Your Opinions, Please

My Dad was a police officer in Raleigh, NC in his youth. He settled on a 38/44 S&W frame revolver because it was the first .38 caliber that would accommodate the newest .357 rounds that could stop a car by shooting the engin block. He always shot .357 rounds in that pistol I still shoot today.
 
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Real life means total surprise, moving target, no target stance, and your life is in danger. You cannot equate this type of shooting to target shooting.
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what does this have to do with using a 38 spcl vs .357 for training? He wasn't asking about training methods but that old wives tale so may people subscribe to that you have to train with the duty round exclusively or you won't be able to perform well.

Missing under pressure has little to do with what gun they are using or what round the gun is loaded with and everything to do with their mindset and training, this is completely off topic. It deserves it's own thread on training methods for combat shooting vs training for bullseye shooting.
 
UPDATE: After only one practice session with my 9mm, earlier this week I went to my agency's range to qualify with my off-duty .45 Ruger. I scored a 98% for the day shoot, 100% for the night shoot. :cool: It is my intention to make practice with my 9mm a monthly outing. Thanks again, guys.
 
If it were really a problem,,,

Then my practice of having identical guns in .22 LR and centerfire would be futile,,,
But I really do not believe that to be the case.

I am convinced that what level of accuracy I have with my centerfires,,,
Is due to me shooting thousands of rounds through the rimfires.

But I do always blend the shooting,,,
My usual routine is 50 rounds of rimfire,,,
Then I follow that with ten rounds of centerfire.

Maybe I'm fooling myself,,,
But I truly believe that it helps.

Aarond

.
 
Aarondhgraham: I didn't think of this when I posted this thread, but before I entered Basic Law Enforcement Training in 1988, pretty much the only pistol shooting I could do was with my Daisy 188...yep, a BB pistol. Shot it almost daily, sometimes for hours on end, just for fun. This had been going on for several years. On the day I went to the range for the first time with my B.L.E.T. class, I out-shot the instructor and the rest of the class [save for one guy, who was an experienced competitive shooter]. Clearly, the difference between the non-existent recoil of a Daisy vs. the recoil of a S&W Model 10 is obvious, yet it was my constant use of the Daisy that allowed me to perform as I did that day with that .38 Special. So, not only have I answered my own question recently with my 9mm, but I'd forgotten that I'd already answered it over 20 years ago!
 
Before my time but not dads. He was an LEO and never went to the semi-auto.

As kraigwy stated, they qualified with what they carried. Dad carried 357 but shot 38 every day. If he wasn't shooting he was in the mirror drawing.

Don't remember what cal. their team shot during competition. Just remember growing up at ranges. :D
 
Practice Practice Practice. Develop the muscle memory.

When the situation develops the training will take over.
 
The indoor range at my gun club prohibits magnums, so I couldn't shoot my S&W 686 using its usual diet. Shooting .38 Special ammo was the solution, but the shorter .38 caliber cartridges left more space between the bullet and the barrel which I thought might affect accuracy, and exposing the chambers to the blast of shorter ammo didn't seem like a good idea either. So I reloaded .357 Magnum cartridges to .38 Special levels. At first I thought there might be ignition troubles with the cases being so under-filled, but there wasn't, and my scores over the same distance weren't all that different between the .38s and the .357s.

Someone wrote that shooting in an actual "combat" situation is a lot different than shooting at a range, which is clearly true. Seems to me that practice at "combat" ought to be done with the ammo that will be used in real situations, just to be sure the practice and the real deal are as close to being the same as is possible, which includes more than just the ammunition. If one expects to get into a real life-or-death situation which includes guns, then the cost of the ammo for practice at shooting skills needed ought not be a consideration.
 
Someone wrote that shooting in an actual "combat" situation is a lot different than shooting at a range, which is clearly true. Seems to me that practice at "combat" ought to be done with the ammo that will be used in real situations, just to be sure the practice and the real deal are as close to being the same as is possible, which includes more than just the ammunition. If one expects to get into a real life-or-death situation which includes guns, then the cost of the ammo for practice at shooting skills needed ought not be a consideration.
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So close but you miss the point. Shooting skills don't go away just because you shoot a different gun or different bullet weight. You can't ever practice a real life combat situation because the kill danger isn't there but you can get close with go/no go targets and shooting in simulated combat drills like a shoot house. The training will give you an edge, the shooting skills is another edge, If you hunt with handguns that can be another edge. Subtract the adrenaline factor and you are still 2 steps ahead of the guy who didn't train as much as you did because he only shot full loads that he couldn't afford to shoot as much as you could your practice loads.
 
I believe you should always practice with full power carry ammo, at least some, during most range sessions, but light loads will help build skill levels and maybe one extreme example is using a .22 rimfire top end on your regular 1911. This kind of practice, being both cheap and plentiful, helped me raise my scores a bunch, when competing in IPSC or IDPA.

And likewise, if you shoot a revolver, get a .22 caliber revolver that is as close a possible to your centerfire revolver, and it will pay big dividens.
 
Single Six

Your Opinions, Please
I recall hearing the bit about .357-toting LEOs using .38 ammo for practice, and loading up with full-house .357s for duty carry. The story goes that this practice really bit them in their collective butts; their on-the-street accuracy with their sidearms suffered. This was allegedly due to their being accustomed to the comparatively weaker .38s, and therefore not being able to handle the more stout .357 ammo. I guess we've all heard this story, and it does seem logical, though I'm not 100% sure of it's veracity. In any case, my question: I carry a .45 with 230 grain JHPs. If all I practice with is a 9mm with 115 grain ball [only because of the price difference between .45 ball vs. 9mm], should I expect similar grim results....or am I over-thinking this, and it only matters that I'm shooting regularly? Thanks for any and all replies.
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Like so many things which are complicated, my answer is: it depends on what situation you are in.

For a street shooting, I'd agree with most of the posters that the stress of the situation would cause a degradation of motor skills where you revert to your most practiced training.

For those who shoot in IPSC and IDPA and are very skilled (the guys who shoot at least 1000 rounds per week), then they would likely suffer from training with different ammunition. The stress level is very different, they practice for games and perform in a game; so they can suffer from the change in power which shows up in the timing for controlled fast shots on paper. The difference in recoil impulse could be the difference in scoring a 5 or a 3 in an IPSC target (don't know IDPA scoring).
 
I carry a .38 spcl and went back and forth between +p and standard pressure before I finally settled on the +p's. Since the price of Remington +P's are just a couple dollars more than the standard pressures, I pretty much just shoot +P's exclusively. They actually seem to have a bit more recoil than the Federals and PDX I use for SD. While I don't think using standard pressure would be in any way a detriment, I like to keep my practice as close to what I carry as possible. If its affordable and won't hurt the gun, why not?
 
Shadi Khalil: I'm buying those 100 round boxes of 115 grain ball at Wal Mart. Do you know if they [or anyone else] have those same 100 round boxes with +P ammo?
 
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