Federal .38 spl +P 130gr HST in Clear Ballistics gel.

5

5pins

New member
I haven’t seen many tests of this ammo. I think it’s because it’s a little hard to find. I finally found a box at Wal-Mart last time I was there, a little over $25 for twenty with tax. Shot into Clear Ballistics gel at a distance 10 feet using an S&W Airweight model 442 with a 1.875-inch barrel. My coronagraph is still in disrepair so I will have to shoot it for velocity after I get it fixed.



The first round in bare gel penetrated 11.25 inches and expanded to .71 inches. Round two penetrated to 11.75 and expanded to .66 inches.



Round one into heavy clothing penetrated to 9 inches and expanded to .73 inches. Round two penetrated to 11 inches and expanded to .74 inches.





UPDATED

I borrowed a chrony from a friend and here are the results of five rounds out of my S&W snub.
839
825
829
844
805
Avg 828
SD 15
ES 39
 
Last edited:
That's not bad for a .38 snubby... good expansion. Thanks for posting your results. I'll bet a 4" model 10 .38 would produce much better penetratation.
 
I borrowed a chrony from a friend and here are the results of five rounds out of my S&W snub.
839
825
829
844
805
Avg 828
SD 15
ES 39
 
Last edited:
First I'd like to say that I'm really enjoying these terminal ballistic tests 5pins! Thanks for posting these. :)

I'm a little disappointing in the 38 Special HSTs though. I was hoping that they'd penetrate better. They are just barely knocking on the lower bar of the FBI recommendation.

I really was hoping that these would be better competition for the Speer Gold Dot in this caliber. :(
 
Pretty impressive from a snub for sure.
You would need something else for a reload however. They would not speed load for beans.

Bob
 
Probably for a more reliable burn rate. The standard deviation on the velocities of my 38 special handloads goes down measurably the less space I leave in the case. Or in other words the deeper I seat the bullet.


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Radny97 said:
Probably for a more reliable burn rate. The standard deviation on the velocities of my 38 special handloads goes down measurably the less space I leave in the case. Or in other words the deeper I seat the bullet.


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Click to expand...
Sure look like they'd make reloads trickier, though.
 
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