Velocity Data for .38 Special Varmint Loads AVERAGE VELOCITY, FT/SEC
POWDER CHARGE, GR. BULLET M60 3" M15 4" M14 6" Winchester 110-grain JHP, Winchester Cases, WSP Primer, OAL 1.455"
Unique Unique Unique
Power Pistol Power Pistol Power Pistol
5.2 5.5 5.8 6.2 6.5 6.8
Power Pistol Power Pistol Power Pistol
5.2 5.4 5.6 6.0 6.2 6.4
110 110 110 110 110 110
125 125 125 125 125 125
856 857 964 924 965
__
783 870 927 888 938
__
877 946
1,033 1,018 1,053 1,127
837 896 979 922
863 957
1,051 1,062 1,076 1,176
Winchester 125-grain JHP, Remington Cases, Remington 5½ Primer, OAL 1.445" Unique Unique Unique
899 935 986 962
1,008 1,017
1,014 1,035
These loads were safe and reliable in the authors‘ handguns, but neither the authors nor the publisher accept any responsibility for their preparation and use by others.
Page 18 July — September 2011
ammunition. The standard 158-grain load with a round nose lead bullet is not the most impressive load, but today many types of factory loads are available that feature jacketed bullets of lighter weight that are driven to rather high velocities. Excellent factory loads with 110-grain bullets are available for the .38 Special from Federal, Hornady, Winchester, and others, and some loads are available with bullet weights up to 200 grains. For those who want to hose down a reptile, shot loads also are avail- able. Although we have used some of these factory loads, and they perform well, this project deals with developing handloads for the .38 Special to make it an effective varmint round. Of course the loads also can be used in any .357 Magnum, but they were developed for revolvers chambered for the .38 Special. Handloaders have an enormous
range of bullet weights from which to choose, and they can make the .38 Spe- cial suitable for squirrels, groundhogs, targets, etc. Premium bullets such as the Winchester Silvertip®, Federal Hydra- Shok®, Remington Golden Saber®, and CCI Gold Dot® make the .38 Special more effective as a defense load than it was in its younger days. They also make it a more capable varmint cartridge. One of the problems that has
plagued us for years has to do with the nature of loading data for the .38 Spe- cial. When studying the loading manu- als, it is found that one set of data was obtained using a revolver with a 4-inch barrel, another set used a 6-inch model of a different make, still another used a 7-inch test barrel, etc. Just how the loads perform in any specific revolver must be established. It also is a fact of life that recommended charges vary widely, as do the bullet velocities they produce. Therefore, rather than just loading some cartridges and going out to hunt varmints, we wanted to provide a compilation of data for loads fired in real guns of different types to determine their characteristics. When loading the ammunition, it never was intended to push the .38 Special into the +P range because accuracy is more important in varmint hunting than is the smash that is associated with defense loads. Our current battery of .38 Special
handguns consists of four Smith & Wesson revolvers. The first is a J-frame Model 60 with a 3-inch barrel, the sec-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212