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can i put a 38 barrel on a 357

smirkel
i want to get a 357 in a local pawn shop it has like a 4" barrel can i buy a 2" 38 barrel and put it on there both taurus blued
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10 comments

Date Votes
  • ruger41
    You CAN as they are both the same but one would question WHY? Unless you're getting the .357 for practically nothing, for the cost of the used .357, new barrel and labor you could go out and buy a used and possibly new Taurus 2" .357
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  • Mark G
    Smirkel,

    +1 Ruger41.

    Many have been down this road before. " I can get this gun cheap and then I can buy this part and that part and clean this up and refinish and redo the stock etc..." but after many of these projects what you find is you have invested more money and effort into something you could have bought just the way you wanted it. While I like Taurus firearms for what they are, I wouldn't invest alot of time or money into one. My advice is find a 357 with a 2" barrel from the factory if thats what you want. Make sure it is a quality manufacturer and shoot it before you buy it if you can. Try several different ones before you decide, especially if it will be a defense gun.
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  • bpost
    First, skip the Taurus,(search for Taurus problems in the forums using the tab in the upper right)

    Have you ever fired a 357 mag out of a 2" tube???? Recoil, noise, flash and muzzle blast are in the OMG category.

    It would make more sense to just hack two inches off the existing barrel and point to aim.....
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  • midnightrunpaintballer
    quote:Originally posted by bpost
    First, skip the Taurus,(search for Taurus problems in the forums using the tab in the upper right)

    Have you ever fired a 357 mag out of a 2" tube???? Recoil, noise, flash and muzzle blast are in the OMG category.

    It would make more sense to just hack two inches off the existing barrel and point to aim.....


    Or have a gunsmith do that for you so it still has a clean crown and front sight...... Then you can shoot .38's out of it all day.
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  • nmyers
    Plus, there's usually no difference between a .38 spec & a .357 mag barrel if you are talking about the same model revolver from the same manufacturer.

    The only exception I can think of is the .38 spec Colt Python 6" barrel that has a different twist rate than the .357 mag barrel. If you are talking about a 2" barrel, of course, it wouldn't matter.

    Neal
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  • airmung
    I bought a nice .357 Lawman III with a cracked forcing cone. No problem, thinks I. I paid $350 for the gun, spent months looking high and low for another barrel. Finally one shows up on GB, so I'm all over that. Barrel gets bids, so it wound up costing me nearly $100 after freight, etc. Gunsmith installed it for another $100, so I have, well, you can add it up. At the time, you could have found another gun for less than that. I bought a 686-2 about the same time for $325, so it has been a couple of years ago.

    But I'm happy, the gun looks pristine, shoots well, and it is worth it to me especially because there is no paper trail.
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  • Spartacus
    quote:t would make more sense to just hack two inches off the existing barrel and point to aim.....


    agree. if you're looking for a BBBG, thats the way to go. local machine shop can do the cut down and crown it for 50 bucks. or you can get a hacksaw (i prefer a sawmill) and do it yourself on an hour. if you want to get fancy, silver solder the front sight on the cut down and refinish the gun with ceracoat or similar.
    just my 2c
    tom
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  • v35
    Shoot it as is for a while. If there isn't too much blast, concussion and recoil for you, cut it to 3" and try it again before going down to 2 1/2".
    Everything gets more unpleasant as you shorten a powerful handgun except concealability. It will require a holster anyway.
    If you decide to downscale to shooting 38 Special loads, there are lighter,handier 38s to choose from.
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  • beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by smirkel
    i want to get a 357 in a local pawn shop it has like a 4" barrel can i buy a 2" 38 barrel and put it on there both taurus blued


    To reiterate what's already been said, there is probably no difference between a Taurus .38 special barrel and a Taurus .357 magnum barrel.

    Yes, it generally possible to swap out revolver barrels (depending on how they are installed to begin with), but having this done professionally (ie correctly) is not likely to be cost effective.

    Its generally **NOT** as easy as just unscrewing the old barrel and installing the new one. Removing the barrel may require a special jig to keep from bending the gun frame, and then installing the new barrel will probably require setting the cylinder gap, again not trivial.

    If you add up the cost of the gun itself, new barrel and gunsmith labor, you're probably going to end up paying more than the cost of a 2" barreled gun.

    Even worse, the extra money you spend on converting the gun will NOT add that much value to the final value of the gun. In other words, you're going to take a $300 gun, add another $50-100 worth of parts, and then another $100+ worth of labor only to end up with a $325 gun.

    Also, not mentioned above, if you were to install a 2" barrel from a .38 into a .357 gun, then the gun itself will likely be mislabelled as to caliber. In other words, the barrel will say ".38" but the gun will actually be a .357. That isn't helpful, and won't add to the value of the piece.

    If you want a 2" .38 special revolver, really, just go buy one. That will be easier and cheaper. (And if you're going to buy one, take a good look at Smith and Wesson and/or Ruger too, not just Taurus).

    While its true that cutting down a barrel is cheaper than swapping out barrels, unless the gun in question is a super-duper bargain, I still think you're probably going to be better off just finding the gun you actually want and buying it from the get go.

    Having the barrel cut down professionally, then recrowned, and the front sight re-attached (or a different one attached) is still probably going to cost you more than the extra marginal cost of just buying a 2" gun to begin with.

    Yes, you can do this yourself, but again, unless you do a really good job of it, you're likely to REDUCE the final value of the gun in the process.

    Also, responding to some of the above, while muzzle flash from a 2" .357 is stupendous, recoil doesn't have to be, especially with covered backstrap fingergroove rubber grips and/or light loads. Since the poster is asking about a .38 special barrel, presumeably he's interested in firing .38 special loads, anyway.
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  • 11b6r
    Please correct me if I am wrong (like this group EVER had a problem doing THAT!)

    The original question was going from a 4 inch bbl to a 2 inch bbl- is there a difference in the length of the ejector rod on the Taurus (between the 2 and the 4) ??

    IIRC, in S&Ws, there was a difference.
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