We’re just about done with this revolver series but just to remind you what this is all about, since many new gun owners are buying revolvers and since survival adjacent activities like bushcrafting and hunting/trapping often involve carrying a revolver we’re going over common revolver calibers and telling you, in my opinion and experience, what some of the pros and cons of them are.
The .38 Special is probably the most common revolver cartridge you’ll run into in America, and the most maligned. At one point in time most police officers would have been armed with “duty” style .38s but the post 1960s crime wave created the sense that beat cops were outgunned by the criminal element so most departments switched to autoloaders. The .38 is often thought of as underpowered by people who confuse it with the .38 Long Colt which performed poorly for Americans fighting the Moros in the Philippines.
In the late 18th and early 19th century when we were fighting the Moros they were drug fueled Jihadi pirates who employed medieval style armor. This included mail and plate shirts and shields. Like this:
The .38 Long Colt military loading of that time would have been (at best) a 148 grain bullet propelled by smokeless powder at about 750 fps, achieving a muzzle energy of 185 – about what you get from a good .22 magnum loading. There was a black powder loading that was even weaker and once the round punched through shields and armor they just weren’t having the effect on the Moros soldier wanted.
But the .38 Special is much more powerful. In fact the .38 Special was designed to defeat Moro armor. In doing so designers came up with a truly versatile and utilitarian cartridge:
The round dominated LE for nearly 70 years, until the advent of more efficient yet equally reliable semiautomatic pistols in the mid-1980s.
Colt continued to produce their “D-frame” revolvers such as the Police Positive and “I-frame” Officer’s Model for the now ubiquitous cartridge into the 1950s, but it had largely been supplanted by the S&W offering.The .38 Special is well known for its accuracy, relatively mild recoil, and the variety of loadings available for it. From a 146gr squared-cylindrical “wadcutter” bullet at 600fps, the original 158gr “Police” round nosed lead, later offered in a “high-speed version” by the 1930s clocking roughly 850ft/sec, it has become and will probably remain the single best selling and widely used revolver round in the world.
Starting in the 1930s, some handloading folks decided they needed to soup up the .38’s speed yet further. These higher-pressure loadings were then used in the Smith & Wesson “N-frame” revolvers, and named the “.38/44 Outdoorsman.” This is the forerunner of today’s +P and +P+ loadings, but the cartridge then was more for sporting purposes, small game hunting and the like, versus the social work use the current high pressure rounds are used for today.
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The best .38 Special ammunition typically are any of the premium jacketed hollow points from 110gr to 158gr, though many shootists still carry the old “FBI” round, namely the 158gr soft-lead semi-wadcutter hollow point in +P trim, available from Federal and Winchester, the two main suppliers of ammo to LE agencies.
One of the beauties of a .38 revolver is the ammunition suite. One has the option to reliably fire greatly varying bullet weights and pressure loadings in the same revolver, from the target wadcutter to the so-called “Treasury Load,” which was a Winchester 110gr +P+ jacketed hollow point round.
Emphasis mine. The .38 Special is almost shotgun like in it’s ability to allow users to tailor their loads for specific purposes. Because the round can be chambered in .357 Magnums it has even more utility. Many people pick up .357s and just use them as .38s.
But that utility isn’t the only reason the .38 is popular:
The .38s recoil in most loadings is very mild even in snub nosed J-Frame revolvers.
It’s known to be very accurate, especially in “combat” or target revolvers. A “combat” or “duty” revolver is typically a gun made for police or military work. They usually have a barrel between 4 and 5 inches and for survival use these are the ones you’d want.
Even the mild loadings are known to be effective for, er, “social work” as some might call it.
.38s will go from about 200 foot-pounds in “mild” loadings to over 400 for +P loadings, so comparing it to other rounds is a fools errand – you can find loads that mimic most common semi-auto loadings in terms of power. Some +P loadings will beat the Federal Hydra-Shok 10mm in terms of power according to Chuck Hawks. But for survivalists there are some other benefits.
It can be reloaded with Black Powder
It is commonly available even during shortages.
It can be reloaded to lower velocities to take small game.
.38s are popular among Cowboy Action competitors because the light recoil makes it easier to shoot faster and stay on target. As such many single action revolvers will come in .357/38. .38s are also popular with concealed carriers so you find a lot of J-Frame guns on the market – often cheap. Gun shows will have lots of .38s laying around for amazing prices.
For survivalists .38 revolvers are often a budget friendly option of extra firearms or guns that will be used for beating around the bush or other activities you won’t really want to take a $800 polymer gun to do. Good quality .38s can start around $200 or so and go as high as you’re willing to pay.
Speedloaders are available for almost every model of double action .38. But J-Frame guns usually only carry five rounds.
I personally recommend .38s for preppers who want a simple to use defensive handgun for wearing on their hip while in the garden or hunting. Historically they have been pressed into combat roles but I always pair any revolver with a shotgun for sort of thing.
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Author Rob Taylor
