Interest in the 38special revolver has been revived with ultra light weight snubbies rated for +p now available from both Smith&Wesson and Taurus. And especially with better ammo now available the 38 is making a comeback.

The smallest of these is the S&W 342PD, 1 7/8"barrel and only 10.5oz. The frame is the sc/aluminum alloy and cylinder and barrel are titanium. The barrel has a stainless steel insert.

The 342PD is no longer in production and hard to find but a friend found one for $499.

I found a Taurus 85MulTi for sale on an internet site for $314+shipping+FFL fee, total NIB, OTD $364. It has a 2"barrel and weighs 13oz, so it's a little bigger than the S&W, but everything else is the same. Both revolvers fit nicely in the pocket.

S&W also offers a new .357/.38 model 340PD weighing 12oz, but you wouldn't want to shoot .357 out of it, the recoil would be fabulous!! Besides, dealers price it at around $700.

I got my friend to join me at the range for a little wetpack comparison test of the 2 liteweights and included my Taurus 605 2"all stainless (weight 24oz) in the test. This test would see if the little bit shorter barrel of the S&W would be a big factor. Surprisingly, there wasn't that much difference in the 3 revolvers with the ammo I had available for test. My friend liked the lower recoil of the Winchester SilverTip 125gr+p better in his S&W. I prefer the Remington GoldenSaber 125gr+p in my Taurus 85Ti. There is a trade off between velocity, expansion, and penetration, and the test revealed some anomalies no doubt a factor of bullet design. You may prefer penetration and choose the new Speer 135gr+p GoldDot. But I think the Speer is a little too expensive and hard to find and expansion ain't so great. Sorry, I didn't find any of Flyer's favorite Fed HydraShok to test. Maybe later, and CorBon has a new one out too, called DPX with a solid copper bullet.

So much for the introduction, the results are shown in the photo below. Comments are welcome!

(I shot two .357 rounds into the wetpack for "calibration" and the results of one round are shown.)

og......remember, wetpack penetration is only about 2/3 that for gelatin.

One more tidbit of info on the ammo we used. OAL can vary quite a bit and some of the 38special brands should not be used in a .357 revolver. They are just too short and may damage the forcing cone as the bullet has to jump a big gap.

Ammo listed below............OAL............comments

Win38spec 130gr FMJ.......1.531"..........OK

Win38spec 110gr NT.........1.422"...........below SAAMI spec, bullet is tin, not lead, avoid this one

WinClean38spec125gr.......1.4218".........below SAAMI spec, avoid

Rem38spec125gr+pGS........1.530"............OK

Win38spec125gr+pST........1.469"............OK

Speer38spec135gr+pGD......1.438"...........barely long enough, expensive

for comparison, two .357's:

Rem357mag125gr+pGS........1.5625..........OK in 357, won't fit in a 38spec, don't try it in your 38

Win357mag147gr ST............1.5625..........OK in 357, won't fit in a 38spec, don't try it in your 38

It is interesting that cartridge case length for all 38spec rounds is 1.125", bullet size and seating differs. And all .357 cases are 1.280". Case diameters all meet standard specs.

FWIW,
og...........I'm done!