Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W K38 Target Masterpiece and Colt Detective Special

I went out to a parishioner's place today to shoot the steel targets I have set up out there. He was out shooting when I arrived. I had only brought along my S&W K38 Target Masterpiece, which is my fun gun/trigger time gun. I reload a 155 gr. SWC cast from an H&G #51 with 4 gr. of W231 behind it - easy shooting, accurate, and cheap to reload. He had a little snubby laying there as well that he showed me. His father-in-law is a retired LEO and this was his carry piece. It's a Colt Detective Special in .38 Special with 2" barrel. His FIL gave it to him last year and some of his reloads to go with it. Because I don't shoot other people's reloads, when he offered me the chance to shoot it, I filled the cylinder with my own loads. From 50 yds I hit the 14" steel target two times out of six, single action slow fire. From 20 yds, I put 4 out of 6 on the center 6" plate and the other two on the quarter circle plate up and to the right of the center plate. I fired the ones from twenty yards double-action as fast as I could acquire sight picture and squeeze the trigger. Two observations - I don't normally do that well with double-action with my K38 at 20 yds. The double action on that Colt was just one long, smooth, pull with what felt like perfect trigger geometry in relation to grip angle. My K38 is also an absolutely smooth pull - but the trigger geometry feels different and not as conducive to accurate rapid-fire. Can anyone who knows more about these revolvers tell me if I'm right? Or is there something different going on? I put two more cylinders through the Colt at 20 yds and hit steel every time. My K38 didn't feel as good when I tried to do the same. The K38 has target grips on it and the Colt had factory grips with a Tyler's Grip inset on the inside of the grip that felt perfect.
Here's the reloading question: The same loads fired from the K38 with a 6" barrel hit the steel MUCH harder than the same loads from the 2" barreled Colt. How much velocity do you suppose is lost with those 4" of barrel? Is it still the standard 50 fps per inch of barrel? I'd love to have one of those Colts as a carry piece! But I'm pretty sure I can't afford one...

They can be had for around 600.00 if you watch.

I think it was Skeeter Skelton that wrote "A man with a Colt could get shot twice by a S&W before he could get the Colt hammer to drop!" This regarding the long double action pull of the Colts versus the short action S&W.

i have both guns, and they both have their places. Not knocking the colt, but I am an S&W guy.

I always use the number 40fps for each inch.
The detective and the cobra are nice little guns, and have six rounds, but my heart belongs to S&W.

Thanks guys! I'm not really a handgun aficianado - I bought the K38 when .22LR prices were climbing and I was gifted 4 pounds of Bullseye and 100 pounds of 9mm brass by the local police chief who didn't want to pay hazardous material disposal fees. Selling the brass paid for half of the K38. It's not a collector piece by any means, but does shoot well! And it's cheap and easy to load for. It scratches my trigger finger itch and reloading vices nicely. And it's not going anywhere...

I had a 2" Dick Special for awhile, but it shot "off" a bit at distance, which irritated me, and I chrono-ed it, which left me wanting.

A load that shot at 93X something in a 4" Colt Trooper was only going 69X out of the 2" Colt.

That was enough to get it gone. The bullet was only a 129gr. bullet from a Federal? factory load, and I wasn't impressed with whatever hitting power it didn't have. I had numerous 9mms at that time that shot bullets just as heavy, almost half again as fast, and were about the same size, and held more ammo.

Damn it was smooth, though..............

First off, the H&G 51 is my requisite 38/357 bullet of choice; the LBT 140 being pretty close...that bullet is a good one.

Second; a 14 has, is and can have a DA pull easily surpassing all but the MKV Colt action. Ive never seen or fired or desired an old timey Colt over any K Smith for double action; the short Cobra or Dick Specials being the worst models for DA pull. Perfectly adequate, but with the typical Colt "heavier as you squeeze" DA.

A Colt Dick is a good carry piece, but isn't in the precision league as a 15 or 14 Smith. If one desires the Colt carry gun on a target, I'd suggest a Wolff kit or a gunsmith "fix" the SW before declaring the old timey Colt as "smooth" or better.

Ive seen a Colt DA kick the crap out of a Smith, but it was always an OMM or OMT in single action and those guns never beat the Smith for DA pull; only the MKV can rival a Smith for DA and Ive fired enough of both makes to have a decent perspective.

A K or J frame Smith can be coddled into great triggered guns; the Colt guns are a bit more specialized. .

Yeah, very different feels between the double action on an old Colt and a S&W revolver. The S&W pull is fairly even pressure all the way through, while the Colt will stack up as it reaches the break point, i.e., the pressure required to progress through the pull will increase ("stack") as you approach the break point.

Both can be learned just fine. I shoot a Colt Official Police about as well as, if not better than, a K or L Frame Smith & Wesson.

or stick a colt barrel on a model 19, and make a smithyon.

you know selmer, i keep coming back to your post, I have a k38target combat, given to me by my best friend who was in the process of dieing about 20 years ago. I don't shoot it much, but bring it out now and then. It is just dead butt accurate however.
he bought it basically for a self defense type of thing, i got him to switch to a hicap 9mm, particulary because of the areas he had to travel to for his chemo treatments.
The gun looks like its right out of the box, and i don't think it's had five boxes of shells put through it.
I probably should shoot it more.
I also have a colt 38special officers target model from the late 20's early 30's. It's a nice shooter, but i don't think it compares to that smith.