Corbon 110-gr. DPX vs. Speer 135-gr. Gold Dot vs. Remington 158-gr. LSWCHP+P With today’s plethora of compact 9mm’s, .40’s, and .45 autoloaders, there remains a contingent of people preferring the time-tried snub 38 revolver. Interest in the “best” loads for self-protection remains high and recommendations run from 148-gr. target full wadcutters to a myriad of
Introduced in 1908, the .44 Special tossed a 246-gr. LRN just under 800 ft/sec. Though popular with many handloaders through the decades, it is a safe bet that this one just never achieved the popularity of either the .38 Special or the magnum it spawned. The .44 Magnum is undoubtedly more popular than its papa,
The .45 Auto Rim has never been what anyone would call a big seller. For years it was available from Remington in a 230-gr. LRN @ approximately 800 ft/sec. Ammunition was expensive and lackluster in performance, but very nice things could be done if a handloader. On the left is Corbon’s 160-gr. DPX auto rim
Despite improvements in popular defense calibers like 9mm and .45 ACP as well as some new ones such as .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and .45 GAP, the .38 Special continues to sell as a self-protection round. With the police move to autos in the ’80’s, the “shakers and movers” in this caliber are now the
In 1935 the .357 Magnum was born. It was conceived after a gun writer of the period worked up energetic handloads in .38 Special using the S&W .38/44 (N-frame) revolvers. His name was Phillip Sharpe and it seems that Douglas Wesson was mightily impressed by the way it performed in the hunting field. Smith &
By Aaron Brudenell & Stephen A. Camp Most agree that 10% ballistic gelatin is the gold standard for bullet performance testing. It replicates human tissue and its 10% formulation is generally accredited to Dr. Martin Fackler, who did ballistic wound research for the US military. People on all sides of the “stopping power” issue use
While reading comparisons of the pros and cons of the pocket 380 versus the snub 38 I noted a reader suggesting a comparison of the pocket nines to the popular 38 compact revolvers. Other projects and responsibilities prevented my starting work on such an article immediately, but during the interim I decided that it might