38 +P cases

[38 special]

Bought a bunch of once fired +P 38 special brass I noticed they are stamped +P on the base not just 38 special. I alson noticed they are a tiney bit thicker brass than regular 38 special cases (they are federal cases.
Will this small difference in brass thicknes affect the type of load i use? If i load lighter 38 special loads will that have any effect? This may be a dumb question but just curious . I would think no difference but I'm curious why they are a tad thicker than reguar 38 brass.

[bntyhntr6975]

I've never measured the thicknesses of .38spl or the +ps, but if they are thicker, it would most likely be because they were made to hold a little more pressure than a standard .38spl. What were the thicknesses you measured, just for curiosity? Were you comparing brands during your measurements? That alone could be the variation. For what they are, you won't see any difference when you fire them. Thicker walls would reduce internal capacities, increasing pressure if the same charge was used, but I'm going to bet that in this case, the difference would be VERY slight. Now I'm going to have to go compare cases, to see what I can come up with. I am going to assume that the variations found are more-so due to brands, rather than anything else.

[38 special]

I've never measured the thicknesses of .38spl or the +ps, but if they are thicker, it would most likely be because they were made to hold a little more pressure than a standard .38spl. What were the thicknesses you measured, just for curiosity? Were you comparing brands during your measurements? That alone could be the variation. For what they are, you won't see any difference when you fire them. Thicker walls would reduce internal capacities, increasing pressure if the same charge was used, but I'm going to bet that in this case, the difference would be VERY slight. Now I'm going to have to go compare cases, to see what I can come up with. I am going to assume that the variations found are more-so due to brands, rather than anything else.

I just grabbed a few other 38 cases fot comparison. I got western,rem umc,and regular 38 special federal brass all of these are headstamped 38 special. I then compared their wall thicknesses with the federal +P brass that is headstamped as such. All the regular 38 special brass is thinner than the fed +p brass. Unfortunately my caliper is not accurate enough to measure as it only goes down to .01 inches.
Just to maKE sure i gave the 5 cases to my wife and asked her to pick out the thickess case. after looking at them briefly she said thats easy its this one. it was the +p case. The difference is not mich certainly not twice as thick but deinitely thicker.I picked up 300 of them now im wondering if my usual loads will shoot different or impart for stress to the gun Im not sure how the case thickness comes intio play with pressure on the gun. I assume that with athinner case some of the pressure is relieved by way of the case expanding more than say this thicker case. Now if the thicker case doesnt expand as much how would this result in more stress on the gun and more recoil?? Maybe im making too much of this. In have developed a load which shoots great groups and shoots right to pint of aim in my colt det special but i only loaded this in regular cases. 4.6 grains bullseye,125 grain hornady hpxtp,cci 500 primer. before i load up 300 with bthese cases i want to be sure it wont make to much pressure on gin,and that they will still group and shoot weel. THanks Much for any more insight/ comments you may have.

[Bruce FLinch]

I load .38 sp + P w/ std loads all the time, no problem. My Lyman guide lists the .38 loads W/ +p on the same groupings. The average pressures are about 16K w/ a 2K jump for +P The additional FPS averages about 70.

[38 special]

I load .38 sp + P w/ std loads all the time, no problem. My Lyman guide lists the .38 loads W/ +p on the same groupings. The average pressures are about 16K w/ a 2K jump for +P The additional FPS averages about 70.

A load that i use in standard 38 cases is 4.6 grains bullseye,125 grain hpxtp hornady bullet and cci 500 primer. With th wall thickness of the +P brass thicker than regular 38 brass, would that increase pressure with this load any noticable amount?