Originally Posted by
Shades
This last Friday, I went to the range with a Smith 13-2, a gun I've had a while but never gotten around to shooting much. I wanted to see how it printed with various .38 +P defensive-oriented loads: 135 gr Speer SB, 130 gr Win bonded, 110 gr Hornady Critical Defense and 125 gr Rem GS. Everything went well with the Speer and the Win stuff. I fired a cylinder-full of the GS without issue, but on the third round from the second cylinder load, the trigger wouldn't come back and neither would the hammer. A visual inspection revealed no apparent problems, so I reloaded the four unfired rounds and when I tried to close the cylinder it was sticky. Closer inspection with the unfired rounds still in the chambers showed that one case head was very slightly higher than the others. Checked the chamber and saw nothing impeding proper chambering, so I set that cartridge aside and tried another; it fit flush and everything worked fine. The rim on the offending round was ever-so-slightly thicker that the other cartridges - all from the same box. The fact that this gun has recessed chambers may have made it more sensitive to this variation. I wonder if that same round would have worked fine in my Model 10-5, which doesn't have the recessed chambers. (I tossed the offending cartridge in the range's dud box, so can't check that out.) Nevertheless, the remaining GS ammo is now relegated to range use, which is OK as I believe it's somewhat shy of the recommended minimum penetration.
Re the Hornady stuff, it all fired fine, but extraction was sticky, which I've also noticed with my Model 10. It also prints lower that the other loads. Fortunately, I've got a decent supply of Fed A.E. 130 FMJ, which is a good practice stand-in for both the Speer and Win loads.