ammo recommendation please

F

fleiger

New member
I'm planning to take the wifey out to the desert with me next week to begin teaching her to handle a .357 Magnum. I would however like to start her out slowely at first with the tamest .38 ammo available before we move up to the magnum caliber. I would appreciate any recommendations on brand/bullet weight/type, etc for the tamest .38 loads available. Thanks a lot. Fleiger
 
Winchester USA (white box) WinClean 158 gr. .38 spl. is a good, fairly economical and easy to shoot load... get a few boxes of that and have at it! Any decent brand .38 spl 158 gr. will do just fine, however.
 
Winchester 148gr Match Wadcutters should be mild enough.

If you're looking for something that might be loud but low recoil, look for a 110gr JHP round from Winchester or Remington.
 
what gun do you have?

just about any 38. special lead round nose will work fine, especially in a larger gun. Or you can start her out on the heaviest .357 hunting loads you can find, and when she shoots the carry loads, they will feel real softball to her..:)..
 
I agree with the 148 grain bevel base wadcutters. Very mild, and easy
on the shooter. However, cleaning the weapon afterwards can be a
pain due to lead fouling.

Best Wishes,
 
I faced something similar to this a few weeks ago. I took my wife to the local indoor range, and rented her a Ruger MK II and got 100 rounds of .22lr to let her "warm up" to handgunning in general. I also brought along my 4" 686 and a couple of hundred rounds of .38spl 158gr LSWC's. These were light reloads, from Mastercast. Nothing out of the ordinary, just lightly loaded target loads. She shot a couple of cylinders through it with that ammo, and she did just fine with them. Well, she did come to the conclusion that the L Frame was too big for her smallish hands, but she handled the load just fine. BTW, Georgia Arms makes a load that is just about identical to that Mastercast load.
 
Winchester and american eagle both make a 130 fmj 38 special non +P.They have light recoil and might be easier to find than wadcutters.Wal-mart should have the 130fr fmj's.
 
bpisler:

I've tried the WWB 130gr FMJ's in the 100 round pack from Wally World, and they have similar recoil charactaristics as the 158gr LSWC's. They oughta be a good choice, too. The only real differences I've noticed are that the LSWC's cut a cleaner hole in the target than the FMJ's, and they seem to smoke more and leave more residue on the gun. Apparently this smoke and residue is from the bullet lube, at least that's what I think. Anyway, it cleans off really easy, so I'm not bothered by it.
 
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