38 Special Loads......Target VS Practice

I don't think a Handgun shooter can have much more fun than a few hundred rounds of 38 Special ammo, and a favorite gun to shoot them in. I'm a HUGE fan of the S&W K-Frames, own several, and still work armed with one. My first issue gun was a S&W 66 four-inch, and I considered myself well-armed. We trained with 38 wadcutters, but carried Remington's 125-grain HP load on duty, until the officer-safety movement kicked in during the latter part of the 80's, then we started training with full-power ammo. Watching some of my cohorts touching off hot 357's for the first time was enlightening.......some of the guys almost dropped their guns when they touched that first one off, they had no idea what a 357 was like, after training with that mild 38 WC stuff.

My next duty gun was a S&W 681, the fixed-sighted version of the L-frame, built for a steady diet of hot 357's. Excellent guns, easy to shoot well, and our qualification scores reflected the new trend of shooting the same ammo all the time........we got used to it, learned to shoot it well, and had great confidence in what it would do to the bad guys. When we transitioned to autopistols in the mid-90's we adopted the Beretta 92 in 9mm, and scores dropped drastically, largely because the huge grips weren't readily adaptable to custom stocks. We had become accustomed to putting grips on our revolvers that fit our hands, the autopistols didn't offer that option, and a lot of cops needed twice the range time to get used to the new feel. Some never did, and barely qualified. I was one of the few that qualified high enough with my revolver to keep it, and I had a lot more confidence in it that I did in the Beretta, my ability to shoot it, and the 9mm duty ammo we were issued.

To this day, I remain a sixgun fan. That may make me a dinosaur, but I swore I'd never succumb to the Pray And Spray mentality that was so pervasive when our on-board ammo load went from 18 rounds of 357 to 46 rounds of 9mm. I still think hits matter a lot more than a Wall Of Lead that doesn't hit what it needs to.

These days I work corporate security, and local laws limit me to a 38 Special, four inch barrel, in a hip holster. My firm issues us S&W M-64's, the stainless version of the time-honored Model Ten M&P, and I hear a lot of grousing from my troops about being under-gunned, but I don't feel that way. Col. Jeff Cooper was fond of saying that you are only under-gunned if you miss, and I happen to agree. My weekly range sessions are centered around ongoing training with my duty gun, and I refuse to run anything through it except Plus-P loads, since that's what I carry on duty. Target and wadcutter loads are fine for kids, newbies and small game, but if I'm going up against a crackhead or an irritated 350-pound miscreant who views me as a speedbump on his way to the tavern, I want all the ballistic oomph I can get, and I typically carry the excellent Speer 135-grain +P Gold Dot stuff, made for short barrels. My handloads include enough WST to get me 850+ fps with a plated 158-grain bullet, which duplicates the Speer ballistics. I shoot 200-300 rounds of that every time I go to the range, because the older I get, the harder it is to maintain the level of handgun proficiency I feel is adviseable.

In spite of my appreciation of S&W K-frames, I have to admit that once I'm off-duty, I don't always carry one. In most cases I switch to a 45ACP autoloader, with a spare mag close by. But other days, one of my other K-frames rides with me in a shoulder holster, especially if I'm planning on being in a car for awhile. Trying to get a gun out of a hip holster, while seated in a vehicle with a seat belt on, is NOT one of my favored drills!

So here's my question...........(finally!) What do you folks practice with, what guns are you shooting it in, and how do you train with it? Do you shoot your CCW piece often, or just once in awhile? Any other K-frame fans around here?

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...s/IMG_5297.jpg