Following on from Saturday’s post about my revolver range session, I went off to the local Merchants Of Death Collective (Mesquite Gun Show) to see if I could rectify two problems identified at that session: getting some decent (fuller) wooden grips for the Model 10, and replenishing my depleted .38 Special ammo supply. I thought that the first might be difficult, the second easy. Au contraire, mes amis.
The grips took me about 15 minutes to find (among about 700 tables):
Old:
New:
Much better, innit? Can’t wait to get back to the range now, except that I don’t have any cheap ammo to shoot. So I looked around for ammo vendors.
And here’s where the problems began.
Five big ammo dealers were at the show, so one would think…. but no. If you were looking for 5.56 Poodleshooter or 7.62 Commie, you’d have had no problem. Good grief: it looked like the Army was having a clearance sale. Ditto 9mm Europellet and all manner of similar teeny handgun ammo (e.g. .380, .327 etc.) were proudly displayed in bulk.
.38 Special? Hardly any. (And what was there wasn’t what I was looking for anyway.) As I mentioned, I have plenty of defensive loads in .38 Spec and .38 +P — the goblin antidote — but I’m out of range ammo. What I’m looking for, in fact, is something like this:
The cowboy stuff is what’s known as a “bunny-fart” load, and it’s both inexpensive (~ 45c/round) and pleasant to shoot because of the lighter bullets. (Yeah, it’s lead flat nose and not copper-clad, but I clean my guns quite frequently so not a problem.) The Winchester is ubiquitous, and a little cheaper.
And both are readily available online, except that shipping (for only 200 rounds) adds about $50 to the total, making it… [errr carry the three] 82c/round (?????!!!!). The hell with that.
SGA Ammo sells the Winchester for a decent price, but you have to buy the jillion-round box to get free shipping. Philosophically, I don’t have a problem with a bulk purchase (because duh), but financially… ugh.
Let’s see what they sell for locally.
One final note: it seems as though revolvers are heading for a shrinking market (that would be Olde Pharttes like me)
…because all the new shooters seem to be enthralled by the gangsta/operator Glocks and SIGs and what have you, and not by wheelguns. And so once-ubiquitous calibers like .45 Colt and .38 Spec are, it seems, being pushed to the sidelines and rapidly becoming unavailable. Which means that we members of the Ancient Revolver Shooting Club need to buy MOAR .38 Spec.
Duly noted.
The great thing about 38 is that it is super easy to reload. Yeah, I’m going there. I can still reload 30 year old cases and my costs are barely double digit per round. Of course my reloading rig was purchased in the 80’s and I’ve long since paid off that investment. 99% of what I reload are full wadcutters at all of maybe 800 feet per second. They make the nicest cleanest holes in paper.
I haven’t been to a gun show in years, doesn’t sound like I’m missing out on much. Back in the day they were actually gatherings of individuals and small time dealers. Now? Last one I went to looked like all commercial dealers and prices weren’t any better than what you’d find at a brick-n-mortar store.
You sir, are a man after my own heart. Bought my basic reloading setup (RCBS) back in the mid-70’s while still in uniform. Some years later, stumbled over a deal I could not refuse on 500 nickle plated 38 special cases. Loaded up 200 in MTM 100 round boxes. I am still running that first batch of 200.
Gun shows these days. Agreed, not enough rust for me.
The cheapest factory ammo will run 45 cents a round when bought in 1000 bullet cases. The Ammo.com shows Speer Lawman 125gr priced less than 50 cents a round. If I needed some 38Spl I would spend the extra $4 a case and shoot Lawman at the range.
I reload and I am using supplies I bought up to 30 years ago. My cost per round is less than 8 cents around. If I had to buy new reloading components my cost per round jumps up to 40+ cents per round but I doubt I will ever need to buy any bullets, primers, and powder.
ammoseek -dot- com has quite a few offerings @ $.35-.40/rnd before shipping. Have to search through a bit to find shipping cheap enough to be worthy.
You know that old thing about “they’re not going to take your guns, they’re going to eliminate your ammo supply”?
Unfortunately where I’m at, the fuckers have done both. >:-[
I shudder to admit this. But the above is why I joined the 9MM rainbow flag brigade.
During the Chinkvirus, .38 & .357 were unobtanium around these parts. And when you found it, the $$$ was in ass-rape territory. 9MM was plentiful and relatively affordable.
.38 and .357 have gotten available, but the prices have stayed extortionate. And the less said about .45 as far as costs….the better.
I’m not much impressed with plain wood for revolver grips. Look great, but tends to lack in the specific performance that counts. Grips are typically too narrow, and do nothing to dampen the recoil, or keep the gun from squirming while working a double action trigger. It doesn’t take much movement to ruin your target results. Look at the back of the gun while pulling the trigger, and you can usually see the gun move around. And, if you have to re-grip the gun after firing several rounds, that shows you the grips aren’t right for YOUR hands.
I doubled the distance I could hit a small target, by working on developing a good set of grips. Btw, the little finger doesn’t seem to make any difference whether it has any part of the grips to fit. I was shooting a S&W 442-0 (Airweight) with 125 gr hollow jacketed ammo. Shoots to point of aim at 40 yrds. Got the same exact results with a similar vintage Charter Arms snubbie. Grip fit is damn important.