Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns MOST Effective .38 Super FACTORY Load for POLICE Work??

Friends,

I'm about to be appointed as a sworn Reserve (volunteer) Deputy (at 72yo) & am buying a NOS Colt's GM in .38 Super to carry on duty..
(While I'm a longtime hand-loader, I was told by my "soon to be" supervisor that I must carry FACTORY ammo on-duty in the GM.)

WHICH factory .38 Super factory ammo do you feel is MOST effective in 124 or 147 grain JHP for general patrol use??
(I'm hoping that there is at least ONE forum member with extensive/long experience as a .38 super LEO/shooter/hunter.)

THANKS for your input in advance.

yours, tex

I'd look to Underwood Ammo, if it were me.

Not an LEO, but I was thinking the same thing.

The Underwood SKU 143, is a Super 38 load, with a 124 grain Gold Dot at 1350 fps.

Link:

https://www.underwoodammo.com/collections/handgun-ammo/cartridge_38-super

Whatever one fits in a Glock 17.

widrahthaar,

I wouldn't own a "plastic bstrd" if they were FREE. - I consider them to be dangerous, as I've been present when the owners got hurt by a ND & in one of the 2 cases, the injured person was a federal LEO (a USPS Inspector) with the weapon IN his holster on a military range. = I was the USA's Range-Master that afternoon.
(DC Metro Police have had SEVERAL, like more than 10 incidents in which the LEO was shot with his/her own weapon, ND while LEO were entering/exiting patrol cars & with the handgun IN the issue holster. - I'm told by a senior MPD officer, who is "in a position to know", that the G!@#k company has QUIETLY paid "significant compensation" to each injured person involved, after the injured officer agreed to sign a NDA.)

SORRY, but that's my OPINION,

yours, tex

LOL. Yep.

Whichever one feeds reliably in your gun. Everything else is secondary.

Whatever the FBI recommends.....

Doubt the FBI has a recommendation for a .38 Super load. A G Man probably hasn't packed a Super since Dillinger was killed.

Other than the Underwood loads suggested, I would be talking to mr. RJM.

I may check out the underwood loads. Thanks for the thread OP.

MOGC,

Inasmuch as this was a thread started by me, I can go FAR off-topic & W/O angering the OP.

Since we don't know, for certain, where/when Dillinger died, I don't know when the last "Feebie" carried a Super.
(He was likely NOT killed outside the Biograph Theater, as the deceased had all of his natural teeth, according to the autopsy in the early hours of 23JUL34.- All of Dillinger's rotten teeth were pulled during one of his prison stays at the Indiana Reformatory in 1926 & he was later treated for "oral discomfort" as a result of "ill-fitted dentures" at the Indiana Prison Farm in 1928 - Dillinger had "store-bought" upper/lower plates.)

Note: The FBI agents shot at least 3 & likely 4 "innocent bystanders" the evening of 22JUL34. - Whether the deceased man was/was not John Dillinger, whomever he was he was unarmed according to the Cook County Police Records at the time that the corpse was delivered to the morgue.

Comment: The FBI has for a long time been quite skilled at covering-up its errors & dishonest acts by agents.. = The corrupt practices on the top floor of FBI HQ did not begin during the DJT era.

yours, tex

Nice that your Boss will let you carry the best 1911 round made... ;-)

I carried a Super when I was with Dallas PD. Was a commercial loader at the time can carried a load just the same as CorBon loads today...a 115 Sierra JHP at 1450 fps... They also have a 124 at 1350 fps. Both expand very violently....

That said, for a successful LE round, little beats the .357 SIG using the Gold Dot HP ammo. The Underwood .38 Super matches that ammo almost exactly. Any test of the .357 SIG ammo would be the same for the Super...

I've carried a Super daily since 1980. My current carry round is the Underwood 90 grain Xtreme Defender. Runs 1560 from a 4.25" Commander and 1657 from a 5" GM.... If you want to see a Gel test on that ammo it is about the same as the Underwood 9mm +P+ that is reviewed by MAC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClJcJ8LQFbQ&t=589s

Here are some tests by the late great Stephen Camp:

https://hipowersandhandguns.com/Corbon%2038%20Super%20Ammo%20Tests.htm

Good luck to you...Bob

ps...do NOT carry any 147s unless it will run at least 1200 fps...what you don't need is a 10 shot .38 Special....which is what you will make that fine gun into if you go Subsonic....

And also if you are not aware, you can just buy an aftermarket 9mm barrel, have it fitted and have a 9mm for cheap practice....

RJM,

THANKS for the info. - FYI, you're exactly the sort of responder to my query that I had hoped for.

Btw, I'm a CORBON fan too, as I carried a pair of BHP when I worked OCONUS for an international agency. -
Unlike when I was on military AD with the Army/USACIDC, we were allowed to carry ANY weapons on that assignment, that we chose & could afford to acquire. = The pair of BHP that I carried on/off duty were taken from from a Narcotrafficante, who had no further use for them.
(We had an allied forces CPT on staff, who routinely carried a pair of S&W Model 29 revolver & he was a big enough guy to be able to successfully conceal those revolvers & was "one damned fine shot" with them. = CPT Santiago was commonly referred to by his friends as "El Oso"/"The Bear". - I'd guess that he about 76" tall & weighed about 325 hard pounds & was built like an NFL linebacker.)

THANKS again, tex

Interesting stuff that ought to be in a book.

...there's a lot of interesting stuff that should be in books...and shouldn't be....some people just wouldn't understand...

g5m; RJR,

TRUE ENOUGH. Fwiw, I could write a book on what happened there, though I cannot (NDA signed.) - SOME of what our team saw/did "way down yonder" (as we called that locale) 25 years later I still cannot talk about.
Some of that stuff was SAD, some simply FUNNY, some PITIABLE & some just "peculiar as H".
(One of the "peculiar as H" things was the old man from the neighborhood, who I used to see walking to town each morning (empty handed) & then saw walking home on each of the late afternoons & who was always carrying an empty 5-gallon bucket. = ODD, don't you think???)

International organizations are often VERY sensitive about "talking out of school", even though I was doing NOTHING that was "classified" or even "sensitive". = I was just a supervising teacher/advisor to the Civil Guard, National Police & the Army on revolver/shotgun marksmanship/commo gear/inventory control/etc. and also supervised the team that was helping the host government with buying/installing/using computer stuff. =====> As I said, most of our actual work was "purely routine" & frequently BORING.

Note: I had literally NOTHING to do with the "country team" operated by "an occasionally reliable government agency" (who were called" "Those people") was doing there & know NOTHING whatever about what they did.

Personal to RJR: Bob, THANKS for your help. - I talked to "Justin" at UNDERWOOD ammo.. - As the "department guidelines" REQUIRE only "JHP" ammo, he recommended their 124 grain Gold Dot JHP, Plus-P load (SKU: 143) for my uses. - He has evidently shot LOTS of it in a Colt's GM & Commander.

THANKS for the help, Gents.

yours, tex

That may be the case, but if it isn't blessed by the FBI and its testing methods, for some, no one here has even seen or done anything with a 38 Super that counts, so I my post is a mite sarcastic...