Wadcutter 38 Special (the revolver cartridge) truly loaded as wadcutter, flush to the case. My initial thought was “Does that thing chambers with any reliability?” And it does indeed, flawlessly.
Don’t hold me to it, but I seem to recall the gun was a Smith and Wesson Model 52 (If I am wrong, I should get an angry email soon enough) with a trigger pull weight within the range of dirty thought and an angel’s fart. An absolute joy to shoot and understand why it is the favorite sidearm caliber of one Bob Lee Swagger/ Stephen Hunter.
Here’s a link to an article on this subject. — https://revolverguy.com/wadcutters-for-self-defense/
A M52 is on my “list”.
I’m putting one up for sale. I love it, but there are other things I need more.
Its designed for a gun that only takes wad cutters. Yes, they run great. The idea is they make a smaller more uniformed hole for competition shooting. Creating a tighter group.
Joe check-out the link-website article I posted.
You want to put a large hole in “something” at close range? Load that wad cutter backwards in the brass.
.38 super rocks.
Know two people who have those S&Ws, and they love them.
If I remember correctly, Jim Cirillo wrote about using wadcutters in various cartridges on stakeouts because they were so much better than their issue ammo which was roundnose. Back when hollowpoints were not reliable, that ‘cuts a full-caliber hole until it stops’ was a big factor
I took a rather circuitous route to arrive in the next parking space over. In my younger days, I decided that the bees knees would be to have the equivalent of the Model 52 on a 1911 platform. So I built a 1911 in 38 super, tuned and sprung for paper punching. The 38 Super case does not have room for a standard 148 gr wadcutter to seat flush, so I ran a Keith style bullet instead. I headspaced my reloads on the driving band of the bullet.
When enough members of our local pistol league got grey hair and tired eyes, they decided to allow red dot sights, and I installed and early Firepoint. Still have that rig.
About 25 years ago I was working in a gun shop here in Florida and an older gentleman came in carrying an old, but well cared for Outers range box. He was getting too old to shoot (eyes going bad) and none of his kids were interested in keeping his guns.
Opening the box revealed a treasure trove of old bullseye pistols and revolvers. Colt Pythons in blue and nickel, both with 6″ barrels. A S&W model 52 with orthopedic wood grips. Two S&W revolvers, a 686 and a 586 with an unfluted cylinder. And the holy grail, an original Colt National Match in .38AMU.
All of the guns were used, but immaculately cared for. Along with the guns were several competition holsters, speed loaders, magazines, belts and cleaning kits.
The shop owner came to an agreement with the gent and gave him top dollar for the whole kit. I was able to get the Smith model 52 and the unfluted cylinder 586 for myself. I really wanted the Colt in 38AMU, but that was too much money for my budget.
I sold the Smith 52 a few years later for “stupid money” to a friend who fell in love with it. I can honestly say it was the most boring pistol I ever owned. With the right wadcutter loads off a sandbag, it would put all rounds through almost the same hole at 25 yards all day long.
I still have the 586. Did an action job on it , replaced the springs and it too will shoot one hole groups all day. It’s a great training revolver for first time shooters. With light wadcutters it doesn’t kick and allows the trainee to focus on trigger control and not worry about recoil.
Still regret not getting that Colt AMU though…?
They also make hollow point wadcutters. Great self defense round, but hard to find. A friend loaded up over 600 rounds of these recently, half in .38 Special and the rest in .357 Magnum.
I saw a reference to a “hollow pointer”, a tool for making hollow points in bullets of cartridges that didn’t come that way (in Neil Smith’s fun novel “Sweeter than Wine”). I hadn’t heard of them, but they still exist.
Your pistol looks good, I see a lot of parts made by the mim process, MIM parts are suitable for complex 3D geometries with external grooves, external threads, tapered external surfaces, cross-through holes, blind holes, recessed platforms, keyed pins, reinforcing panels, knurled surfaces, and other complex 3D geometries.