.38 Special FBI Load

Zippy, if your wife can handle the new Speer 135 grain Gold Dot round, the one designed specifically for the .38 snubby, I would strongly recommend it. It is what I carry in my own .38. The 158 grain slugs in any loading generally tend to recoil harder than the lighter ones, which may be an important factor to you because of the arthritic condition you mentioned. You might also take a look at Corbon's new 110 grain, +P, DPX load. This uses an all-copper Barnes X-Bullet and the ;ab testing done on them looks very good indeed in terms of effectiveness. I've found from my own testing of them that they are very light in recoil, mostly because of the lighter bullet.
 
Zippy, if your wife can handle the new Speer 135 grain Gold Dot round, the one designed specifically for the .38 snubby, I would strongly recommend it. It is what I carry in my own .38. The 158 grain slugs in any loading generally tend to recoil harder than the lighter ones, which may be an important factor to you because of the arthritic condition you mentioned. You might also take a look at Corbon's new 110 grain, +P, DPX load. This uses an all-copper Barnes X-Bullet and the ;ab testing done on them looks very good indeed in terms of effectiveness. I've found from my own testing of them that they are very light in recoil, mostly because of the lighter bullet.
 
the heavier 158 gn slug has more recoil than the 125gn IMO.
If she has arthritis, and recoil is a problem, this should be considered
Look at the Remington Gold Sabres or PMC Starfires in 125 gn. Both show
good expansion in testing with snub nosed revolvers. I use the PMC.
 
the heavier 158 gn slug has more recoil than the 125gn IMO.
If she has arthritis, and recoil is a problem, this should be considered
Look at the Remington Gold Sabres or PMC Starfires in 125 gn. Both show
good expansion in testing with snub nosed revolvers. I use the PMC.
 
JC wrote:
"The three-inch Model 13 (or 65 or 10/64) is made for the FBI load (well, actually, it was the other way around--the FBI load was made for the three-inch K-frame)."

The FBI was carrying the 158 gr LSWCHP+P FBI Load when they were still issuing the Mod 10 light barrel which was before they started issuing the Mod 13.
 
FBI Load

Hello Mr. Zippy, Buffalo Bore ammo has a 38 +p SWLHP that is like the FBI load. Check out the web site or go to Cascade Ammunition.
 
Thankee Kindly

Thanks again for your responses, folks. Doug.38, that linked article was interesting. Although I haven't been shooting long, I do like the look and feel of the old .38 service revolvers. Must be the Barney Fife in me coming out.

I'm such a noob that I don't recognize the notations "ES(ft/sec)" and "SD(ft/sec)" in the author's table of test results. Can you tell me what those mean, and what they signify?
 
ES=Extreme Spread. Basically lowest recorded feet per second velocity subtracted from the highest recorded feet per second veolocity.

SD=Standard Deviation. Its a statistics thing. Measures how spread out the data points in a set are.
 
My dad retired from Federal Probation and when they started carrying weapons, they were trained by the FBI and had to qualify with them, not to mention numerous FBI friends. The ammo they carried was from FBI. They started off carrying the Federal +P 158 gr semi wad cutter lead bullets. They changed and went to the Federal +P+ 125 gr jacketed hollow points. I don't know if they called them the hydro shock back then or not, but it was the bullets with the little lead barb in the middle of the hollow point. I probably still have over a case of ammo in both. Haven't shot it in years, but I'm sure its still good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top