Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Can a 38 Special defend against an attacker?

For all you experts who have all the answers.

Only against a very small one.

Shootin' straight with my .38 beats talkin' jive with a .45!

They can bounce off a hard maple and come whizzing back right past your ear.

A person who understands violence and it's use can do a lot with very little.

A .38 special, by itself, is nothing special

In the hand of the experienced a .38 special is 5 or 6 opportunities to influence an outcome.

The experienced also recognize that it's easier to shoot better with a well set up semi auto pistol

Magazine capacity figures in as well. We'll not see a 15 shot revolver

Overkill- - - - -use a wrist rocket and ball bearings, or just drown the scumbag in bullscheidt like you do on the forum.

Yes, bullet placement!

Like any other hand gun. If you can hit anything with it, the 38 spl. will get the job done.

An old doctor friend (and big time gun guy) of mine said, "I wasn't a surgeon. But I got to stand in and help on some. I've seen what a .38 slug can do. I don't want shot with one".

Bullet style and type will play a factor. There will be a large difference between a round nose lead slug and Hydra-Shok or XTP.

Not an expert.

One of our local scum-bags went to Florida thinking the pickings would be easier.

His first victim was a retired nurse. She heard him break the window of her exterior door and climb the stairs to her bedroom.

She center-punched the prik right between the nipples as he entered her bedroom. Nurses have a fine understanding of anatomy.

He expired in the front yard after spray-painting the stair-well with blood.

.38 Special. She may have fired it single-action.

Another funny thread

If you're in a legitimate "me or him": everything within arms reach will be used to defend yourself.

Cartridge be damned.

Same as the 9mm.

No.

Just a tool.

It has to be used to be worthwhile.
The quality of the work rests largely in the hands of the user.

I generally ask the person I’m about to shoot if he has a preference.

Despite subsequent advances in both bullet and handgun designs, I have been told that all the guys killed with the .38 Special back then are still dead.

I haven’t heard this about the .38 S&W tho.

Place one to break the pelvis if the first couple don’t stop the perp. Even an old fat man can outrun a guy with no “wheels” under him.

Read that in Dirty White Boys, IIRC.

Same place you defeat LEO body armor, head or pelvis

38 Special...

Or 38DD...

There are so many variables...

“I pulled the head off Elvis
Filled Fred up to his pelvis
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you”