.38 Snubby: Feeding the Snub

[Glock 'em down]

My little Ruger LCR is filled with Hornady 110gr +P Critical Defense. I like it.

 

[SoonerP226]

My snubby carries three rounds of Cor-Bon +P .38Spl and three rounds of CCI rat shot. I think the Cor-Bons are 125gr, but I'd have to clean up this disaster area I call a desk to find the box, and I'm just not feeling the spirit right now.

 

[dennishoddy]

I carry the Speer Gold Dot Short-Barrel 135-grain JHP +P that is mentioned in the link above.

"This load provides a quality jacketed hollowpoint for the new breed of lightweight handguns that could not use the lead hollowpoint. We liked this load a lot. While the performance of the load mirrors some of the 110- and 125-grain bullets, the 135-grain bullet offers greater mass. Produced 13 inches of penetration and .62-inch expansion. This load and the Buffalo Bore 125 are practically identical in performance."

I like this ammo. It doesn’t offer any more velocity than a +P, but what it does produce is a bullet that will perform at the velocity from a snubby.
I don’t own a .38 snubby, but shoot these in my Kelteck PMR-30 in .22 mag for the same reason.

 

[Shadowrider]

I carry 147gr HBWCs in the gun and the Speer 135SB load in speed strips. Next time I buy JHPs I'm getting these. Much more affordable and pretty much identical. You can find them from online sellers in 50ct boxes for the same price as the Speer retail boxes. Both are great loads.

http://winchesterle.com/PRODUCTS/HANDGUN-AMMUNITION/ranger/bonded/Pages/RA38B.aspx

 

[scottb42]

I keep Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel +P 135gr in my LCR.

Not sure if this really proves anything, but prior to settling on it I tried a bunch of different loadings over my chronograph. One thing that I found interesting is that of 6 loadings, the Speer was the ONLY one to reach its advertised muzzle velocity from the 1-7/8" LCR barrel. The others missed their advertising hyperbole by amounts ranging from "that's not too bad" to "are you fricken' kidding me?"

(Tried using a fixed-space font to keep the table readable)
ETA: ... and it didn't work, go down a couple posts for a better attempt

Adv Act Act
Mfr Ctg Bullet MVel MVel ME Shots Temp Description
Federal 38Spl 110gr HS 980 873 186 10 60F Hydra Shok Low Recoil
Federal 38Spl 129gr HS 950 867 215 10 60F Hydra Shok
Hornady 38Spl 90gr FTX 1200 951 181 10 60F Critical Defense Lite
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 907 201 10 60F Critical Defense
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 951 221 15 90F Critical Defense (retest)
Hornady 38Spl+P 110gr FTX 1090 1009 249 15 90F Critical Defense
Speer 38Spl+P 135gr GDSB 860 865 224 20 90F Gold Dot Short Barrel

Adv MVel = advertised muzzle velocity
Act MVel = average actual (measured) muzzle velocity
Act ME = average actual muzzle energy (calculated based on bullet weight and measured velocity)
Shots = number of shots included in the actual averages
Temp = temperature

I ran the Hornady 110gr FTX Critical Defense twice, once on a cool day and once on a hot day. Very different results, not sure if they're really that temperature sensitive, if there was a big variation in lots, or if my chronograph was having a bad hair day.

 

[dennishoddy]

I keep Speer Gold Dot Short Barrel +P 135gr in my LCR.

Not sure if this really proves anything, but prior to settling on it I tried a bunch of different loadings over my chronograph. One thing that I found interesting is that of 6 loadings, the Speer was the ONLY one to reach its advertised muzzle velocity from the 1-7/8" LCR barrel. The others missed their advertising hyperbole by amounts ranging from "that's not too bad" to "are you fricken' kidding me?"

(Tried using a fixed-space font to keep the table readable)
ETA: ... and it didn't work

Adv Act Act
Mfr Ctg Bullet MVel MVel ME Shots Temp Description
Federal 38Spl 110gr HS 980 873 186 10 60F Hydra Shok Low Recoil
Federal 38Spl 129gr HS 950 867 215 10 60F Hydra Shok
Hornady 38Spl 90gr FTX 1200 951 181 10 60F Critical Defense Lite
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 907 201 10 60F Critical Defense
Hornady 38Spl 110gr FTX 1010 951 221 15 90F Critical Defense (retest)
Hornady 38Spl+P 110gr FTX 1090 1009 249 15 90F Critical Defense
Speer 38Spl+P 135gr GDSB 860 865 224 20 90F Gold Dot Short Barrel

Adv MVel = advertised muzzle velocity
Act MVel = average actual (measured) muzzle velocity
Act ME = average actual muzzle energy (calculated based on bullet weight and measured velocity)
Shots = number of shots included in the actual averages
Temp = temperature

I ran the Hornady 110gr FTX Critical Defense twice, once on a cool day and once on a hot day. Very different results, not sure if they're really that temperature sensitive, if there was a big variation in lots, or if my chronograph was having a bad hair day.

Real data always supersedes speculation. Thanks for the data.

 

[scottb42]

Try this for an actually readable table:

 

[D.M.]

Underwood 158gr lswchp standard pressure, why, cause I had them.