Bullets going sideways?

[Samuel Adams]

It sure looks like it. I shot an IDPA club match today with a S&W Model 19. I bought it as a police turn-in with a bit of the bluing worn off but otherwise in great shape. I had a trigger job done and had the cylinder chamfered. I have been using custom 38 Special loads with 158 grain FMJ bullets making 900 fps. The issue is that there is an occasional hole in the target that that looks as if the bullet went in sideways. This also happened last month at the East Coast IDPA Championship. My gunsmith was at today's match and I asked him about it. He checked the timing and he said it was right on. He suggested that this may happen when shooting 38 Special from a 357 Magnum revolver due to the extra distance the bullet has to go to get to the barrel. He also suggested loading the current load into 357 brass.

Has anybody else experience this? If so, what was the cause and what did you do to cure the problem?

[Toolguy]

That's either junk bullets or a bad barrel. It has nothing to do with shooting .38s in a .357 chamber. Most likely the barrel is worn out or has a bad forcing cone or a bad muzzle crown or a combination of those. You can get the forcing cone and muzzle crown recut or get another barrel put on. If the barrel IS worn out, recutting the forcing cone and muzzle crown won't fix it.

[Samuel Adams]

That's either junk bullets or a bad barrel. It has nothing to do with shooting .38s in a .357 chamber. Most likely the barrel is worn out or has a bad forcing cone or a bad muzzle crown or a combination of those. You can get the forcing cone and muzzle crown recut or get another barrel put on. If the barrel IS worn out, recutting the forcing cone and muzzle crown won't fix it.

Thanks. I neglected to say that the barrel, crown, and forcing cone were all inspected. I'll try some other bullets to see what happens.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Samuel Adams

[Hi-Power Jack]

BTW, you're loading to a 142 pf.

That puts you at a bit of a disadvantage

at an IDPA match.

All you need is 125, so 130 should do it?

You should be able to load that down

to 840 fps and still be fine.

[oldtrooper]

That's either junk bullets or a bad barrel. It has nothing to do with shooting .38s in a .357 chamber. Most likely the barrel is worn out or has a bad forcing cone or a bad muzzle crown or a combination of those. You can get the forcing cone and muzzle crown recut or get another barrel put on. If the barrel IS worn out, recutting the forcing cone and muzzle crown won't fix it.

Thanks. I neglected to say that the barrel, crown, and forcing cone were all inspected. I'll try some other bullets to see what happens.

Try some 158gr. round nose molly coated bullets sized .358 over 4.7gr W231. It works great in my S&W revolvers and is very accurate. The long bearing surface seems to allow the bullet to get the best spin to stabilize the bullet.

[JThompson]

Some bullets don't work well in some guns.... 8/10 times I see a round tumble with lead it's because of an excessive crimp. Try giving it less crimp and see how it goes... if that doesn't work try a dif bullet/powder combo.

JT

Edited August 29, 2010 by JThompson

[Samuel Adams]

Thanks folks. I'll talk to the guy that does my custom loads.

[GMM50]

Hi:

Try the simple things first.

1. Inspect the crown. Easy and low cost to fix.

2. Slug the barrel. Then try lead bullets for a tighter fit.

3. Try Billy Bullets. The folks there have saved my behind several times.

My 2 cents.

gm

[J-Ho]

I had that problem with a real gun (semi auto)

I tried a different weight bullet a no more problems.

[Samuel Adams]

I had that problem with a real gun (semi auto)

Probably tupperware.

Thanks and thanks to GMM50. I'll try the 170gr Billy Bullets to see what happens. I'll also watch how much the case is crimped. I suppose I might be able to get away with not crimping at all with the bigger diameter bullet.

[J-Ho]

I had that problem with a real gun (semi auto)

Probably tupperware.

Lol

No, I did say REAL gun. but it did have the same style rifling. I still wonder I'd that had something to do with it.

[anachronism]

Slug your barrel. I had a 686+ do this & it turned out the be a severe case of thread choke. It was so bad that my "match" range rod couldn't pass through it to reach the cylinder.

[jasond]

158 fmjs are pretty rare, maybe they're plated bullets that have the crimp cut through the plating?

I would imagine that few revo shooters either shoot .38s out of .38 chambers or .357 out of .357, everyone I know is shooting .38 or even .38 short colt out of .357 chambers. Accuracy can be just fine at up to 50 yards. There's a bunch of money to be saved shooting lead or moly, as well.

It doesn't do this with other ammo, does it?

[Samuel Adams]

158 fmjs are pretty rare, maybe they're plated bullets that have the crimp cut through the plating?

I would imagine that few revo shooters either shoot .38s out of .38 chambers or .357 out of .357, everyone I know is shooting .38 or even .38 short colt out of .357 chambers. Accuracy can be just fine at up to 50 yards. There's a bunch of money to be saved shooting lead or moly, as well.

It doesn't do this with other ammo, does it?

You're right about the ammo. It is plated. I had the chambers stamped with numbers to see if there was an issue with just one of them. That is not the case. The custom reloads I got for the East Coast IDPA match were the only ones with an issue. I suppose that explains some of the things going on at the match too. I'll be checking out Billy Bullets before my next big match. I haven't had any issues so far with factory ammo. Thanks for the input folks.

[jasond]

Plated bullets are supposed to need a taper crimp, but nearly all .38 dies do a roll crimp (you need a roll crimp to keep the bullets in .357s from jumping out of the case).

I just got my first batch of Billy bullets, and I'm very impressed with the accuracy I've got out of them. I got some 135s and some 160s, and the 160s have the edge.

Edited September 14, 2010 by jasond