Stephen A. Camp
Staff In Memoriam
Hello. Actually, it is a Model 042, which is essentially the same gun. The difference is that the frame started out being light anodized for use with the stainless bbls and cylinders, but the color was "wrong." The frames were redone and a "0" stamped over the previous "6." Other than that, the guns are the same.
The revolver fired today was bone stock, right down to the Butler Creek rubber stocks that came with them. Many prefer wooden stocks and that's fine. For pocket use for me, the rubber ones are more "practical." The reason is that I have the dreaded "acid fingers" and must sweat sulphuric acid, the way grip screws rust if I don't clean them. With the rubber stocks, I just clean away with an oil-soaked Q-Tip and don't worry about eventually hurting the wood with oil.
This handgun's had no action work done, and is no different than anyone might buy.
Ammunition: Three types of ammunition were used. They were Winchester +P 158 gr LSWCHP, Winchester 130 gr USA ball, and Federal 125 gr Nyclad HP, std. pressure. My revolver is NOT rated for use with +P, so I fired but limited numbers of the Winchester +P load. I'm probably too cautious with this, but I have personally ruined two S&W J-frame .38s over the years by shooting +P factory in them.
The farthest I fired was at 10 yards. All shooting was done two-handed, standing, and obviously DA.....since the gun's DAO!
This 20-shot group was fired at 10 yards and was slow fire using the Winchester ball ammunition. It hit POA perfectly as does the Nyclad. Others can shoot tighter groups than I can, but I find this satisfactory for what I'll use the revolver for. With the lower powered rounds like .38 Special standard pressure, placement becomes very, very important in my opinion. If one cannot "hit," one cannot "win," unless the opponent(s) give up for other than physiological reasons.
This group was fired rapid-fire @ 7 yards, which is likely the farthest one would likely be in a "street crime" type deadly force scenario. In this instance, "rapid-fire" means as fast as I could regain a flash sight picture and fire the revolver. Nyclad 125 gr std pressure HPs were used. The group is of 15 rnds. Five of them were fired bringing the gun to firing position and getting of two good shots and then three good ones as fast as I could. Five were fired as fast as I could accurately get them off w/o stopping and five were fired in two controlled pairs and the last shot fired as quickly as I could bring the gun back up from a low-ready.
I fired 5 of the Winchester 158 gr +P and got groups the same size as the Nyclad but about 2" above POA. I didn't include a photograph of that as you can visualize this without utilizing more bandwidth.
Some informal testing was also done for expansion with the Nyclad and Winchester loads. I do NOT think the rounds will expand this much in a nonhomogenious body, but these things turned inside out water-soaked sand, and both separated, leaving a big "donut" with the center out of it! Again, this was informal and just done to see if one would get any expansion or at least, deformation. I have killed one armadillo with the Nyclad load and it did penetrate completely (broadside); the exit wound in the shell did show that some expansion took place. Again, this is not "scientific" and was mainly just for fun.
Here's the recovered bullets next to loaded rounds of the same kind.
The Nyclad "donut" measured 0.70" across at the widest points as did the Winchester! However, the "plug" from the Nyclad measured 0.40" and weighed 69.5 grs with the total of both pieces being 123 grains. The Winchester's "plug" weighed significantly more at 96.5 grains, with both pieces of the Winchester bullet weighing 155.8 grains.
Here's a view of the "plugs":
Observations: Recoil between the 130 gr ball round and the 125 gr Nyclad round felt the same to me while the +P 158 gr had significantly more, yet all were controllable. I do value the POA = POI in any handgun more than perhaps I should, but will stick with the Nyclad in this load so long as I can find it.
Marshall and Sanow opine that the LSWCHP load is more potent and I don't doubt this with or without their input, but sometimes there is more to choosing the "best" ammunition than its absolute effectiveness. I think the two are close enough for frontal shots, but do believe that the SWCHP load to be better in the event of an intermediate target or shooting through an arm on the way to the torso.
Recoil is there, but is not "bad" and certainly cannot compare with full-house .357 mags out of the very compact revolvers made for that round today. I didn't have a stop watch or timer today, but can only estimate that shots were fired at about 1 shot/sec or maybe a tad faster.
Best.
The revolver fired today was bone stock, right down to the Butler Creek rubber stocks that came with them. Many prefer wooden stocks and that's fine. For pocket use for me, the rubber ones are more "practical." The reason is that I have the dreaded "acid fingers" and must sweat sulphuric acid, the way grip screws rust if I don't clean them. With the rubber stocks, I just clean away with an oil-soaked Q-Tip and don't worry about eventually hurting the wood with oil.
This handgun's had no action work done, and is no different than anyone might buy.
Ammunition: Three types of ammunition were used. They were Winchester +P 158 gr LSWCHP, Winchester 130 gr USA ball, and Federal 125 gr Nyclad HP, std. pressure. My revolver is NOT rated for use with +P, so I fired but limited numbers of the Winchester +P load. I'm probably too cautious with this, but I have personally ruined two S&W J-frame .38s over the years by shooting +P factory in them.
The farthest I fired was at 10 yards. All shooting was done two-handed, standing, and obviously DA.....since the gun's DAO!
This 20-shot group was fired at 10 yards and was slow fire using the Winchester ball ammunition. It hit POA perfectly as does the Nyclad. Others can shoot tighter groups than I can, but I find this satisfactory for what I'll use the revolver for. With the lower powered rounds like .38 Special standard pressure, placement becomes very, very important in my opinion. If one cannot "hit," one cannot "win," unless the opponent(s) give up for other than physiological reasons.
This group was fired rapid-fire @ 7 yards, which is likely the farthest one would likely be in a "street crime" type deadly force scenario. In this instance, "rapid-fire" means as fast as I could regain a flash sight picture and fire the revolver. Nyclad 125 gr std pressure HPs were used. The group is of 15 rnds. Five of them were fired bringing the gun to firing position and getting of two good shots and then three good ones as fast as I could. Five were fired as fast as I could accurately get them off w/o stopping and five were fired in two controlled pairs and the last shot fired as quickly as I could bring the gun back up from a low-ready.
I fired 5 of the Winchester 158 gr +P and got groups the same size as the Nyclad but about 2" above POA. I didn't include a photograph of that as you can visualize this without utilizing more bandwidth.
Some informal testing was also done for expansion with the Nyclad and Winchester loads. I do NOT think the rounds will expand this much in a nonhomogenious body, but these things turned inside out water-soaked sand, and both separated, leaving a big "donut" with the center out of it! Again, this was informal and just done to see if one would get any expansion or at least, deformation. I have killed one armadillo with the Nyclad load and it did penetrate completely (broadside); the exit wound in the shell did show that some expansion took place. Again, this is not "scientific" and was mainly just for fun.
Here's the recovered bullets next to loaded rounds of the same kind.
The Nyclad "donut" measured 0.70" across at the widest points as did the Winchester! However, the "plug" from the Nyclad measured 0.40" and weighed 69.5 grs with the total of both pieces being 123 grains. The Winchester's "plug" weighed significantly more at 96.5 grains, with both pieces of the Winchester bullet weighing 155.8 grains.
Here's a view of the "plugs":
Observations: Recoil between the 130 gr ball round and the 125 gr Nyclad round felt the same to me while the +P 158 gr had significantly more, yet all were controllable. I do value the POA = POI in any handgun more than perhaps I should, but will stick with the Nyclad in this load so long as I can find it.
Marshall and Sanow opine that the LSWCHP load is more potent and I don't doubt this with or without their input, but sometimes there is more to choosing the "best" ammunition than its absolute effectiveness. I think the two are close enough for frontal shots, but do believe that the SWCHP load to be better in the event of an intermediate target or shooting through an arm on the way to the torso.
Recoil is there, but is not "bad" and certainly cannot compare with full-house .357 mags out of the very compact revolvers made for that round today. I didn't have a stop watch or timer today, but can only estimate that shots were fired at about 1 shot/sec or maybe a tad faster.
Best.
For the time being, I look forward to more posts like this.
