Latest acquisition is a S&W 637 (wheel men are REAL men) for a bedside companion. Right now she is fed with 125gr Xtreme RNFP over 4.0 gr Bullseye. Shoots nice at my range but concerned with over/under power in a practical situation. I live in a quiet but heavily populated city residential area (lotta’ neighbors/houses/kids). I have seen some threads online about using 148 gr wad cutters over 2.7 gr Bullseye; probably to act more as noisy deterrent than stopping power and less downrange damage. Thinking about one wadcutter as first round out then four regular loads if necessary? I’m on the …”Northside” of 75 yrs of age and am more concerned about aftermath!
Federal hydra shok
This is my go to for 38 special HD/SD/Carry:
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If you live in a heavily populated neighborhood, you have to keep over penetration in mind.
If you can find Glazier Safety slugs (no longer made0 they would be my first choice. Hollow point would be second. I’d avoid +P.
So a person I know was cleaning his 9mm. This guy is very good with his stuff, and has been shooting for a long long time. He made that most common mistake a person can make, he forgot the round in the chamber.
Gun went off, went though the wall into the garage, through the outside wall, though the neighbors wall outside wall and lodged in the refrigerator. Damn fortunate they are really tight friends and he’s in construction and knew how to patch everything up.
Gives you an idea of how dangerous overpenetration can be.
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I normally carry a 2” 38 Special and my night stand gun is also a 2” 38 Special both are loaded with a full cylinder of Buffalo Bore 150 gr Wadcutters my speed loaders have have FMJs or lead round nose for easier speed loads because the wadcutters are tuff to use in a speed loader
Whenever I come across threads about home/self defense ammo, the topic of handloads almost always comes up. The other thing that comes up is a caveat about using handloads in these situations.
If you load your own ammo and injure or kill someone, the prosecuting/plaintiff’s attorney will try to use that against you. They will say, “the defendant sat in his basement thoughtfully making this ammo with the intent to kill.”. It is better to use factory loaded ammo that specifically has the words self defense on the packaging because the optics are better for a jury.
I recommend going with a tried and true ammo that does not have things like DRT or RIP on the box. Cor-Bon still makes Glaser Safety Slugs, but they are hard to come by. A better option is a factory load that uses compressed composites of copper and tin, aka sintered projectiles. Sintered bullets will mostly break apart on passing through a second layer of Sheetrock, eg, one wall. Greatly reducing the odds you will kill your neighbor’s refrigerator, or your neighbor.
Have a look at Sinterfire Special Duty, Fiocchi Defense Dynamics or Federal Syntech Defense. These recommendations are in common use by LE, avoid the use of terms like Dead Right There, and will minimize over penetration.
I find this reasoning puzzling.
If you have found yourself in an encounter that justifies using deadly force (which means can kill not will kill) to defend yourself the ammo used has no bearing on premeditation. There is no non-deadly ammo that will do the job.
The notion that the prosecutor will say “you fantasized about killing someone which is proven by you making your own ammo as deadly as possible” and you will be in worse trouble is no different than the possibility that the prosecutor will say “you fantasized about killing someone which is proven by you buying more expensive HP ammo to be as deadly as possible”.
This may, or may not be true. None the less, an attorney or prosecutor will use handloads or terms like Dead Right There to poison the well.
Get out !! Excellent !
I thought these were long gone. I have to pick a box up.
Thanks to all for the advice. I decided to follow Scorpio64’s advice and found Sinter fire Special Duty ammo at Palmetto state armory for $15.00 for a box of 20. I think I will be most comfortable with that.
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Hey Sudsy, ..couple of years ago I was out at Heritage Guild Phillipsburg range and a guy next to me was blasting 50 S&W rounds. The noise/impact/report was so intense that I decided to wait until he was done before I continued. Didn’t take too long…… AT $4.00 A ROUND…AT THAT TIME!!!
…..love the cartoon!!