June 2008

I’ve had this old shotgun for over forty years. There were periods during those years where it didn’t see much use. A few years ago, Damsel and I bought some guns and started shooting regularly. Shortly after, I took the old gun off the shelf and cleaned it up. It really needed a lot of elbow grease to get the fine layer of oxydation off of the metal parts and the stock and fore-end needed a little scrubbing and oil. Now the old Ithaca gets to go to the range two or three times a year.

I took it today and put just five rounds through it. The Remington 870s pump action guns sort of spoil us because you load the chamber and the magazine and crank out five or seven rounds. This old gun, in contrast, requires you break the chamber open, load a round, cock the hammer, point and shoot.

The newer guns make me lazy, I guess, and I don’t shoot the old gun very much just because it’s tedious. But, my old Ithaca is fun to shoot once in a while just because it’s an old friend to me.

During a shoot in March 2008, Damsel dropped six 125 grain .38 special rounds and one 158 grain .357 magnum round in her Smith & Wesson 686 revolver. She then squeezed off the rounds in three pairs and then the final round. Bang bang … bang bang … bang bang … BOOM!

The seven-second video at the right demonstrates the difference both aurally and visually. You can hear the difference (if you turn up the audio level) and you can see the bigger kick as she fires the magnum round.

We both tried this experiment and got about the same results. One patron at the range asked ‘Mixing rounds, are we?” We both nodded and laughed as did he.

I was curious about the reason that Smith and Wesson developed the magnum round, so I looked in Wikipedia and found this historical account:

The .357 Magnum was developed over a period of time in the early to mid-1930s in a direct response to Colt’s .38 Super Automatic. At the time, the .38 Super was the only pistol cartridge capable of defeating automobile cover and the early body armor that was just beginning to emerge in the post-World War I “Gangster Era”. Tests at the time revealed that those early ballistic vests defeated any handgun cartridge traveling at less than about 1000 ft/s. Colt’s .38 Super Automatic just edged over that velocity and was able to penetrate car doors and vests that bootleggers and gangsters were employing as cover.

Then there is the original question about S&W’s development of the magnum round:

In order to reassert itself as the leading law enforcement armament provider, Smith & Wesson developed the .357 Magnum. The new round was developed from its existing .38 Special round; it used a different powder load, and ultimately the case was extended by 1/8th of an inch (3.2 mm). The case extension was more a matter of safety than of necessity. Because the .38 Special and the early experimental .357 Magnum cartridges were identical in physical attributes, it was possible to load an experimental .357 Magnum cartridge in a .38 Special revolver, with potentially disastrous results. Extending the case slightly made it impossible to chamber the magnum-power round in a gun not designed for the additional pressure.

Oh, and then there’s this – the famous .357 magnum muzzle flash that didn’t show up in the video above . . .