Home Forums Thread Like Summary - The 38 thread

We have a 32 and a 44 thread and they’re both great with lots of good info and discussion. I guess we should have a 38 thread to go with them.

I think the 38 special is my favorite handgun cartridge of all time. Bill Jordan claimed it was about all the average person could hope to master without real fanatical dedication to the larger heavier recoiling rounds and I think there’s a lot of truth to that.



While I won’t claim to have mastered it, I am actively working at it. I try to shoot at least 200-300 a week and oftentimes more. I spent a few hours earlier today casting and sizing about 500 wadcutters. A 4 cavity H&G mold along with a Star sizer have probably done more to improve my shooting than any other accessories, makes it nice when you can make a bunch of bullets quickly. They shoot very well and stay stable to at least the 50 yard line with a load of 3.5gr of W231.

I also cast and sized a couple hundred bullets from an old Cramer mold I’ve had for several years. It’s a wonderfully built 2 cavity and casts really easy. It makes what Cramer used to claim was a SWC but I would say it’s more like a RN with a tiny flat on the nose and a little bitty front driving band. Whatever it should be called it is absolutely the most accurate 38 bullet for long range shooting I have ever used. Propelled by 5.5 grains of Power Pistol it’s pretty easy to get them to land on a 12” plate at 150 yards or further.

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.