.38 special adequete for defense?

N

natedog

New member
i was just curious: is .38 special adequete for self defense? if a man is charging you with knife/club/melee weapon, you pull out a .38 and fire into the center mass, will he be stopped in his tracks, or keep on charging?
 
Yes, it is adequate for a self defense weapon. It was used successfully by pretty much every law enforcement agency in the country for over 50 years.

Yes, the odds are that in the senario you give the guy would keep right on coming. There are only two things that might stop him. 1) if you happened to sever his spinal cord 2) If he personally told himself to stop for whatever reason. Stopping him in his tracks reliably would take something more like a brick wall or a freight train.
 
Shooting is only one part of fighting. It helps to jump out of the way sometimes too. Also, anything worth shooting once . . . .
 
Although no handgun would be likely to stop someone in their tracks, it sure will ruin their day.
 
.38 special adequete for defense?
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Sure beats a .38, and that's why it was developed way back then.

A better question, is whether it's a good choice for defense in 2002?

No, IMO.

You can do better, much better....
 
In talking about stopping power I always think back to two real world events. One was a man shot in the arm with a .25 and promptly sat down and died. Second is the 18 year old kid who was on Johnny Carson years ago. Got both his arms ripped off by a thrasher and ran inside his home and dialed 911 with a pencil in his mouth. Humans are strange critters who sometimes react in very different ways...
 
The 38 SPL has "retired" a lot of perps. It's adequate enough

The more modern +P's are more potent, so I'd take those if I had a .38 revolver.
 
really? most modern handguns wouldnt stop a charging felon? would if i emptied a mag of 45's into a perps center mass? he wouldnt go down? what about a .357 magnum slug from an anaconda, or a .50 AE round from a magnum research dsert eagle?
 
what about a .357 magnum slug from an anaconda
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Anacondas are chambered in .44 Magnum (or, very rarely, .45 Colt).

There is nothing handheld that is guaranteed to stop a motivated attacker.
 
is there any difference between 38 and 38 special?
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The .38 casing is very short compared to a .38 Special case, so it doesn't have much room for powder. The cartridge is quite anemic compared to a .38 Special, which is VERY anemic compared to a .357 Magnum.

A .357 Magnum can fire .38 Special rounds, and if you're thinking about getting a .38 Special revolver, go ahead and make it a .357 Magnum instead. In one gun, you'll go from the minimally adequate SD round to the gorilla of them.

You're right about the .380 ACP. It's also known as a 9mm Kurz (9mm Short).

All these bullets are essentially the same diameter, BTW.
 
Nate - no, not necessarily. If the BG is high on drugs, or drunk, or is in a primitive state of absolute belief that bullets won't hurt him (don't laugh, I've seen this up close and personal!), then NO handgun round is likely to stop him absent a CNS hit (or two, or three...).

As for this thread: yes, the .38 Special is a minimally acceptable defensive round. I say "minimally" about it (as I do about 9mm. Parabellum) because there are plenty of horror stories of failure-to-stop in these calibers. Sure, there are such stories about every caliber, but there are more of them about these two... In my .38's, I carry the FBI load of a lead semi-wadcutter hollow-point at +P velocities. It's got the best street record of all, equal to a .45 ACP FMJ, and if I put 'em where they need to go, I'm reasonably confident of the outcome.

However, NEVER expect one round to get the job done. As Clint Smith so eloquently puts it: "Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available!" :D
 
a .357 magnum can shoot .38 special rounds? there seemsw to be quite a difference in barrel diameter between .38 and (rounded up) .36
 
I was surprised to see the best 380 load ranked higher than the best 38spl. load in the latest ratings from Evan Marshall, 71% one shot stop for 380, 67% for 38spl. 2.5 barrell 380, 2in. 38spl. I sometimes carry a 38 snub, this just makes me go practice more as it's all about shot placement anyway....tom
 
a .357 magnum can shoot .38 special rounds? there seemsw to be quite a difference in barrel diameter between .38 and (rounded up) .36
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That's because a ".38" is really a ".357".
 
If you empty five .38 Special rounds into the perp's forehead and he keeps coming, consider using some to the negotiating skills Chester Karass advertises in any of those rags in the seat pocket of a commerical airliner.

Forget about ein wundabah cartridge and work on accuracy under stress. Remember. The Mossad took out some of the pigs who did the Munch Olympics thing with a Beretta 22LR semi auto.

Learn to be accurate and forget about trying to find a one shot stop wonder weapon.
 
The 38 special is a fine round. The 38 got the bad rap from the Phillipine war about a century ago. The cartridge was a 38, not a 38 special. The special has a higher performance level. Even higher now with the introduction of the +P.
The idea of low performance from the 45 hard ball as some have mentioned, is a fantasy. If you believe the Marshall and Sanow's fairy tale, then more power to you. But I have a difficult time in believing them. Placement is all important. Even a ideal place bullit doesn't mean a OSS. As long as the perp remains a threat, keep squeezing. This subject has been gone over lots of time on this forum.
My advice to you, don't believe made up stats from M&S, but consider the actual usage of the weapon at hand. If the weapon had a poor level of stopping, why would some many agencies use it for almost a century? The same with the 45 hard ball. It worked well for the army for so long, there had to be a reason.
Again the 38Special has serve well. The main reason it was replaced was not because of lack of OSS but because the idea of spray and pray with high capacity firearms.:)
 
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