Shooting 38 in a 357 Blackhawk

B

breezyhill

Inactive
I have a 357 newbie question.

Is there any truth to the rumor I've heard that it might not be a good idea to shoot 38 ammo in my 357 Blackhawk? A friend reported that it may tend to affect the barrel rifling and contribute to inaccuracy for either or both.

Any info is appreciated.
 
Why would that be? Because of the greater distance the bullet must travel (thanks to the shorter case) through the cylinder before jumping the barrel-cylinder gap and into the forcing cone? If it's leading he's worried about, that can be fixed with the Lewis Lead Remover. I wouldn't worry about it.

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The accuracy, of .38 ammo, is ever so slightly worse from a .357 firearm than it would be from a .38 only firearm. This is because of the extra fraction of an inch that the bullet must travel before meeting the sweet embrace of the forcing cone.

The real issue is the cleaning procedure for the chambers. The Blackhawk is an excellent firearm for shooting both .38 and .357, since you can easily remove the chamber. You need a stainless-steel .357 chamber brush. Regardless of whether you intend to fire .357 ammo, every few 100 rounds of .38, you should dip the chamber brush in Hoppe's #9, or equivelent, and force it through each of the six chambers. Some people actually use the chamber brush with a power drill. This is OK for a revolver chamber, but never, ever, for a barrel, or the chamber section of a pistol.

Lead ammo is perfectly fine, but I'd recommend shooting a few 100 rounds of FMJ through the barrel first, to smooth it out. For .38, look for 100gr. lead wadcutter for mild loads. If you're not "recoil sensative", 148gr. TMJ wadcutters are reasonable target ammo.

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Protect your Right to Keep and Bear Arms!
 
Sometimes .38 Specials lose a LITTLE accuracy when fired from mangum chambers, based mainly on articles I've read in the gun rags. Expect a slight velocity loss also. If you do not clean the chambers well after firing many thirty-eights, .357 Magnum shells may be harder to load and extract due to fouling. If someone fired hundreds of thousands of jacketed +P+ .38 Specail ammo in a .357, the chambers would show some signs of errosion I'm sure. Do I shoot lots of .38 Specials in my favorite .357 Magnums? You betcha. Should you worry about shooting Specials in your Blackhawk? No, but if you keep it and give it to one of your children someday, their great grandchildren might (if they do a lot of shooting). ;)
 
In what may be a comprable case I have shot an old modei Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum for many years. My range record notes show it has fired approximately 9,000 rounds of .4 Magnum and about 7.000 rounds of ,44 Special. Both valibers work quite well and I have seen no problems with firing either of the two types of catridges. My wife fires a mixture of .357 Magnums and .38 Specials in her S&W Combat Magnum. Again no problems. I don't think you will have any problems with your Ruger.
 
All through the late 1960s and the 1970s, I shot both .38 Spl & .357 through my blackhawk. The problem of lead or powder fouling in the 1/8" of space between the .38 case-end and the forcing cone is something I've read of but never experienced.

Of course, I cleaned the cylinder regularly...

:), Art
 
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