.38 special?

[45 ACP]

Is shooting .38 special out of a wheel gun chambered in .357 bad for your chambers?

[kevinmch]

Not that I know of. I do it all the time, so I hope it's not bad. Don't forget, just because the calibers are named differently, i.e. .38 vs .357, they are actually the same diameter. .38 Special is the parent case of a .357 magnum; check it out here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.38_special
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.357_magnum
Anyone I have ever talked to, whether gun store employee or otherwise, has said that .38 is definitely OK to shoot out of .357. Whether or not there is microscopic damage done to a cylinder/bore....I couldn't say 100%. But it sure is fun, lol.

[Exbiker]

Not a problem in fact probably easier on the gun. That`s all I shoot out of my SP101 357Mag.

[gf45acp]

I have fired thousands of .38 specials out of .357's, no problems yet. If you use dirty loads, or if you don't clean the chambers well you can end up with a build up of crud in the chamber at the .38 special case mouth length that can interfear with chambering the longer .357 cartridge. Clean it, no problem.

[Montell C. Williams]

You must clean the chambers after shooting .38spl in a .357 cause pwder residue can make cases of the longer 357 stick in the chambers, also after thousands of rounds there can begas cutting where the .38 case ends and cause difficult extraction.

[Montell C. Williams]

You must clean the chambers after shooting .38spl in a .357 cause pwder residue can make cases of the longer 357 stick in the chambers, also after thousands of rounds there can begas cutting where the .38 case ends and cause difficult extraction. The same as .22 short in a .22 lr chamber.

[45 ACP]

thanks guys, my only concern is that since the .38 cartrige is shorter than a .357 the gases could cause permanent damage to the chambers, but if that's not the case, then I'm ready to go for many shooting years to come.

[gf45acp]

Shoot away, and enjoy!

[JoeWilliams]

thanks guys, my only concern is that since the .38 cartrige is shorter than a .357 the gases could cause permanent damage to the chambers, but if that's not the case, then I'm ready to go for many shooting years to come.

Supposedly after shooting lots and lots you can get some gas cutting of the chambers that would make .357 cases stick a bit, but I can't imagine how many thousands of rounds that would take. Probably about as many as it would take to start shooting out the chamber throats of a revolver chambered for .38s to begin with. I'll venture a guess that there are many, many more .38s fired out of .357s than there are .357s.

Clean the chambers after each trip and you'll have no problems with crud giving you problems chambering .357s when you want.

[Mity2]

Supposedly after shooting lots and lots you can get some gas cutting of the chambers that would make .357 cases stick a bit, but I can't imagine how many thousands of rounds that would take. Probably about as many as it would take to start shooting out the chamber throats of a revolver chambered for .38s to begin with. I'll venture a guess that there are many, many more .38s fired out of .357s than there are .357s.

Clean the chambers after each trip and you'll have no problems with crud giving you problems chambering .357s when you want.

I have heard of this, and after shooting several rounds of 38 out of 357mag chambered gun, you can infact see that in chambers.

But as long as you clean the chamber after each trip, i really see no issues with it IMO