LouisianaMan
posted this
01 August 2016
188g cup point at 850+ fps...that would be an attention-getter, all right! Velocity almost the same as traditional 158g “FBI Loads,” with an increase in bullet weight of 19%. And an absolutely cavernous hole in the front!!!
Of course those numbers are orders of magnitude above the traditional .38 S&W factory ammo that McGivern was familiar with in the 1930's, but nonetheless thought I'd add another little citation from his book. On p. 273, he pictured his .38 S&W Safety Hammerless 2” revolver and praised it as “...fast, handy and plenty accurate, and a hard hitter.”
As I will show in tabulated data in my subsequent reports, one vintage .38 New Police load (Peters? Going from memory, so will double-check!) averaged 770 fps with a 150g LFP from a 4” Mod. 33-1. That's essentially standard-velocity .38 Special speed, with a bullet only 8 grains lighter. Older commercial ammunition was often listed at 720-25, 740-50, or thereabouts.
If that's the sort of ammo McGivern was using, as I suppose it was, no wonder he called his 2” Safety Hammerless a “hard hitter.” And even though McGivern was a shooter and law enforcement trainer, not a law enforcement officer, his opinions in the matter are worthy of some respect!
My point is simply that weak factory loads common today, with 145-46g LRN bullets advertised at 685--but which are likely to chrony at far slower vels--are loaded to “lowest common denominator” levels to ensure that people don't blow up Grandpa's old nightstand gun. Granted, I have a vintage load that dawdled across the sensors at a smoking 585 fps, a full 100 fps south of the lowest advertised velocities I've ever seen for factory ammo.
Those kinds of leisurely loads (and the now-ancient top breaks themselves) naturally cause modern shooters to assume a dismissive attitude to the .38 S&W for defensive purposes. But with imaginative bullet designs loaded to velocities practical in the solid-frame Colts and Smiths, the .38 S&W assumes a different aspect.