Okay I'm a little confused on ammo with one of my newer guns

JasonH · Post by **JasonH** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:01 pm

Sorry, I'm a bonehead. I'm fairly new to this Smith & Wesson 686 7-shot I recently picked up and have some dumb questions.

I bought some Winchester .38 Special wadcutter range ammo at Wal-Mart today for $24.00 for a box of 50. Fired all 50 with no problems and really enjoyed shooting the revolver at the range today. Fun gun. I've not yet put any .357 Magnums through it but will get around to that once I'm confident enough handling it.

Anyway, I want to put a few hundred through it next weekend to really get comfortable and used to it but don't want to pay the 25 or so bucks a bucks of ammo. So I went searching online, naturally.

I was browsing cheaperthandirt.com and they have a ton of .38 Special ammo at pretty great prices. They also have a .38 S&W ammo section. My first question is: What's the difference?

Also, in regards to me buying some ammo from the .38 Special section how do I know, exactly, what to buy? A lot of it is similarly priced with the only difference being the manufacturer, the grain, and the FPS.

Anyway I'm hoping some of you can educate me and also help me make an informed purchase. They have a ton of stuff for sale which is way, way cheaper than what I've been buying retail. The Czech brand they sell on their site seems to get pretty good reviews..

Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Oh, and here's my baby:

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:07 pm

That is a beauty. I wish I could own one.

On you ammo Q:
.38 Smith & wesson is a Pre .38special round. You are probably not old enough to remember these. They go back to black powder.

.38 sp. & .357 Mag will be what you want to shoot in your beauty.
Others will speak of the brands for you.

Post by **carlson1** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:17 pm

If Highvelocity or Mr. Camp catches this thread they will have the right answer. I shoot whatever is on sale

Carry is the .357 Winchesters.
Here is my 686+ pre-locked with a trigger job and bobbed hammer. You have a good looking gun.

JasonH · Post by **JasonH** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:24 pm

longtooth wrote:That is a beauty. I wish I could own one.

On you ammo Q:
.38 Smith & wesson is a Pre .38special round. You are probably not old enough to remember these. They go back to black powder.

.38 sp. & .357 Mag will be what you want to shoot in your beauty.
Others will speak of the brands for you.

Thanks, longtooth.

I'm 28 so.. eh. Maybe not old enough. I didn't even know a ".38 S&W" existed until I loaded up the site and saw them being offered which confused me a bit.

We had a great time at the range today. The guy to my left had brought his daughter for her first time to ever shoot a gun. I noticed she kept looking at my revolver and asked her dad if he'd mind her shooting it. He said, "Heck no, and I wouldn't mind shooting it myself."

Anyway, the girl (well, she was probably 20 or so) shot 7 rounds through it and looked like she might break her face she was smiling so hard. Her father was up next and had the same results. He offered to buy me some ammo but I told him seeing the looks on their faces was plenty payment enough.

Sorry if I'm long-winded I just really enjoyed being out there today and meeting some fine folks.

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:29 pm

28 yr young. Yes too young to remember. Not many of them were still around when I was your age. My baby is 33.
We have come a long way in the firearms industry.
YOu will learn fast here.
The 2 gentlemen mentioned by Carlson1 are both very knowledgable.
What they tell you, you can take it to the bank.

O6nop · Post by **O6nop** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:30 pm

I have the exact same gun. It's a beauty, for sure. I've tried all types of ammo, even the aluminum case .357 mag. I shoot mostly round nose, but have tried wadcutters and hollow-points. I haven't had a bit of problems with it. It's a joy to shoot - it's a revolver!
I'll start reloading my own soon.

Post by **carlson1** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:31 pm

I don't remember what LT is speaking of. I am still just 29

LT remember what him and Noah used on the Ark.

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:32 pm

Confess I am older than you but you aint seen 29 in several yrs either Big Brother.

HighVelocity · Post by **HighVelocity** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:33 pm

38 special and 38 S&W may or may NOT be the same ammo. It's like ordering a Coke at a restaurant and getting a Pepsi and the waiter says, it's ALL coke isn't it?

Anyway, 38 Special:

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... t=11082005

and 38 S&W:

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... t=11082005

The 38 S&W is often called 38 short (Corto = Short)

It's easy to get confused. There are a whole bunch of cartridges out there with similar names. Look at 9mm. There's 9mm Luger and 9x19 and 9mm Parabellum. They're THE SAME CARTRIDGE. But then you have 9mm Kurz and .380 Auto (same thing).

Don't hesitate to ask when you're not sure about the ammo you need for a particular gun. It's easy to buy the wrong thing if you don't know.

Gary

JasonH · Post by **JasonH** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:35 pm

longtooth wrote:28 yr young. Yes too young to remember. Not many of them were still around when I was your age. My baby is 33.
We have come a long way in the firearms industry.
YOu will learn fast here.
The 2 gentlemen mentioned by Carlson1 are both very knowledgable.
What they tell you, you can take it to the bank.

Thanks.

My fiancee and I bought a house in Pearland near Friendswood less than a year ago. It took me nearly six months of browsing this site to figure out that some people here were associated with the PSC Range. It took me another month to stumble on the fact that PSC Range is about 3 miles from where I live.

So as soon as I found that out I booked myself for the next orientation. Next Monday I'll be up there and will hopefully become a member and maybe will be fortunate enough to meet some of the knowledgeable people in this community.

I took my CHL class last Sunday, by the way. Waiting is no fun.

longtooth · Post by **longtooth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:47 pm

Register for the forum day there & you will meet a lot of us.

grandpatim · Post by **grandpatim** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:58 pm

My dad has an old Iver Johnson break open revolver that is chambered in 38 S&W. We always called 'em short colts. It was very anemic if I remember correctly. My grandfather used it back in the day for a security job he had around Greenville. I figure the gun is around 100 years old. Its so old you load 5 shells in it and then pull the trigger 15 to 20 times to get all 5 shots to fire.

NcongruNt · Post by **NcongruNt** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:14 am

HighVelocity wrote: It's easy to get confused. There are a whole bunch of cartridges out there with similar names. Look at 9mm. There's 9mm Luger and 9x19 and 9mm Parabellum. They're THE SAME CARTRIDGE. But then you have 9mm Kurz and .380 Auto (same thing).

Don't forget 9mm Makarov, (aka 9x18). There's also 9mm Largo (aka 9x23 or 9 mm Bergmann-Bayard).

Actually, there's a whole mess of 9mm cartridges, 14 of which are named 9mm <something or another>:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_mm_Largo

GeoJAP · Post by **GeoJAP** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:57 am

That is an incredibly nice revolver that you have there. Congratulations.

In my Ruger 357s, I use something like American Eagle 38 Special for range practice. Federal 357 Mag "357B" hollow points are highly recommended for defensive rounds. There are other good ones, as well.

I usually use two sources for purchasing ammo. Aim Surplus (http://www.aimsurplus.com) and Ammoman (http://www.ammoman.com). Both have great service and prices, depending on what you are looking for. Ammoman has the Federal 357B in stock, I believe. Other good places to buy ammo who have good prices are Wideners, Century International Arms (if you have an 01 or 03 FFL), Southern Ohio Gun, and others.

Enjoy that pistol.