Ammo Questions

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Ben Shepherd

New member
38+p or 357 mag?

What is the actual difference between 38, 38+p, & 38+p+. All of my reloading manuals only list 38 spec. or 357 mag. At +p+ levels shouldn't you just be using 357 mag?
 
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+P means that the load (in test gun) is above SAAMI pressure specs for the cartridge but not more than ten percent above spec. +P+ means that the load pressure is at some level above +P......there is no standard for +P+.

Note that these are indicators of pressure. No direct connection with cartridge performance. Sometimes a lower pressure load will send a bullet of a given weight out at a higher velocity than the same bullet but with a different powder. Interesting example is Winchester load of 125gr .357mag with a case full of W296 powder. Velocity of bout 1800 fps and pressure bout 10,000 under another of their loads with same bullet but different powder. The higher pressure load is also considerably slower.

In other words....+P n +P+ are indicators of how rough on the gun the load will be, not how effective the load will be.

Sam
 
Personally, the only time I would consider a 38spl+p or 38spl+p+ would be if I had a revolver that was +p rated but not magnum rated or if it was for duty use and magnums were prohibited. I definately wouldn't handload any for defense. That seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
 
.38+P loads CAN be quite effective. In the case of a very lightweight .357 gun, such as the TI and Scandium snubbies, .38+P is a Godsend :).

There are also a lot of good steel-frame .38s that can take at least modest diets of +P without harm. And finally, there are .357 guns that can't take a steady diet of .357 without suffering forcing cone wear or frame stretching, such as the Ruger Service/Security Six series, the K-Frame S&Ws or (in many people's opinion) the majority of Brazilian .357s, with the exception of the Taurus 608 which is N-Frame size :D.

.38+P or even +P+ has it's place!

Jim
 
The .38 Special +P+ was sold only to LE and only for use in revolvers chambered for the .357 Magnum. It was purely a political load.

The press had made a big thing out of police carrying .357 Magnum revolvers ("powerful enough to blow down whole city blocks" and that sort of insanity) the police asked for a .38 Special load of equivalent power but without the awful "Magnum" label. So when a cop shoots a BG, and the police are accused of brutality or overkill, the PR guy says that "our friendly" police are using the plain old .38 Special, which they have used since 1930, or something like that.

Of course, the wide adoption of the 9mm sort of put a stop to that PC nonsense.

Jim
 
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