What is the difference between .357 mag and .38 special

While their names imply a difference in diameter,. Many handgun owners shoot one or both of these rounds, and while the cartridges have a common heritage, these bullets perform in strikingly different ways. If you own a. It was developed as a more powerful version of the. Firing the. The added powder gave a grain bullet an additional to feet per second of muzzle velocity.

Thanks to increased speed and power, the. Police agencies used the cartridge for decades as well. Today, the. It is typically loaded with bullets ranging from roughly to grains, although bullets of grains are not unheard of. Based on the. This time, however, it was prohibition-era gangsters, who wore ballistic vests and ducked behind cars, that needed to be defeated.

The goal was to essentially create a. To give it more power, they elongated the case, allowing for more powder, and hence more power. If you look at the. It is generally loaded with larger bullets, ranging from grains to as high as or larger. If you are going to use one or both of these cartridges, you must understand that, while every handgun capable of firing the. This is largely because the internal pressures created in. Although the name of this caliber implies a.

By the late 19th century,. However, ammunition manufacturers quickly switched to modern smokeless powders after the turn of the century. Modern standard-velocity. In turn, this allows a.

Quickly afterward, the. As a cartridge initially designed with blackpowder in mind, standard. When the switch to smokeless powder occurred, manufacturers realized they needed much less propellant to achieve the same velocities as the blackpowder version, leaving a significant amount of empty space inside the case.

This fact led to the development of high-velocity versions of the. Although hand-loaders have long experimented with the cartridge to achieve similar results, certain ammunition manufacturers officially produced high-velocity versions of the. However, following incidents where officers needed multiple shots to stop an assailant, ammunition manufacturers began offering a high-powered version of the cartridge, known as.

This load proved highly effective, resulting in a much higher rate of one-shot stops. The high pressures require a modern revolver, preferably steel-framed, to avoid catastrophic failures. Elmer Keith was among the first firearms experts to recognize the untapped potential of the. In the early to mids, Keith extensively experimented with high-velocity loadings, using the heavy-frame. Along with fellow experts Philip B.

Sharpe and Douglas B. Wesson, Keith developed the original. Police and law enforcement were often outgunned by these lawbreakers and their souped-up vehicles. Elmer Keith, one of the masterminds behind the. The idea was that. Even though Keith proved that a.

Due to the higher pressures created from the. When looking at the two rounds, you will notice that the diameter is the exact same between the two, but the length is slightly longer on the. As stated earlier, this is for safety concerns, so that the. Every handgun that is suited to shoot the. When trying to choose between the two, there are several categories that should be considered along with the intended use that you have in mind, like:.

The difference is not quite double but significant enough to show that even allowing for differences between bullet types and loads; the. The last category that is perhaps the most important for many consumers that reading this is the difference between. Some other things to consider are:. At AmmoForSale.

Here are just a few of the choices we offer-. Which one is better creates more damage at very close range? Will the Magnum just pass right through the bad guy without causing much damage?

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. View Larger Image. Rich History To start, learning the legacy behind each of these rounds and why it was developed can shed a little bit of light on the difference between.

When trying to choose between the two, there are several categories that should be considered along with the intended use that you have in mind, like: Price — when comparing the same bullet style and quantity, you will find that. Of course, you will be able to find.