+p in a regular handgun
lets say i have a charter arms 38 spec not rated for +p ammo, and i also have 20 rds of hornady critical defense +p. what is the liklihood of me injuring myself by shooting them.[:D] i know it is not recommended but would 20 rounds sparingly shot do damage to the gun or injury to a person. i know you are not supposed to feed a non rated gun a steady diet of +p but is it that bad to do sometimes, like the 20 round of ammo i have. i know i dont have to but i am asking hypothetically of course[?]
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If you use the Gunbroker "search" function, there is a tremendous amount written on this.
As far as I know, all the recent manufacture Charter arms guns are rated for +P. In fact, I don't know ANY current manufacturer of .38 special revolvers whose guns are NOT rated for +P (including Smith and Wesson, Charter arms, Taurus, Ruger, etc).
Briefly, .38+P ammo was designed for use in any modern revolver in good working condition. The +P ammo pre-dated the practice of designating guns as +P by many years.
While I would never fire even ONE +P round out of a older pre-war type .38 revolver or some borderline import gun, the Charter arms company was founded in the mid-1960s, and the older guns are considered to be pretty good.
You'll get mixed opinions on using +P ammo in older non-+P rated guns. In my opinion, you're probably not going to blow up your gun or hurt yourself with a few +P rounds every once in a while, so long as its an all-steel gun.0 -
brand new gun.
also does that advice apply to other calibers as well or just 38 spec.0 -
quote:Originally posted by shootuadeal
brand new gun.
Why didn't you say so? From the horses' mouth:
http://www.charterfirearms.com/faq/Charter_Firearms_faq.html
quote:
Q. Can I shoot +P in my .38 revolver?
A.Charter .38's are among the smallest revolvers in this caliber. Yes they can handle +P but we do not recommend it for the following reasons:
+P ammo requires a four-inch minimum barrel to burn the extra powder. Therefore, in a two-inch barrel the extra powder is burned after the bullet leaves the barrel creating more recoil and making it harder to come back to target.
We recommend a standard velocity load and practice with round nose lead rounds which are the least expensive. When you load for protection, use a jacketed or hollow point in the same grain you practice with.
For what its worth, I believe Charter Arms is wrong about this in principle.
My understanding is that you *do* see some velocity increase with .38+P ammo, even in a 2" barreled gun. (And if there were no difference in velocity, then there would be no difference in recoil. Powder burning outside the barrel doesn't contribute to recoil!)
In my experience, the recoil difference between ordinary and +P ammo is minimal.
Perhaps Charter is right that the small added benefit in velocity from +P ammo from a snubnose isn't worth the large difference in cost of the ammo, but that's a separate matter.
As a practical issue, the problem with using NON +P ammo in your snubnose, is that nowadays almost all of the good defensive rounds are +P rounds. Most of the "ordinary" rounds are target loads. While commercially loaded standard pressure defensive/hollowpoint type loads do exist, they can be hard to find.
Given the choice, I'd always rather carry the +P rounds (even in a non +P rated gun) than carry what are effectively target rounds.
quote:
also does that advice apply to other calibers as well or just 38 spec.
Well, there are MANY kinds of guns out there, and multiple common calibers. You can't generalize this to every single round and every single gun. Again, I'd be careful about running +P ammo in marginal guns from second or third-tier manufacturers.
With respect to 9mm luger, as one example, most of the big name makers semi-auto guns (eg Smith and Wesson, Ruger, CZ, Glock, Beretta, Sig, etc) are rated as safe with 9mm+P ammo.
But again, you can't generalize. For a definitive answer you have to know exactly which load in which gun.0 -
thank you beantownshootah, guys like you are a credit to the gb community[:D] 0 -
I have never worn out a revolver or pistol, I have read that a study diet of these through a weapon will shorten its life. I thought the idea of these high pressure rounds served as personel protection round and not target rounds?
Emmett0 -
I wish I had something to add, but these guys covered it like terra cotta on a Roman floor.
Just recall that were +P cartridges LONG before there were factory shootin' irons that were stamped as rated for +P.
Doug0
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