Strange .38 SPL!

B

Bill DeShivs

New member
I was cleaning out a long-unused range bag, and found a baggie of 100 of these. The appear to be commercially loaded .38 special. metallic case head (possibly aluminum,) with a plastic case body, and FMJ bullet.
I have no recollection of acquiring these, but must have thought them viable ammunition.
The case head is stamped USAC over .38 SPL.
Can anyone tell me what I have?
 

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I have no recollection of acquiring these,
Click to expand...

Well they do say memory is the second thing to go as you get older. (I forget what the first thing is.)

P.S. I am totally amazed at the short amount of time it took for you to get an answer to your question. Great link Res45. This is a great web site.
 
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That's the USAC stuff from the mid-1980's, hand-reloadable. You could get a little plastic hand-unit similar to a finger strength exerciser that would punch out spent primers and re-prime. The bullets were heeled and simply pushed in to the plastic cartridge case and the slugs were some of the earliest copper-plated bullets on the market. It's possible they were the first on the market ever (I can't be sure.) I remember 148, 150 and 158gr bullet weights.

The idea never took off... but part of the technology did... as I recall, the company lived on in existence, no longer USAC but became Ranier.
 
Thanks for all your help.
I do remember something about this stuff now.
How I got it, or more importantly WHY I got it is puzzling. Someone must have given it to me.
 
It seams to me that is about the same time that we started to see sabots on the 30-06... and shot gun slugs. The development of todays plastics is surprising isn't it. I'm sure you will continue to see growth.
 
I have a dumpload of the original bullets. A gun shop owner local to me (literally) bought a semi-trailer load of these things. He has been selling 100ct boxes since before the first time I visited his store. And IIRC, that was back around 1991 or 1992.

The last time I bought those slugs from him... haha... I bought twelve thousand. :p
 
I was in college and walked into Sheaffer's Sporting Goods in downtown Carlisle, Pa., and saw a huge display of those. Probably 1984. The guy explained them to me, and I was completely underwhelmed.

That's the only time I ever saw those rounds for sale.
 
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