Since revolvers have fallen so much out of favor, there's many who have forgotten, and a whole new generation of shooters who may never know how wonderful the mild target revolver cartridges are to shoot.

.32 S&W (long or short), .38 Special, and .44 Special probably the best of the bunch. Of the 3, the one I enjoy the most just for the pleasure of shooting is the .38 Special. The cartridge is so mild in target loadings, it's a wonderfully accurate round, and the .38 Specials made by Colt & S&W are just magnificent examples of the gunmakers art. I prefer .38 Special because the revolvers in .38 Special are more ergonomic than the large frame .44's, and they're much easier to find and cheaper than a target grade .32.

Most cite the Colt Officers Match, or S&W Target Masterpiece/Model 14 as the ultimate .38 Special, and those are absolutely wonderful revolves to shoot. But deep down in my soul I'm a 4" barrel revolver kind of guy, so my favorite .38 Special has always been the S&W Combat Masterpiece/Model 15.

The .38 Special is without a doubt the easiest cartridge (handgun, rifle, or shotgun) I've ever reloaded. I started off buying Speer swaged 148gr full wadcutter bullets, but eventually managed to pick up a Lyman 358429 Keith SWC, but the 6 cavity Lee 358-148-WC turned out to be a godsend in making large quantities of very accurate reloads. I also found the Lee 147WC to be VERY effective on jackrabbits.

If you enjoy shooting just for the joy of shooting, an older .38 Special from Colt or S&W is like Manna from Heaven. They are very accurate, have outstanding single action triggers, and generally can be had for reasonable prices.

I sometimes regret letting this one go:





Colt Shooting Master, 38spl. Made in the mid-1920s.

Nice pistola right there

It had the smoothest, most positive, action of any revolver I've ever handled. In a moment of weakness I sold it and have wanted it back ever since. Oh well, I hope it's owner has it out on the firing line and not buried in a safe. It was made to shoot in the days when 38spl revolvers owned the firing line, and it deserves better than to be treated like an investment.

Too bad the 32 Long wasnt a very popular post war revolver cartridge. Everything the 38 has as an attribute besides the obvious popularity is even more so in a 32 Long.

For mild shooting and flatter long range trajectory, 18s, 17s and OMM 22's are even better than their respective target 38s.

Shooting Master/NS Targets are just cool.

The .32 is still popular in Europe. Lapua still sells lots of brass for it. Very pleasant round to shoot.

All things considered though. The .38 Special is more convenient as far as choices.

It makes for a good day shooting a Mod 14 or 15. Hell, even a Mod 10 makes me smile.

Oddly enough, the 32 S&W likely is more popular in autoloaders than in revolvers these days. Here's a Benelli I used to own, chambered in 32 S&W and made for Olympic rapid fire competition:

That's cool as hell!

Great gun. A good companion to the S&W Model 52.

Here is my favorite 38 Sp. only problem is they recommend limiting the 38 +P in it's use.
No problem as it's just a fun paper puncher for me.
Colt Diamondback.

Oh man, I'll bet you do. Well, most of us have those stories. Consider yourself fortunate that you had one for a while.

Agreed!
That's precisely why I put .38 Special as number one. Target grade .32's are far less common than the ammunition, and the ammo isn't exactly easy to find.

Yeah, it was intended as a target revolver, not a combat gun. But how cool would it be to have a matching set in .22LR and .38 Special??

You ever loaded the plated DEWCs like those from Berrys? Interested in powder & charge.

Colt recommends a maximum Lifetime of 3000 rounds of +P. Same as for as the Detective Special Series Two and Three, which is a smaller frame of coarse. They did not stamp +P on the barrel like they do now. No big deal, use +P only for limited practice with your "business loads" if you plan on using it for that.

I do have the .22 and .38 Diamondbacks. A pleasure to shoot. My hands fit the S&W grips better, but the quality of the Diamondback makes up for it.

I'm not Kevin, but I've loaded those. 3.1 gr of Titegroup IIRC but you might want to start at 2.7.

Thanks for the info. What I'm loading now is 5.2gr of Power Pistol. Don't load them flush with the case mouth but just short of the throat. I SWAGed that load from whatever info I could gather. Also have loaded some with BullsEye but can't check the dose right now. Just curious what other folks are doing.

I shoot both but the 32s are full-on target guns. Very accurate and light recoil. 3 of these 4 are 32s. All are lights out accurate.

No sir, never have. Always cast my own.

The 327 offers hard-hitting accuracy with the hunting bullets and target accuracy with wadcutters. This target the Blackhawk averaged 1626 fps (664 ft/lbs). Good handgun for a lot of applications.