Weird .38SPL ammo question.
My FIL recently passed away and my MIL gave me a large box of his gun related stuff. Cleaning supplies and some ammo. Included are a couple of boxes of .38SPL "Wadcutter/Platpunt" ammo made by Musgrave Company in Austria. The weird thing about the ammo is that bullet is completely encased within the cartridge case. Box doesn't say anything about bullet weight etc. But the case is standard .38SPL size, so it can't be very much. So what are these?
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It sounds like some wadcutter target ammo. Most are 148gr.
I have a box of Taurus 146gr bullets that look like a hollow base wadcutter, but the nose is a big hollow with a post in the middle.
Never found any info on them in the years I;ve had them.0 -
I have shot about 25,000 of them, {1/10th What Perryshooter must have done[:D]}
Here is the info on them.
http://www.armslist.com/posts/262364/oklahoma-city-oklahoma-ammo-for-sale--winchester--38-special-super-match-148gr--mid-range-ammo0 -
The bullets needed to be seated flush with the mouth of the case so that they would feed reliably in the semi-auto pistols used for target shooting.
Neal0 -
Made to fit a S&W model 52 magazine as well as magazines for 1911 type pistol converted from 38 super to 38 special by some of the old master pistol-smiths like Jimmy Clark John Giles Bob Chow and others. As well as the 38 midrange Gold Cup 0 -
Found a label on box that says "This ammom must only be used in Large Frame Revolvers". 0 -
Photo off the net. The Musgrave Co is a very well known South African arms and ammo manufacturer. There stuff hasn't been imported and sold in the States for years though.
If the ammo is marked "Made in Austria"? It was probably made by Hirtenberg for Musgrave.
EDIT #1,
I have never shot the Musgrave wadcutters, but a lot of the other commercial made target wadcutters over the years. They are very lightly loaded for bullseye type target shooting. I would have no second thoughts about shooting them in any revolver chambered for .38 special cartridge. I don't understand why they would be marked for use only in large frame revolvers?0 -
quote:Originally posted by rufe-snow
Photo off the net. The Musgrave Co is a very well known South African arms and ammo manufacturer. There stuff hasn't been imported and sold in the States for years though.
If the ammo is marked "Made in Austria"? It was probably made by Hirtenberg for Musgrave.
That's it. So it's OK to use, but only in large frame revolvers?0 -
Okay to use in any gun chambered in the .38 SPECIAL round. That warning may have been because with no bullet exposed, that round will
WRONGLY fit in the old small frame .38S&W guns.0 -
They are called "wadcutters" because they cut a nice round, easy to see hole in paper targets. 0 -
.38 wadcutter ammo is about as weak an ammo as you can get in that caliber and is safe to fire in ANY .38 special revolver. If you can't fire that safely in your gun, the gun is unsafe to fire with ANY ammo, period.
The ammo is deliberately underpowered for maximum accuracy and minimum recoil. It typically fires a 148 grain bullet at about 850 feet per second from a long-barrel revolver. These are ideal rounds for introducing new shooters to centerfire revolvers.
As mentioned the flat "can" shaped bullet punches a perfect clean round hole in paper (see below). The hole is also of maximum possible diameter, increasing the likelihood of intersecting a scoring line during competition.
The reason the bullet is completely encased within the cartridge is to ensure maximum ignition consistency with the LOW volume powder loads.
In other words, having lots of extra space inside the case is bad for accuracy; seating the bullets flush this way helps use up the extra space. It also allows for completely uniform feeding of these cartridges though the Smith and Wesson model 52 and a few other specialty target automatic guns.
Here is some sense of what these things will do. Gun in question is a Smith and Wesson model 19 in .357 magnum, at 50 feet:0 -
As said- that is the standard low power target load for any .38 Special revolver. There were a very few target automatic pistols that also shot those. And Platpunt is Afrikaans for "flat point". 0 -
Thanks. 0 -
A good friend of mine got a box of Remington wadcutters and thought they were "blanks". I took the box away from him right away, just in case he got to thinking that again or someone in his household (who are not shooters) thought the same thing. 0 -
dcs, the "Taurus" loads you have are from the old Taurus bullet company that had to change its name to Zero bullet company. These were the original "Hydra-Shok" bullets called Scorpions by Taurus/Zero. The post in the center was first put there because a standard hollow base wadcutter grabs too much air when it flies and yaws badly. The post fills enough of the cavity to allow for better aerodynamics while still making the end result a huge hollow-point. Federal bought the concept and the brand name, the result being, IMHO, one of the best combat loads available. 0
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