38 vs 357 brass

[sarcasmn]

I am gearing up to shoot .38.  I know some rifles do not feed .38 well and some people load .357 brass for the rifle and .38 brass for the revolvers. 
 

For ease of reloading I was wondering why you would load both.  Would it not be easier to load .357 brass for all?

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

38 is cheaper

[Dilli GaHoot Galoot]

Some pistols, like open tops, are 38 spl only

[Uncle Ethan # 94321]

What rifle are you shooting? 92s are a problem with regular oal 38s.

You can load your 38s to a longer oal.

The ones I use for my rifle, I load to 1.55 oal.

Pistols 1.44 due to some revolvers not able to handle the longer cartridge.

I know several cowboys using the regular oal 38s in their 73s with no problems.

Longhunter has some good info on his website about shooting 38s in rifles.

Edited February 28 by Uncle Ethan # 94321

[sarcasmn]

I will be shooting a Ruger/Marlin 1894

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

You need to find out what it likes.  If others with that rather new model can share results, that's good.  Otherwise, buy, borrow, or load some various length ammo, dummies even better, and give it a try.  If it works best with a certain OAL then you can load either .38's or .357's to that length.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

If Widder doesn’t chime in, send him a PM. 

[Gateway Kid SASS# 70038 Life]

Years ago I ran my marlins with a 147 grain truncated cone flat point bullet over 3.2 grains of clays or TiteGroup at 1.5” OAL in a 38 special case. Firm roll crimp. When I moved on to ‘73’s I used the same load. Sadly that bullet has become hard to find at a sized .358 though sized at .356 for the 9mm suppressed guys it seems to be making a comeback. I currently use the exact same specs only with a 142 grain Cheycast hytec coated TC and they still run great. Three ‘73’s now, 3 marlins then have never seen a .357 case through them. 
YMMV

Regards and welcome 

    

Gateway Kid

PS the rifle rounds make a really good pistol knock down load if needed and if I forget to use my normal pistol load there is very little increase in felt recoil in my handguns. 

[Tulsey, SASS#11236]

Many of the casting companies will size the 147 bullet .358 if you ask. My Marlin did not like 38s unless they were loaded out to the 1.50 range. The 147 fed great in 38 cases .  A lot of people like to shoot the really light bullets in their pistols.  These can cause some problems loading them out.  I had a 92  that I had shot for years with smokeless 38s and when I loaded first loaded some blackpowder ,357 I found they would not chamber. After cleaning  the chamber I started just using 357 brass for it. Using both .38 and .357  makes it easier to keep pistol and rifle loads separate if you want to go that way.  If your rifle feeds 38s fine and want just one load for both it and pistols 38 brass is more common and cheaper, Some day if you want to shoot real .357 you might  have to do a good cleaning of the chamber. That was the norm when shooting 38s for practice and .357 for duty guns was the norm. Some places though loaded everything in .357 cases to keep from having to clean cylinder build up. Also some competitive shooters used .357 brass in their low power competition loads because the thought not having that. 1/10 of an inch jump made the .357 loads more accurate. Of course some people who want different loads for pistol and rifle  use brass cases or nickel cases version of the same caliber for the pistol and the rifle gets the other.  Then you have people who say never use nickel in a rifle because it will split and others who say nickel feeds better in a rifle and lasts just as long a plain brass.    

[Bison Bud]

I'd like to try to answer your original question of "For the ease of reloading, I was wondering why would you load both?"  The simple answer is that the true beauty of rolling your own is that you can taylor your ammo to best fit your purpose and to what the gun likes and this can vary quite a bit.  Yeah, it would be easier to just load one good all around load, but some guns can be really picky about what feeds and shoots well in them.  There are quite a few .38 revolvers out there that can not load the longer .357 Magnum case and are not rated to handle a magnum load either, which would make it dangerous if you could load them.  You can generally shoot the .38 Special in a .357 handgun, but not the other way around.  As others have already mentioned, many cowboy shooters crimp their .38 Specials longer to feed better in especially the Marlin rifles and .38 Special cases are generally cheaper and more plentiful as "Once Fired" cases.  I personally prefer the .357 cases for my Marlin Carbine, but I have used .38's crimped longer with some success.  In any case, if your desire is to have one load that does it all for you, then you may have to do some experimentation and make a few compromises.  As for me, I load what the guns like and what performs well in them and that too took some experimentation.  Good luck and good shooting to all.

Edited February 29 by Bison Bud
grammer

[Jack Spade]

The answer to your question may lie in what pistols are you shooting?  I shoot ruger vaquero's in 357.  I load everything in 38 special and load it to the length my rifle likes.  The pistols don't care about length.  This is for simplicity and not having to sort or separate rifle and pistol brass.  If both your rifle and pistols are 357 I would just load 38's to fit your rifle.  Some guys try to make this too complicated.  

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

The only analogy I can offer is that I have had problems shooting .44 Special in .44 Magnum chambered 92's.   The most common problem is a stovepipe of the next round coming out of the magazine.  This problem does not seem to exist when I shoot Magnums in those rifles.  

 

I have come to the point where I no longer try to run the shorter cartridges in guns chambered for the longer ones.   I don't even do it with the revolvers, even though there are no problems there.  Well, no mechanical/functional problems.  There is the issue of chamber crud if you run Specials in a Magnum revolver.   This problem was solved by having pistols in both calibers, and not worrying about it.

 

You can always download the Magnum to levels that are just as mild as the Special.

I would assume that similar problems can occur in .38/.357.

 

Edited February 29 by H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

[Texas Maverick]

I shoot 38's loaded to an oal of 1.45 and they feed great through my 73 and NMV's. Have for 5 years without any issues. You just need to find what your rifle likes and go with it.

 

TM

[Eyesa Horg]

I load Ellie's ammo in 38 spl. for both her Marlin 1894 and her Rugers. Using 125 gr TC bullets crimped in the crimp groove. Never measured them! Never had a hiccup in years. Currently using 2.8gr of Clays. All guns are .357s.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

If your loading/reloading on a DILLON, it only takes about a minute to change tool heads from 38 to 357, with a dedicated powder measure for both, or add a minute to swap over the powder measure.  Super simple and no hassle.

 

It is true, some rifles don't like 38s.  Uberti 1866 rifles are .38 only.  Some handguns are short cylinder and won't accept 357.  It pays to take minute and look at the specific requirements for your guns.  Then adapt as required.  Don't over think it either.

[Fallon Kid]

Stick with 38. My press gets really confused when a 357 slips through. IMHO 357 is right up there with small primer 45acp. An abomination against God, the flag and apricot cobbler. LOL

It does add a step in brass processing. Every round gets put in an ammo box and checked for uniform height. Don’t seem like much but several thousand rounds does take time.

Bottom line is shoot what works best for you. Also you can get more black powder in a 357 so that is a plus.

[watab kid]

i load 38s for both my rifle and my revolves , i set the OAL to what would run in the rifle , i learned from a friend that did that with my loader for my 45colt , it can be done and yes im running a marlin rifle - an earlier one before it sold but it works just fine 

Edited March 2 by watab kid

[Abe E.S. Corpus SASS #87667]

Every rifle is different.  I once tested a “Remlin” 1894c that (somewhat to my surprise) ran my .38 Special cowboy ammo just fine but refused to feed any .357 ammo I had on hand.  A local shooter has a Rossi ‘92 that feeds .38s with an OAL of 1.44”.  In theory the 1892 requires a longer .38 Special.

 

Try the coated TCFP bullets that don’t have a crimp groove.  They give you lots of flexibility in setting OAL.

[BenW]

I use .38 Special brass only in my 92 Rossi and my Pietta GW II's.  I use two different bullet weights but same powder charge.  The '92 gets 147 grain TC bullets seated out to about 1.55" and the revolvers get 125 gr bullets.  I use a separate seater and crimper dies and only have to adjust the bullet seating die when swapping bullets.  Everything else stays the same.  .38 Special brass is so plentiful.  I have .357 brass but have never had any problems with this setup so I'll save those for some other uses, like hunting loads.  By the way, both of the bullets I use are coated, mostly to make sure there's no leading in the rifle barrel (24").  FWIW, I'm also using Win 244   powder with a light charge and it's been working perfectly for me.  

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

I guess one more thing you might consider is how your rifle throws the empties.  Not all Marlins are the same, of course, but in general many Marlins throw them to the right and forward.  Depending on the particular rifle, the stage design, where you stand, etc. you may lose a lot of brass forward of the line that can't be reached.   So, .38 brass being cheaper and more plentiful may or may not be a concern for that reason.