Chronoed a couple of 38 loads today.

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wolfee

Blackhawk
Joined
Dec 23, 2008
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746
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Denver
Actually, I chronoed half the offerings on the planet earth for 38 special. But, I'll share 2 of the more interesting/useful ones.

1. Winchester "Winclean" 38 Special. 125 gr "brass enclosed base" at a factory indicated 775fps. These things appear to be all brass jacketed bullet, not just the base. The bullet color is gold like brass, not copper like, well, copper. A brilliant sun came out from the clouds just before I shot these and I got too many err readings to get the high, low, average and standard deviation. However, when I got a valid reading it was just above the factory claim. I would guess averaged about 785. 2 Shots went just a couple fps over 800. Standard deviation was reasonable. Recoil/report as mild as you would think for these weak target loads. Main appeal here is that this stuff is CLEAN. The bore, and all 6 chambers of my GP was filthy after shooting tons of other "normal" stuff. This was the last load I tested and I see NO need to clean the gun now. Including inside of the cylinders. The Winclean firings CLEANED THE GUN. Sqeaky clean. Inside of the fired cases is bright and shiny! This stuff is cheap, too. It has become my go to load for high volume range plinking. In stock now at MidwayUSA.

2. Buffalo Bore 38+P TAC-XP 110 gr hollow point. All copper. Factory indicated 1287fps "real world" from a S&W 4". However, BB's real world testing also shows 1438fps from a 6" GP100. My results were in line with this data. This stuff is HOT. My GP(38 only) is a 4.2" but I recorded a 6 shot average of 1398. Hi was 1416(!) low was 1380. Standard deviation* was an admirable 12 fps. Less than 1%. The calculated muzzle energy at 1400 is 479 ft/lbs. This is approaching 357 magnum energy. Muzzle blast and recoil were not what a full house 357 magnum provides but was quite stout for a 38. Dunno what I would use these for, and for the price of them (similar to buying little chunks of solid Platinum, or something) I am sure I won't be using many of them!

*as calculated by the chrono using Shooting Chrony's "square everything" method.
 
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