What is MC ammo?
OK guys, I just purchased a box of 38 Special made by UMC (Remington).
It is listed on the box as "130 grain MC. What is MC? The bullet looks like rounded (I see no lead) ammo except the very tip looks like a wadcutter and is cut flat (the tip only).
Also, is soft point ammo for hunting or do people use it for self defense also? Thanks
Bruce
It is listed on the box as "130 grain MC. What is MC? The bullet looks like rounded (I see no lead) ammo except the very tip looks like a wadcutter and is cut flat (the tip only).
Also, is soft point ammo for hunting or do people use it for self defense also? Thanks
Bruce
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modified cone?
I'm a man,....but I can change,.....If I have to,......I guess.0 -
I would say it stands for Metal Case,Full Metal Jacket ??
ATF
Edited by - ATF on 11/21/2002 16:55:56
Edited by - ATF on 11/21/2002 21:46:150 -
METAL CLAD as in a total metal jacket. copper, brass, etc...hope this helps.
What other dungeon is so dark as ones own heart, what jailer so inexorable as ones own mind.0 -
Yep ... you have some 130 gr. full-metal-jacket ammo.
This is the same type of ammo once issued to US military forces for various .38 revolvers.
I carried this ammo on duty as a U.S. Air Force Security Policeman (law enforcement specialist) from 1975 to 1979.
It is very weak ammo.
It was purposely made weak so it would not puncture the skin of aircraft, whether parked on the ground or in flight.
This phobia against puncturing the skin of aircraft stems greatly from a James Bond novel in which Bond dispatches an enemy by shooting a hole in the plane, and decompression sucks the antagonist out!
This is fiction.
But the Air Force bought into it.
The typical load was a 130 gr. full metal jacket bullet at about 625 feet per second from a 4" barreled revolver.
Most of the time, in the Air Force, we qualified with 148 gr. lead wadcutters in our Smith & Wesson Model 15 revolvers.
The few times I actally got to shoot full-metal-jacket ammo, I was amazed at how less powerful it was than the 148 gr. wadcutter load!
You could actually feel the difference.
I tell you, it didn't give us a whole lot of confidence.
I knew one sergeant who had been in the Philippines, who fired at a fleeing car. All of the bullets bounced off the rear window. None of them even made a hole in the safety glass, he said.
I believe him.
However, the old military .38 Special loads with the 130 gr. bullet are useful. They are good for knocking off grouse or rabbits as they don't tear a lot of meat.
I believe that the U.S. military .38 Special load of World War II and Korea was more powerful. I seem to recall hearing that it was a 158 gr. full metal jacket at about 850 fps from a 4" barrel.
In my cartridge collection I have a single example of a U.S. military .38 Special Tracer (!). Yep, it has the red-painted nose. These were once made but are no longer. This cartridge has "F C" and "57" for a headstamp, with a silver-colored primer.
The primer is not crimped in place, as is customary with military ammunition. This keeps the primer from backing out of the case during the slam-bang operation of full-auto fire.
But believe it or not, I've actually seen U.S. military .38 Special ammo with crimped-in primers!
Now ... I know of NO full-auto .38 Special. I suspect it was something mandated in munitions manufacture, and the military (rather stupidly) insisted on it.
I can almost hear the military inspector now ...
"Look! The specifications say ALL military ammo will have its primer crimped in place! So stop arguing with me and crimp the damned primer in these .38 cartridges!"
The S&W Model 15 we carried was a very good revolver: accurate, light on the hip and easy to operate.
I believe that military dog handlers still carry the .38 Special as a sidearm because they cannot control their dog's leash with one hand and rack a round into their semi-auto handgun to return fire. At least, not without difficulty.
The double-action revolver allows the dog handler to control his dog, and quickly return fire.
Perhaps today's military has FINALLY let dog handlers carry the semi-auto with a chambered round, but I doubt it. The U.S. military has NEVER trusted its personnel, even the highly trained ones, to carry a semi-auto with a loaded chamber.
When I was in, even the Army and Marine dog handlers carried .38 Special revolvers for this reason, though their comrades carried the .45 Auto.
I've heard some guys claim that they were required to carry their .38 revolver with the hammer on an empty chamber, but I doubt this. The Smith & Wesson is a very safe design and may be carried with all six chambers loaded without fear.
The guys I heard --- years after my service --- who claimed to carry the .38 revolver with only five cartridges in it were not good sources. They were the bragging type full of Blarney. I never heard of this practice when I was in.
I believe the .38 Special revolver was adopted by the U.S. military in World War II, chiefly for aviators, because of the shortage of M1911 .45 Autos.
It probably remains in limited service today, in the snubnosed version as carried by military investigators. We had some Office of Special Investigations (OSI) types that carried the snubnosed version of the Model 15 S&W.
Interestingly, the military investigators carried 158 gr. roundnosed lead ammo, made by Remington, during their work. Apparently, military investigators are not subject to the same constraints as active-duty personnel.
I know this for a fact because at one time I got detailed to work in the Armory for a few months. I had to issue the snubnosed revolvers and plain lead ammo to the investigators on occasion.
"A hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44!"0 -
OK, it is a metal clad bullet. It is gold colored. IAs I said, I don't see amy lead. Sorry to hear it is probably low power. Oh, well, I'll use it for plunking.
Gatofeo: Thanks for the information and the military aspect of pistols and revolvers. I found it interesting. Welcome to this board.
Bruce0
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