Shooting +P out of an LCR on a regular basis?

R

raindog

New member
This is an older doc on defensive ammunition:

http://www.recguns.com/Sources/VG1.html

One thing it says is

Standard pressure loads may be used in any .38 Special revolver, but +P
loads should be fired extensively only in steel-frame .38 Special
revolvers. Firing a few (under fifty) +P loads in your aluminum-framed
.38 Special revolver will not destroy it or cause it to explode, but will
damage your aluminum-framed revolver if you fire more than a hundred
rounds.
Click to expand...

I have a .38 Special +P LCR (not the 357). I'm wondering about the advisability of firing +P out of it on a regular basis. I try to practice as much as possible with my carry gun using rough equivalent to the ammo I carry (can't afford to go through boxes of hollowpoint on the range).
 
Prior to 1999, there were few, if any, .38 Special revolvers rated by the manufacturer for +P ammunition that did not have an all-steel frame. The Ruger LCR, however, is specifically rated by Ruger for +P ammunition. That being said, +P ammunition will wear any gun faster than standard pressure ammo would, but with an LCR, you would probably have to spend many times the cost of the gun in ammo before you ever experienced a problem regardless of whether you're shooting +P or not.
 
In August of 2011, DPris, who regularly posts on this and other forums and is a regular writer of gun articles in various publications reported on another forum that he fired 5300 rounds, mostly plus P from a .38 special version of the LCR with some frame stretching and a slight increase in barrel/cylinder gap but that the gun was still "in spec" and shot fine. He has repeated this on other occasions and on this forum in less detail. Here is a link to the thread:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=607422

Here is a link to a thread on this forum where he repeats the claim:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=476178

Perhaps he will see and respond to your query. I doubt you would shoot enough plus P out of one to make a difference but it is aluminum-framed and not steel. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
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+P 38 ammo is just slightly over today's normal pressures. My guess it won't exceed pressures of normal factory 38 ammo of 50 years ago.

Any factory 38 Special ammo is still classified as a low pressure caliber.
 
Laz,
Thanks, answered it again on THR.
Can't add much beyond the fact that it wasn't a "claim", I did do it. :)
Denis
 
DPris - sorry, "claim" was not good choice of a word. I did not mean to imply any doubt that you did it.
 
I'm fairly confident that the LCR is designed to handle 38+P loads just fine. I would estimate I've run about 300 or so +p through mine so far and haven't seen any issues. It's probably only seen about 100 regular 38's.
 
Sometime long ago, in a faraway state, the revered and glorious maniac Elmer Keith shot 38/44's out of an 38 Airweight Smith & Wesson, good time had by all apparently.
 
Sometime long ago, in a faraway state, the revered and glorious maniac Elmer Keith shot 38/44's out of an 38 Airweight Smith & Wesson, good time had by all apparently.
Click to expand...

Wow! Such a statement needs verification and much more detail, including results, to add any value to this discussion. How many rounds? No affect on the gun? Was the gun ruined? Did the frame stretch?

If a modern plus P rated Ruger shows measurable stretch from large numbers of today's "wimped down" plus P loads, what happened to the early airweight with 38/44s?

I've seen people drag race a Jeep also but that doesn't mean it's recommended practice.

"Trust. But verify." - Ronald Reagan
 
I've never tested Ruger customer service, but I hear comparisons to S&W service fairly often. I suspect that if your revolver's dimensions stretch or loses timing Ruger would likely fix it for you - seems like an advantage of the modular system for the LCR would come in to play. They could just swap out the aluminum part. I doubt I'll shoot out my revolvers because of money and time.
 
Not only can they hurt a little more but it only stands to reason that the long term use of +p ammunition will loosen up any revolver faster than shooting the same amount of "standard" ammunition would over the same period of time, everything else being equal. I wouldn't worry about the LCR "holding up" safely over time, but in terms of excessive wear, I have the same question Stressfire asked, "What do you consider a 'regular basis'?"
 
It's your wrist and your money.:rolleyes: If I wanted to shoot a lot of +P I would look into a heavier gun. There is nothing at all wrong with standard .38 Spl.
 
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