Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .38 Special High Speed

In either Sixguns or Hell I was There Elmer talked about shooting hundreds or maybe thousands of rounds of his heavy 38s through a prototype M37.

I’ve shot 6gr Unique under a 358156 out of my M36 with no worries but I don’t make a habit of it. Mainly because it’s unpleasant to shoot in that gun.

Never shot it but it duplicates both my loads in a variety of guns. Interesting to me is that buffalobore claims it is safe to shoot in +p rated guns. I don’t doubt that. I do wonder if they have had them pressure tested and what the result were. Look at the ballistics chart or run on JBM, you get a 158 SWC or LRN cooking out of of a 1 7/8” J frame at 1000-1050 and it hits as hard at 500 yards as a standard pressure 158 does at the muzzle . Like I said, not interested in hotroding my 38s but the Super Speed has an interesting history.

38/44 loads in my 38? No problem, it's a 586 chambered in 38 Special.

I have a 1955 Colt Official Police with a 6" heavy barrel and a Tyler grip adapter. It's a perfect candidate for a 38 Special High Speed load.

Me, too, but mine has a four inch barrel. And, yes, they are ideal for the .38 High Speed loads. These are very solidly constructed guns. Mine shoots great. Excellent double action trigger.

Keith said not to go over 12gr 2400 under his 173gr bullet in the "Officers Model" framed Colts. I usually use 11 grs with a 158swc in OMs and Ks. This is from Lyman 45th load manual.................

I had similar results with 5.5 grains Unique under the Lyman 358429 173 grain cast in my model 19 6".

ddixie884,
Thanks for the load information, I have that Lyman manual and the Pistol and Revolver one too, I will check it out.

TRH,
You are correct about the triggers, mine rivals any Pythons that I have ever tried.

I've owned quite a few Model 10s. I've still got a few. Obviously, I don't own a pressure test barrel. But by estimating between .38 special load data and .357 data, I'd guess that most of my loads fall somewhere between 25,000 and 27,000 CUP. I load .357s at about the same pressure.

That's just what I consider a proper load for a post war K frame .38.

They're warm enough to be a fairly effective load but not so hot that they gas cut the top strap like a full power .357 will do.

those 160 grain powder coated lead SWLC that I loaded up earlier in the month are showing 1160 fps out of a 4 inch model 10. 9 grains of SR4756. I think that qualifies as 'zippy'

I know you are right............

In the 80's we were shooting winchester 38 spl 110 grain +p+ loads in the s&w model 28 revolvers. The K frames and J frames wouldn't hold up to a sustained amount with this round. But they were still loaded up with it,and used as carry guns.

Treasury department shot those in j-frames. They took the J-Frames put of service at 500 rounds

Those are the ones that show up on gunbroker auctions with the description "not fired much at all" or "just a few rounds through it".

LOL.

I have a mid 80's stainless Ruger Police Service Six that was my old service revolver. I've been told that it can handle 38/44 level loads. Once I watched an officer shoot a large, whitetail buck who was paralyzed in his back half by a car right between the eyes with a 110 grain +P+ hollow point. it obviously didn't penetrate, because he just blinked and shook his head. I started carrying 6 hard cast 358156 rounds loaded with 5.5 grains of Unique in my briefcase after that. They would punch through and instantly kill a wounded deer. I love my .38 Specials.


Ron

A Service Six is a brute strong revolver. Not only can it take 38/44 level loads, it can handle full .357 magnum pressures... And I'm not talking about today's .357 pressures, I'm talking about the original 1935 pressures. Trying to kill a Service Six would be an exercise in futility. At Davis, we used to do re-chambers of Service Sixes, S&W .38 Special K frames, and Colt medium frames from .38 Special to .357 magnum.

I shoot 1400 FPS 158/160 grain 357's in M19s a good combo in my opinion