Picked up a Ruger Service Six in .38 spl. with a 2.75 inch barrel and dearly love it. Looking for opinions given today's bullet technology. Thanks in advance.
Picked up a Ruger Service Six in .38 spl. with a 2.75 inch barrel and dearly love it. Looking for opinions given today's bullet technology. Thanks in advance.
"Gettin' everybody to love me is a full time job..." - Kenny Powers
Here's a good start:
http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.p...0-ACP-vs-38-Sp
Still relevant? Yes.
The loads all mentioned in the linked thread are worth evaluating. The most common standard today seems to be the 135-grain Gold Dot load. For a bigger 2.75" Ruger or K-Frame, I would also look at the Buffalo Bore 158-grain LSWCHP +P which puts out near magnum like velocities even from short guns, but is not a round I recommend anyone shoot in a J-Frame.
-Rob
A S&W 442 has been my BUG for years. It's what I have on me when I don't have a gun. I'm interested more in opinions on the Ruger Six-series/K frame size guns. My bad for not being more specific. Although I believe it should be mandatory for everyone to own a 642/442 j-frame, I don't consider them a primary weapon.
"Gettin' everybody to love me is a full time job..." - Kenny Powers
Steve, even in larger .38 guns most folks are carrying what we might think of snub loads or some variation of them. The 135-grain Gold Dots are optimized for 2" barrel but seem to work just fine out of 4" guns as well. A lot of guys are still carrying the Federal or Remington 158-grain LSWCHP +P rounds. You might look at the Buffalo Bore round I mentioned above. It's one of the hottest .38 Special rounds out right now and it's my preferred round in bigger guns. It is not a round I would consider shooting in a smaller gun, too much speed and recoil, but would work in a mid-sized frame gun. I worked with that round quite a bit in a 4" M64 that I had for a long time, it averaged just about 1150 FPS out of a 4" barrel and there wasn't much left to pick up of one living thing I shot with it (a jack rabbit).
-Rob
I'm a big fan of the old school Buffalo Bore 150gr. full wadcutter. Not fancy but penetration isn't a issue and with a full diameter flat profile expansion isn't really needed.
For a legit defensive load they're remarkably easy to shoot. Plus most fixed sights are regulated to them.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
One more fan of that 158gr BB load. Pretty much the spiritual successor to CorBon's 90s-era 158 gr LSWCHP +P+ "RCMP" load, but faster.
I'm a long-time revolver fan, and I still think my 2" S&W model 12 is one of the best carry guns ever made (don't shoot the buffalo bore in it though). I've got boxes upon boxes of the "FBI" load by several makers stashed away for my Js, Ks, and SPs. I like how the load and all those guns form a system: every revolver I have in that chambering shoots to the same POA.
I also have some boxes of that 150gr full wadcutter load that I sometimes throw into a 70s 3" 36-1. Also good stuff.
FWIW, the Ruger Service Six that I had was finicky in the sense that the fixed sights were pretty much right on with light loads and heavy bullets, such as a 148gr 38 special wadcutter target load or factory 158gr RN, but would shoot low and to the right with lighter bullets at higher velocities, 125gr 357 magnums.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
While I happily defer to DocGKR's expertise and data in these things, I've been very pleased with Remington's Golden Saber JHP in 125 gr .38 Special +P for years. One of the things that I like about it is that Remington/UMC has what I consider an analog load, their less expensive UMC 125 gr SJHP .38 Special +P, sold in 100 round boxes, which make a great practice/IDPA competition load. I use these combinations in both my 4" Security Six and 4" GP100.
I believe that .38 Special +P is a viable defense load, but due to the hand/eye coordination needed for revolver reloading, I tend to now restrict my revolver carry to daylight, nightstand, or IDPA match use, as I discussed in what turned out to be a fairly long thread some months ago: http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.p...larly-At-Night
I prefer the .38 Special +P to .357 Magnum due to the lower blast/recoil, and quicker recovery times between shots.
Best, Jon
Science fact: Ruger Six-series guns make women's clothes fall off.
Unlike the K-frames, you can feed a Six a steady diet of magnums and not worry about breaking the gun; that being said for all my "Six" guns, especially the fixed sight models I almost invariably carry 158 grain LSWCHP. This bullet shoots to the sights usually, and there are, to borrow a phrase from a friend, entire graveyards full of dudes that have been killed by it. If the HP version of the round is hard to find, I'll just carry regular 158 gr LSWC and not sweat it too much. It has the penetration to get to vitals, and it may not expand into a flower of death blossom, I reckon it'll get the job done.
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