Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The 38 thread

S&W had to work pretty hard in the post-war period to win over the rank-and-file bullseye shooters. The result was the K-38, and after that it was pretty much a tossup between the two.

I picked the gun up and it was pretty heavily pitted. It originally had a 6.5" barrel. I was in Boise and met up with a John Taffin and a mutual friend for a gunshow. I mentioned that I was looking for a shorter barrel and a grip frame, as the one it wore had some fancy grips on it. John said stop by the house. So after the show, I went to his house and he gave me a new grip frame for the gun (the one it is wearing now) and showed me how to swap frames. He also had a spare shorter barrel for the gun that he gave me. I had a smith put the shorter barrel on. I call this my "Taffin" gun.

Kid,

Yours looks great. They are a pretty handy sized gun and good for a general purpose outdoors gun. Not much they won't digest, and since the finish is already worn you don't have to worry about water and mud and stuff. That makes them pretty practical to me.

I just put a BUNCH of rounds through my old Model 15 Combat Masterpiece the other day.





Started with some .38 Short Colts.



shot them in the upper left corner.

Those little guys in a K Frame are like shooting .22mags lol.




Then I shot a bunch of poly coated 148 grain poly coated wadcutters.

Love the wadcutters in the K Frame. That is a perfect pairing.




Spent a bunch of time at 7 and 10 yard shooting quick double action. The Model 15 makes getting good hits with the poly wadcutters fairly smooth.

Some may find this interesting.

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...l-police-38-special.cfm?gun_id=102591415

A 4th model headed my way.

Couldn't help it....

You’re not helping me out here. I’m shopping and trying to be patient while I wait for a deal.

Show us a pic when it arrives.

Will do.


I was not patient and did not wait for a deal, but I think I did alright.

Had this one in my watch list, but wasn't paying attention to end date. Oh well.

Colt Officer's Model Match - 1961

I saw that one too LD and wondered where it would go. I bid on the Officers Model Special with the funky Sile target grips but didn’t pursue it very far. I think it went to $412 but had been reblued and the impossible to find rear sight had been filed on. I’ll find a nicer one.

Saw that one too, Kid. But, it just didn't appeal to my taste. Lol.

I don't have the appetite for projects now as much as I did when I was younger.

What are you guys using for bulk reloading for 38s?

I’ve been on the fence for ages about getting a progressive of some stripe. Always spend the money on another revolver and keep chugging along with my old single stage. Last month I loaded and shot over 500 rounds through my revolvers and the bulk of that was 38s. I’m thinking again of getting a progressive.

I’m a cheap ass and despise Lee products for the most part. So I’ve been looking at older technology used progressive presses and I have pretty much decided at least to start with I want to just dedicate it to churning out 38 wadcutters. I shoot about 3 or 4 wadcutter loads to every 1 SWC 38 load and probably 10 38 wadcutters to every 1 of all other calibers I load.

A guy on another forum has a C&H Autochamp setup for 38s for cheap and C&H still supports them. I’ve read horror stories and I’ve read that some guys love them. I’d love a 550 but I hate to spend the coin when that would buy another K frame to shoot. I’ve been looking at old Star setups, they’re not really versatile but I don’t think I’d be really hampered if it’ll crank out good quantities of old standby loadings.

Pretty much anything that would load a pinch of HP38 under a H&G wadcutter in a reliable and speedy fashion will fulfill my wants. Input?

I don't own a 38 Special but I would bet you would get a good return on investment with a Dillon 550.

The Dillon 550 is the way to go. Hands down, no question about it. I have had one since the early 90s. Actually I should say that I bought my first one in the early 90s and have a number of them. But for a guy who shoots handguns a good bit, there is not any other press I would consider for ease of use and the amount of rounds it can make in a reasonable amount of time.

Many years ago I decided to set one up for large primers and one for small primers and I still think that is the way to go. For personal use shooting, the only thing I load on a single stage or turret press is some precision rifle stuff.

Kid,

Get a Dillon 550 and don't look back.

I bought my first 550 the first year they came out, '85 I think. I can't even guess how many rounds have been loaded on it. I load .380 to 45 Colt on the 550s.

Like M-S posted, the only thing I use my Rockchucker for is bolt action and lever rifle ammo. Take the hit and buy the 550.

550s are not just for handgun rounds.

I don't think I have loaded anything on a single stage for 25 years, at least.

Dillons have done all my rifle and handgun loading for so long I don't know if I could remember how to use a single stage press or where my collection of Rockchuckers and Big Max are hiding.

My 14-4 see's more trigger time than most of the rest combined. All the ammo that's ever gone through it came off a 550B

Picked up this 14-3 yesterday. Bit of bluing wear and a few marks here and there. Fine for what I'm looking for, planning on shooting it quite a bit.

These are my favorite kind, they don't have to be babied and they're just begging to be shot.