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38 Super Pro's & Con's
- Thread starter WillyBow8
- Start date
Peter M. Eick
New member
No
None
No
It is a whale of a lot of fun, some great guns are made in it. It is a bit more of a "classy" round that folks ask questions about at the range. It is accurate and fun to shoot.
I love my Witness Elite Match in 38 Super. Excellent gun and cheap!
None
No
It is a whale of a lot of fun, some great guns are made in it. It is a bit more of a "classy" round that folks ask questions about at the range. It is accurate and fun to shoot.
I love my Witness Elite Match in 38 Super. Excellent gun and cheap!
From Hodgdons Data manual
I have a Combat Commander in 38 super from the 90's. It's been flawless.
For many years the .38 Super was plagued with accuracy problems, mainly because the chambers of the 1911 Colt pistols in this caliber were designed to allow the cartridge to headspace on its almost nonexistent rim. Sometime in 1988, Colt officials decided to follow the lead of custom barrel makers by allowing the mouth of the .38 Super case to headspace against a shoulder in the chamber.
I have a Combat Commander in 38 super from the 90's. It's been flawless.
The round was very popular in Mexico. The reason being people liked the 1911 but were not allowed to own "military" cartridges like the .45 acp.
It had a brief resurrgence among competion shooters for reasons stated in a previous post. However, the accuracy and other performance issued previously mentioned assured the popularity was to be short-lived.
Unless you are just looking to tinker with something, I would just stick with a 9mm in +p or +p+.
It had a brief resurrgence among competion shooters for reasons stated in a previous post. However, the accuracy and other performance issued previously mentioned assured the popularity was to be short-lived.
Unless you are just looking to tinker with something, I would just stick with a 9mm in +p or +p+.
It had a brief resurrgence among competion shooters for reasons stated in a previous post. However, the accuracy and other performance issued previously mentioned assured the popularity was to be short-lived.
This statement is off base I believe. The 38 Super had a resurgence in popularity that began in competitive shooting in the 1980s and has not really faded (other rounds and other divisions rose). At the 2009 Bianchi Cup for example 5 of the top 10 winning semis (As reported in The American Rifleman)were chambered in .38 Super. More manufacturers are selling ammo for it than at any time in the last 2 decades. Loadings by Cor-Bon
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=610975
and Double Tap
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=915426
come closest to it's potential in terms of commercial ammo.
The .38 Super was never an inaccurate round (Col. Charles Askins praised it in 1931). Handloaders could get excellent accuracy from it with proper length bullets. But it's accuracy with commercial ammo was hit and miss till George Nonte and Irv Stone did what folks had been asking Colt to do for years, that is, come out with a barrel that headspaced on the case mouth. This made a mediocre shooter much better this solution was a result of the Super's popularity but also allowed it to spread more widely. In the late 80s and 90s it dominated competitive shooting. It no longer dominates but it is still in the top tier of rounds used in competition particularly in compensated guns.
The .38 Super does not have any problem with case blowouts when properly loaded. If overloaded it will blow out, same as the .45 and the 40. It feeds exceptionally well.
The Super is the same length cartridge as the .45acp and operates at the same pressures. It does a bit more than the 9mm+P+ at lower pressure. It does a bit better than the .357 Sig with heavier bullets at lower pressure.
It has been around since 1929 and is one of those rounds that is too good to die.
You can read a bit more here; http://www.38super.net/
tipoc
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I liked the Colt .38 Super 1911's and fired on extensively in the 1970's. We never noticed any accuracy problems shooting at 25 yards or 50 yards. It wasn't quite as accurate as my 70-series 1911 at 50 yards, but it was certainly able to put every round into a 3" circle at 50.
A friend had one made up in a Colt Commander (lightweight) and it was an absolute tack-driver. His first outing with it he made a "5-leaf clover" with it at 25 yards offhand. Reloading for it was simple and easy, especially if you already reloaded for 9mm - same bullets, similar powders.
The .38 Super has a decent track record in self-defense shootings too. Its ballistics are closer to a lower-end .357 Magnum than the .38 Special.
A friend had one made up in a Colt Commander (lightweight) and it was an absolute tack-driver. His first outing with it he made a "5-leaf clover" with it at 25 yards offhand. Reloading for it was simple and easy, especially if you already reloaded for 9mm - same bullets, similar powders.
The .38 Super has a decent track record in self-defense shootings too. Its ballistics are closer to a lower-end .357 Magnum than the .38 Special.