Can 38 Special cartridges ruin a 357 cylinder?

[alr]

I read recently from a gunwriter who thought that shooting 38s in a 357 would ruin the 357 cylinder, any thoughts on this? He didnt say how or why.

[AxeHandle]

Dang! I sure hate to hear that... My old 586 must have been done in years ago Hate to think what might have gone through my post war magnum. It has got to be trash.. Keep your chambers clean when you change from 38 to 357 and don't worry about it.

[bradshaw]

alr.... perhaps the "gunwriter who thought" should spend some time shooting. One of the beauties of a .357 Magnum is shooting .38's in it. Take, for instance, the S&W M-19. It will run forever on .38 Special. While a diet of .357 Magnums steers it to the cemetery. Leastwise, early retirement. Fear not, the librarian .38 in your .357. Mountains of .38 Special take flight from magnums by S&W, Colt, and Ruger with nary a whimper from the cylinder. Do as the boys say, clean it once in a while.
David Bradshaw

[whitworth]

Jun 8, 2015 13:35:07 GMT -5 alr said:

I read recently from a gunwriter who thought that shooting 38s in a 357 would ruin the 357 cylinder, any thoughts on this? He didnt say how or why.

This is an age-old practice with no downside.

[Encore64]

I have to agree with these other guys.  Have done lots of these things for the last 35 years.  No harm in shooting 38s in 357 Magnums, 32 H&Rs in 327 Federals, 44 Spec in 44 Magnums or even 45 Colts in the 454 Casulls.  The only danger, as Bradshaw already pointed out, is to keep the cylinder clean. 

I have read much about not shooting 45 Colts in the FA-83s chambered in 454 Casull due to the tight chambers and build-up in the area forward of the mouth of the shorter 45 Colt brass.  But, I have never experienced this problem by simply cleaning the chambers after shooting 45 Colt ammo.

My BFR in 454 Casull has a .001" tighter chamber than my FA-83, no problems there either.  Ruger even marks their Super Redhawks as 454 Casull / 45 Colt. 

Always seems to me that many "gun writers" need to spend more time shooting and less time sitting in a chair typing their theories.  Sure glad we had people like Elmer Keith, Dick Casull, etc in the past who did just that.

[bulasteve]

As Axehandle n others said, clean cylinder well after shooting the shorter brass. I put a lot of .44spec thru my .44mag SBH over the yrs with no issues.

[jgt]

That depends on the load used. I can see a situation where 125 gn jhps and ball powder could cause erosion where the bullet separates from the case mouth if the load was a hot one. A steady diet of these type 38 loads could cause enough erosion to need a new cylinder before going back to 357. Not many people would do that, but I could not make a blanket statement that shooting 38s in a 357 will not cause any harm.

[alr]

Jun 9, 2015 10:46:48 GMT -5 bulasteve said:

As Axehandle n others said, clean cylinder well after shooting the shorter brass. I put a lot of .44spec thru my .44mag SBH over the yrs with no issues.

Agreed, just thought maybe I was missing something as it didnt make much sense to me either...

[Frank V]

Like most here, I've put a lot of Specials through magnums.
I haven't found any ill effects either, I just clean well before shooting mags. again & it doesn't take a lot of scrubbing.
Enjoy!

[renton10x]

Jun 10, 2015 18:43:15 GMT -5 Frank V said:

Like most here, I've put a lot of Specials through magnums.
I haven't found any ill effects either, I just clean well before shooting mags. again & it doesn't take a lot of scrubbing.
Enjoy!

+1, my thoughts exactly.  Clean with a brass brush if you are going to shoot hot .357 loads.  The cylinder should be fine.

[Yetiman]

When I bought my GP100 I fired six 38 +P's through it. Then I fired six Remington 125gr soft point magnums through it (which are loaded with 20.0 grains of H110/W296).

And I grinned.

I have never fired another 38 special through it again, but thousands of various magnums.

And it isn't because I am worried about chamber damage.

[rjm52]

My first centerfire handgun was a Model 19 that was bought in 1970 just after I graduated from High School... Put a documented 10K rounds of handloaded .357s through it and then brought it to the factory for a tune up and had it nickeled. 10K more rounds of .357 went through the gun before it was sold in 1980.

A total of 6 rounds of .38 Special and one box of factory .357s went through that gun. the rest were mostly 357156 Lyman/Thompson bullets at 1250 fps with some 146 grain Speer SWC-JHPs.

Bob

[odis]

I being a reloader do not fire 38s in my 357. I hate scrubbing the carbon out of the cylinder. I down load my 357 loads to 38spec performance levels and use my 38 ammo in my Smith K38.

[jdpress]

I frequently fire .38 Special in .357 Magnum, .44 Special in .44 Magnum and .45 Colt in .454 Casull caliber revolvers. The rounds are normally loaded as cast lead target rounds, not high velocity, and I clean the cylinder bores with a heavy duty nylon brush and bore cleaner after every range session.

I have been doing this since the 1960's in the case of the .357 and .44 Magnums, and the cylinder bores for all the revolvers are in mint condition with absolutely no visible erosion.

In the case of the .357 Magnum a number (~500) of the .38 Special rounds were +P jacketed factory law enforcement ammunition.

J.D. Press

[okiehoosier]

Of course it can. Just put a double charge of powder in the case. And maybe a bit more just to be sure.