.40 S & W compared to original .38 W.C.F. load.....

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Catshooter]

I don't know why you shouldn't give it a go. Cast or jacketed though?


Cat

[Ray]

Deleted.

[jhrosier]

I think that bullet construction & performance would be important with the .40.
My choice would be the Ruger Buckeye in 10mm / 38-40 Win.

Jack

[M. M. Wright]

Sounds like a plan. Cast bullets for practice of course but Speer, (I think) makes a 190 grain hollow point that I have used in the .41 magnum with great results. You know that from the short barrel you are not going to get the velocity that a rifle or carbine would give you? Still, I like the idea.

[Malamute]

The 41 mag bullet may be oversize for the 38 WCF/40 S&W/10mm, which I believe share a common bullet diameter.

[JB]

The 41 mag bullet may be oversize for the 38 WCF/40 S&W/10mm, which I believe share a common bullet diameter.

Agreed, I'd stay away from the .410 bullets in a 40S&W

[3leggedturtle]

I like to call it the 38/40NIRS for New and Improved Rimless Short. The S&B 180gr 40 ammo I shoot has a nice flat meplat. Box also says it does 980fps out of pistol. Wonder how extra FPS I'll get in my HP Carbine.

[EdinCT]

I've posted before that I have shot several deer with the 38wcf and it lets them down just fine. I will admit that the shots were about 50 yards though. All but one was a pass through and it broke a shoulder and stopped in the off side ham.

[Catshooter]

I would think that most modern hollow points are built for self defense use. If I were going after deer with a .40 I'd want a cast bullet, say 180 to 200 grains or so. I'd want to make sure of penetration.

But then I'm prejudiced in favor of cast anyway.


Cat

[cas]

I pushed some XTP's.... way back when now. That was the purpose of this "page" , to show someone the bullets. http://www.cylindersmith.com/38-40Ruger-Magnum.html

[Sixgun]

That story might have been written by a past soul of me. I agree with everything he said. Today's hunters are not the riflemen nor hunter of the past. I was a bit perplexed by his one statement, "it was time for me to try out my new gun" or words to that effect, without previously sighting it in. Back in the day, when I was hunting a lot, 99% of my deer kill was under a hundred yards, most tbeing 50-60 yards and a few at about 10 yards.

My gun of choice from age 18 on was a model 1886 Winchester in 33 and people in the woods used to tell me, "is that thing powerful enough for deer?" Then back in the nineties I started using a Smith and Wesson model 29 which also easily dropped them. I now know even a 38 Spl is enough for deer, given the right load, distance, and shot placement.

The reason behind the "big powerful gun movement" had a lot to do with competition in the woods, along with contemporary advertisement, especially here in Pa. There were litterly hunters behind every third tree and the then current crop of hunters wanted their deer down instantly and right up until the early seventies, "bad people" hunters would go after other people's deer and claim them for themselves. When I was a kid we had deer stolen off of our front porch of the hunting cabin in Centre County, Pa.

Your 40 handgun will do fine but I cannot comment on jacketed bullets as I rarely use them, except in my AR's, varmint bolt guns, Garand, M1A, and John's military classic, the BAR. I believe an excellent cast bullet choice would be a 180 or 200 grain truncated bullet. These have flat noses like a semi wad cutter but a sloping angle for feeding up the ramp. In the dozen or so original rifles and handguns that I shoot in 38-40, it's all I use. In all fairness I cannot comment on their lethality as while I carried a 38-40 while hunting, I never shot anything big with it....just crows, groundhogs, foxes and the like.

Give it a big dose of a medium burning powder, like Herco or Unique and you should be good-to-go and like you said, keep your shots at 50yds or so and focus on shot placement with plenty of practice.-----6

[tman]

That story might have been written by a past soul of me. I agree with everything he said. Today's hunters are not the riflemen nor hunter of the past. I was a bit perplexed by his one statement, "it was time for me to try out my new gun" or words to that effect, without previously sighting it in. Back in the day, when I was hunting a lot, 99% of my deer kill was under a hundred yards, most tbeing 50-60 yards and a few at about 10 yards.

My gun of choice from age 18 on was a model 1886 Winchester in 33 and people in the woods used to tell me, "is that thing powerful enough for deer?" Then back in the nineties I started using a Smith and Wesson model 29 which also easily dropped them. I now know even a 38 Spl is enough for deer, given the right load, distance, and shot placement.

The reason behind the "big powerful gun movement" had a lot to do with competition in the woods, along with contemporary advertisement, especially here in Pa. There were litterly hunters behind every third tree and the then current crop of hunters wanted their deer down instantly and right up until the early seventies, "bad people" hunters would go after other people's deer and claim them for themselves. When I was a kid we had deer stolen off of our front porch of the hunting cabin in Centre County, Pa.

Your 40 handgun will do fine but I cannot comment on jacketed bullets as I rarely use them, except in my AR's, varmint bolt guns, Garand, M1A, and John's military classic, the BAR. I believe an excellent cast bullet choice would be a 180 or 200 grain truncated bullet. These have flat noses like a semi wad cutter but a sloping angle for feeding up the ramp. In the dozen or so original rifles and handguns that I shoot in 38-40, it's all I use. In all fairness I cannot comment on their lethality as while I carried a 38-40 while hunting, I never shot anything big with it....just crows, groundhogs, foxes and the like.

Give it a big dose of a medium burning powder, like Herco or Unique and you should be good-to-go and like you said, keep your shots at 50yds or so and focus on shot placement with plenty of practice.-----6

No truer words can be said.

[Sixgun]

Thanks tman. Funny thing, sometimes I take my I-Pad with me while using the throne and I wrote those words the other morning while I was dropping off the obamas at the pool. -----6