Help with 38 Snub ammo

**Bang** · December 6th, 2018, 12:43 PM

A snub nose revolver is a "Belly" gun. If you can't touch his belly with it there's a chance you are gonna miss.

Back in the day, those of us who carried snubbies and qualified with our departments fired offhand out to 50 yards along with the 4-inchers. Never heard the term "belly gun". If we had thought the snubby was not up to the job, we wouldn't have carried them.

**ItchyTick** · December 6th, 2018, 02:38 PM

I use low recoil jhp. A .38 hole is a .38 hole.

**TonyF** · December 6th, 2018, 08:54 PM

I'd also recommend the Nyclad but this offering from buffalo bore seems to be in the same vein.

https://www.buffalobore.com/index.ph...t_detail&p=110

**Justin2012** · December 6th, 2018, 09:11 PM

This is what I carry in my .38 snubby

**Zeke2A** · December 7th, 2018, 08:03 PM

I have Ruger ARX in my Ruger LCR. Good penetration, lower recoil point of aim is a little low.

http://mousegunaddict.blogspot.com/2...tion-test.html

**1911-6sn7** · December 10th, 2018, 04:54 PM

Originally Posted by markshere2

All the above is true.

A snub nose revolver is a "Belly" gun. If you can't touch his belly with it there's a chance you are gonna miss.

It is superb for that function since they are all double actions, which means nobody can push a slide out of battery and render it inoperative.

Use cheap ammo to practice practice and practice until you know where the bullet is going to hit at 10'. THEN switch to the expensive stuff and adjust accordingly.

Me, I load my own.

My experience was similar with my SP-101, never expected or could get good accuracy... then I watched my 14 year old son hit a soda can repeatedly hanging in a tree more than 50 feet away. Took me a while to unlearn bad habits and shoot a DA revolver better

**bripro** · December 12th, 2018, 03:37 PM

I suggest trying that Tula ammo and decide how close it feels to +P yourself. I have some in 357 and feel it recoils harder than many common brands. Hopefully the same holds true for the 38s.

**340M&P** · December 12th, 2018, 04:13 PM

Another vote for Ruger ARX. I have some and its easy shooting, low recoil, and standard pressure. Use it in my J frame for those reasons. It is also my "I don't need a gun" gun.

**Greywolf** · December 16th, 2018, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by jthrelf

According to Mas Ayoob the gold standard for a 38 snub is the 135gr Gold Dot +P short barrel. Snubs have pretty stout recoil regardless of standard or +p...

Most of the benefit (real or perceived) of +P ammunition is lost when fired out of a snub-nose. That's why several of the ammo makers have come out with "short barrel" versions of their premium, self defense lines. The Gold Dot Short Barrel is a good one, and the other major makers also offer short barrel ammo now.

As an example: I'm a 1911 guy. The full-size 1911 has a 5: barrel the Commander has a 4-1/4" barrel, and the Officers ACP has a 3-1/2" barrel. Several years ago I got curious about how much velocity was lost by the shorter barrels compared to the 5-inch. So I set up a chronograph, took out a bunch of boxes of ammo and four guns (I also had a 3" 1911), started shooting.

I had the chronograph set up at ten feet from the muzzle, which is more or less a standard distance. All went well for the 5" and 4-1/4" portion of the testing. When I got to the 3-1/2" pistol, half the ammo I tried didn't generate velocity readings, it generated error readings. The 3" pistol was even worse.

What happened? The powder was still burning after the bullet (and the gas, and the unburned powder) had exited the barrel. The burning powder was crossing the chronograph screen and interfering with the readings. I had to move the chronograph out to fifteen feet and start over to get results for the short barrels. What that means is powder which should have been contributing to muzzle velocity was being wasted, burning up in open air after it left the barrel.

That's why they started making short barrel ammunition.