Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The 38 thread

There's a lot to be said for that.

Shot my grandpa's old 38 special earlier today:


No recoil at all. Almost forgot how nice the 38 is to shoot. It's been a while!!! Grew up with a 29-2, so the 38 was always considered a little pistol..

I haven’t seen an RG in forever, thought maybe they’d all died out by now. I did have one in 44 Mag come through the shop once. Never knew they made such a creature.

I’ve expanded my horizons. Colt Officers Model Heavy barrel inbound. Guess the Dillon will get backburnered for a while longer but I couldn’t pass for the price.

Between snail mail and waiting on the check to clear I’ll probably have two weeks to load a stack of wadcutters before it gets here.

Carried 38 Special with +P ammo when in law enforcement, excellent caliber, my all time favorite. Load 38 Specials in 357 Mag as well.

My Dad's 15-3 as I received it from him:



I had to do a grip upgrade, and now need to get out and shoot it!

Damn! Looks like it's new from the factory. You can really see that pre-1982 attention to detail on the finish. Beautiful.

There's one just about like that up for sale at the pawn shop down the street for over a grand, but it has the original box, and claims to be unfired.

That’s a very nice 15.

It sure is.

I just got a Model 64-3 in a 4” heavy barrel square butt configuration.

I plan to let it live its life out on 158 SWC over a dose of LongShot or Bullseye unless we are tromping in hog territory and then I’ll have a load with a little more pep to it for woods stomping.

Seriously considering a SWCHP for my woods load. Never shot them before but I’d like to give them a whirl.

I doubt the soft lead hollowpoint would give you the best performance on a mid-size to big hog. Penetration is desirable on a critter like that and a proper hard-cast SWC or flat point would be a better choice.

I have never had any problem with soft bullets on hogs. Hit them right, and they tend to go down. I've killed fairly large hogs with a 9mm 115JHP, did the job just fine. Even a soft hollow point with enough umph and placed in the right spot will do. That's for hogs up to about 350 lbs. Once they get bigger, then consider a 158 at magnum velocities...and yes, your 64 can be loaded to full magnum velocities; it has the same cylinder as the magnums, just a shorter chamber.

Agreed, I intend to push it into the upper range woods loads. I can’t see me shooting it enough to wear it out with heavy loads.

As far as hogs, I have killed enough of them with a 36-38 grain hollow point out of a 22 that I’m not terribly concerned with the bullet.

A big hog on our lease is 225#.

I have killed hogs with a .22 LR also. But not while they were chewing on my leg. To each his own and choices are good.