.38SPL enthusiast
New member
For me, around the farm, it is always a .38 special. Usually out of a 2" drawn from the pocket, but occasionally a 4" barreled Smith carried in a flap holster. I have always selected against really severe muzzle blast. For years, my favorite load was a 200 grain super police duplicate load which I made. It had a fairly subtle report and worked really great, but the bullet's rainbow type trajectory resulted in several misses. Now I tend to just carry either my 158 grain swc reloads, or the factory Remington lswchp. Over the years we have had a lot of trouble with big coyote/dog hybrids attacking cattle and menacing people; these loads have proved adequate for me.