.38/.357 Question
I have always wondered if similar guns one chambered for .38 Special and the other a .357 and both shooting .38 S, will the chambered .38 be more accurate?
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My guess is that it would depend on tolerances... everything else being exactly equal, the 38 in a 357 would have an extra .1 inches jump between the case mouth and the forcing cone... 0 -
tfitz54,
From experience, it is NORMALLY, the one with less freebore(the 38 chambered gun). However, don't rule anything out, as I have seen some Python's, and Model 27/627 S&W's, do some impressive things, with 38 wadcutter's.
Best0 -
There is an optimum rifling twist rate for a specific weight bullet & velocity. In most cases, we would have a difficult time measuring the difference. Colt made a ".38 special" version of the Python which differed from the .357 MAG version only by the rifling.
Neal0 -
quote:"I have always wondered if similar guns one chambered for .38 Special and the other a .357 and both shooting .38 S, will the chambered .38 be more accurate?"
If the two guns were REALLY the same (ie they used identical cylinders) but the .38 version had a "shoulder" in the chamber to prevent mistakenly chambering .357s, then the two guns should be equally accurate with .38s!
Yes, the increased "Freebore" shooting .38s from a .357 "should" make it marginally less accurate, but depending on what bullets you use, you may be able to load your .38s with a slightly longer overall length to compensate for this difference. In other words, in PRACTICE there may be NO difference in freebore whatever, and therefore no resultant difference in accuracy.
I think Nmyers has it right. The gun with the best match between cylinder, ammo and barrel should be will be the most accurate. A .38 special target revolver firing target loads "should" be more accurate than a .357 magnum COMBAT gun firing the same loads!
Note that in PRACTICE, .38s fired from .357 guns are PLENTY accurate, and even if there were some theoretical advantage to the .38 gun, in practice probably 99%+ of shooters aren't good enough to realize it.
If there are any who can, I don't think I'm one of them. Here is my Smith 19 .357 with crappy reloaded 148 .38 wadcutters at 50 feet. Could I have shot better from a model 14 (.38)? I strongly doubt it!
Note that there are 8 holes because it was the last 8 shots from a 50 round box. Why don't 38s and 357s come in 48 round boxes so you get exactly eight cylinders full? [:p]0 -
I have Smith revolvers in .38 & .357. I have a model 19 .357 that is every bit as accurate as my model 14 .38. I once heard that the additional jump a bullet makes from a magnum cylinder as opposed to a 38 cylinder ruined accuracy, but that has not been the case with my guns. 0 -
If I recall correctly, the Ruger Security Six was available in either caliber. They used the same cylinder and just moved the chamber shoulder to the appropriate point for the caliber. Now all we would need is a statistically significant number of each and a pile of ammo to test for an answer. With a quality pistol I would expect the end result would be that the shooter would get out of the gun what he/she put into the shots. 0 -
Thank you everyone, great info! I will shoot my Model 19 with confidence, no matter what is in it! 0 -
With 144 gr or heavier bullets, you MAY find that one end of the bullet is still inside the cartridge case when the other is starting to enter the lands and grooves- so no real difference between the two guns. Lighter bullets are shorter, and will actually have the "jump" reffered to. Check measurements on your own guns, draw your own conclusions. 0
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