About one month ago I bought a Marlin 1894C in 357. I love this Rifle. Anyway, I was shooting Remington 38 Golden Sabers through it at some very small pinecones on a wet sand bar, from about 25 to 30 yards. The Golden Sabers were very accurate and when I recovered some of the 38 Golden Sabers, they had mushroomed perfectly and held together intact.

I have heard that jacketed hollow points that were made for handguns would blow apart upon impact. Did I just get lucky or do 38's out of a rifle hold up and 357 blow apart?

Thanks,

Geoff :)

.38s probably run a lot slower out of the rifle than .357s, but honestly, shooting pine cones doesn't prove much about what they'll do in a critter. I'm surprised that they expanded at all, actually, in your sand/pine cone test medium.

Might be interesting to try the same thing with .357s.

Mike, I know the 357's will be traveling to fast. The sand was very wet about 12" above the water line. Therefore it was pretty dense. I wish I had a block of ballistic gel, that would be a good test. I far as I can theorize, the 125 gr. 38's out of a rifle were probably moving as fast as 125 gr. 357's out of a revolver. Which according to Remington is 1220 fps. This makes sense, that the rifle would add about 250 to 300 fps to the 38 velocity. Since Remington is using the same 125 gr. Golden Saber in both 38 and 357, it figures the 38's though a rifle would be about 357 velocity out of a revolver and the bullets would expand and hold together since they were designed for 357 revolver speed also.

Just a Guess.

Geoff

I just happen to have some numbers on 125 gr Golden Sabers in pistol and rifle.

10.0 gr SR 4756, CCI 500, .38 Special brass, crimped just ahead of the driving band with a taper crimp, 22" barrel Handi rifle.

1639 fps Average in the rifle, 1355 fps 6" Security Six. They don't "blow up" out of either gun or in .357 Mags (14.0 gr IMR SR 4756, 125 gr Golden Saber, CCI 400, .357 Mag brass, 6" Security Six, 1624 fps average, <2000 fps in a rifle)