While most sales in premium ammunition these days gear toward the defensive shooter packing a two-inch barrel revolver, the. In common with the modern. At longer range, when expansion fell off due to a loss of velocity, the effect was less. The era of cartridge revolver and centerfire handguns introduced the and the. The Colt Lightning, and later the dismal 1892 Colt, used the. When chambered in the Military and Police revolver, the. It also received a new lease on life as the. None of these loads was as effective as the earlier Colt Navy, as the bullet simply did not upset as the soft ball had. Found to be a worthless martial cartridge, some effort was expended to upgrade the. The chamber dimensions simply made complete sense, as the new revolver would accommodate considerable stores of the Colt ammunition. It was a more powerful cartridge than the. The new revolvers were heat treated for smokeless powder pressures and that is where things became interesting. There was a lot of development with the new powders. New bullet designs from Ideal, Lyman and others were developed. Many of these bullet designs are still useful today. The full wadcutter was developed to give the. With a full driving band that met the bore tightly, the 148-grain wadcutter bullet showed excellent balance. Usually loaded to about 750 fps, this is still among the finest target loads ever designed. When coupled with a target-sighted revolver, accuracy is excellent to 50 yards or more. Lets Move Forward to Today This young lady finds the. Today manufacturers load a that is highly sought after by target shooters and small-game hunters alike. The full caliber profile was designed to cut a nice hole in the target and it does the same on edible game. Other Other manufacturers and handloaders went the other route and developed heavier bullets up to 200 grains for the. Among the most useful was the 173-grain SWC. Later, most shooters settled upon a 158- to 160-grain SWC. The semi-wadcutter design is kind of like a wadcutter with a nose on it. The semi-wadcutter features long driving bands for accuracy. The full shoulder and blunt nose produces a cutting effect far superior to the round nose bullet. Coupled with a higher velocity, the SWC design made the. A softer casting with a hollow point bullet is particularly effective and is still a fine defense loading. The new Buffalo Bore Outdoorsman load duplicates this loading. While there were gallery loads of various types during the formative years of centerfire cartridges, for the most part the. A generation before it was the. The standard loading was a general-purpose load not good for much but the 148-grain wadcutter was a great target load. The heavy handloads with SWC bullets were fine field loads and good defense loads. The manufacturers eventually gave us the. Most of these loads jolted the 158-grain bullet to about 1125 fps. The is as powerful as the occasional shooter can master. For those with little time to devote to training and practice the. The quest for more power resulted in lengthening the. The Magnum is a great cartridge, no doubt about it and is more than many of us wish to tackle in lightweight revolvers. It is a high power revolver cartridge with much to recommend it. Quite a few shooters found that by following the recommendations of the late Bill Jordan and practicing with the. These expanded hollow point bullets were loaded by Cor-Bon. Impressive on every count! The ammunition makers have tailored their defensive loads to this market. This means that most of the personal defense ammunition in. As an example the Cor-Bon 110-grain hollow point breaks over 1000 fps in a two-inch barrel, penetrates about 12 inches in water and expands to a plump. If you deploy a four-inch barrel revolver, the heavy 158-grain lead hollow point breaks well over 1,000 fps and expands well. Load selection is important, and if you are using a short barrel revolver, recoil comes into play—particularly if you are using an alloy frame design. Lead bullets are not recommended for aluminum or scandium frame revolvers. The heavy recoil might cause the lead bullet to jump its crimp and tie the rotation of the cylinder up. Use a modern JHP in these revolvers. When all is said and done the. This is a well-balanced cartridge, the straight walled case is easy to work with and the. A combination of cast lead bullets, fast burning powder and the Hornady press will give the handloader many hours of shooting on a tight budget. What are your thoughts about the. Share them with us in the comment section. This slideshow requires JavaScript. Bob Campbell is a former peace officer and published author with over 40 years combined shooting and police and security experience. Bob holds a degree in Criminal Justice. Bob is the author of the books, The Handgun in Personal Defense, Holsters for Combat and Concealed Carry, The 1911 Automatic Pistol, The Gun Digest Book of Personal Protection and Home Defense, The Shooters Guide to the 1911, The Hunter and the Hunted, and The Complete Illustrated Manual of Handgun Skills. His latest book is Dealing with the Great Ammo Shortage. He is also a regular contributor to Gun Tests, American Gunsmith, Small Arms Review, Gun Digest, Concealed Carry Magazine, Knife World, Women and Guns, Handloader and other publications. Bob is well-known for his firearm testing. The mission of Cheaper Than Dirt! We want you, our readers, to be able to make informed decisions. The information provided here does not represent the views of Cheaper Than Dirt! Because it was compared to ther M! I feel it is a similar situation with te 38. What are wwe comparing it to? Of course 30:06 has better stopping power than 110 grain M1 Carbine, but which is easier to score instant hits in the kill zone with? Which handles and points quicker? The M1 Carbine with HP loads performs better than. Hey carry a cannon if you must but this is quick and easy rolled out and on target,. At the time I was an Army 71Q Information Specialist Journalist assigned to HQ 8th Infantry Division in Bad Kreuznach, Germany Jan 1980 to May 1983. The Cold War was still very much a concern and I was not issued a weapon because of my job Military Occupational Specialty. Whenever we alerted I packed my. I was not about to face a Russian soldier with nothing more than a camera and tape recorder. I had every intention of blasting one of the Russians up close and grabbing his AK-47. Fortunately, I never had to do that. I still have the Smith and Wesson. It helps protect my home just as well as it would have helped protect me in combat 35 years ago. I favor the 158 grain SWC round. Recoil is negligible, and the weapon has that old Colt Detective Special vibe that pleases my inner Humphrey Bogart. Your discussions, feedback and comments are welcome here as long as they are relevant and insightful. Please be respectful of others. We reserve the right to edit as appropriate, delete profane, harassing, abusive and spam comments or posts, and block repeat offenders. All comments are held for moderation and will appear after approval.
