Cor-Bon!
I have decided to get some decent ammunition for the .38 Super. My logical basis for this move is that while the .38 Super has a lower capacity than a Glock, it has two characteristics a Glock lacks. 1. It is pimptastic. 2. It is pimptacular. If you’re going to liquefy a burglar’s internal organs, you may well want to do it with style. This is where the .38 Super excels. After all, this is the pistol Texas Ranger Frank Hamer used to send Bonnie and Clyde to their eternal reward. Such as it was.
It’s a confusing proposition. There are a lot of interesting loads out there, but the .38 Super has an issue which makes some types of ammunition scary. Depending on which .38 Super you buy, the casing may not get perfect support, and it’s possible for a high-pressure round to blow up and fire hot gas and shrapnel into your face. Imagine how a burglar would smirk.
The folks at Cor-Bon have told me they do not think their ammunition will injure me. However, they won’t be the ones looking at the rear of the slide as I shoot it. So I am nervous about buying without research.
It looks like the Cor-Bon 125-grain DPX is a great choice. It is highly lethal, but the velocity isn’t all that kooky. My clever guess is that this means the case pressure isn’t too bad. They make other highly regarded designs, but they probably aren’t any more deadly. I figure I’ll buy enough to fill several magazines, with a few left over for testing at the range. It has to cycle.
I could come up with my own solution, creating my own load. But I think I would trust Cor-Bon’s hottest round more than something I cobbled together in the garage. I have no fears about shooting tame target reloads, but that’s about all I’m willing to do in this caliber, knowing as little as I do about reloading.
I never got around to getting nice grips. The truth is, I couldn’t find any I really liked. Maybe I should look again. I think green abalone would be perfect, but not everyone is willing to risk the posthumous disdain of George S. Patton, so there aren’t a lot of choices in abalone and mother-of-pearl.
I researched putting a supported barrel in this gun, but I got discouraged for some reason or other. I need to get back on top of it. The Colt people seem to have confidence in their design, but if I can make it safer, why not?
Apparently .45 ammunition is much easier to choose. I think the round everyone recommends is the 230-grain Federal Hydra-Shock.
I am trying to get rid of my .40 caliber Glock. It’s a very fine defensive weapon, but I now realize I was hoodwinked when I bought into the .40 fantasy. As I understand it, the .40 S&W was a product of affirmative action. The FBI found that female agents pouted and stamped their little feet when they had to shoot the .45, and the 10mm was equally unladylike, so the result was the .40, which is a 10mm without all that upsetting chauvinist stopping power.
Perhaps I am not totally right on the facts, but as usual, I am too lazy to check.
I was told that the .40 was easy to shoot, which isn’t really true. I was told that the .45 was hard to shoot, which is a pure steaming load. I made a mistake. Or maybe I didn’t. Maybe Glock didn’t make a .45 back then.
The .40 kills people just fine, but the .45 is somewhat better. And if I had a Glock in .45, I could quit buying .40-caliber ammunition, and I could shoot the same reloads that I shoot from my 1911. The Laser-Cast people claim their cast .45 bullets are just fine for Glock barrels. Hopefully they know what they’re talking about.
Another .40 down side: the Glock Kaboom. Once in a while, a Glock blows up, because the case in the .40 isn’t supported well. Or something. I believe you can fix this with a new barrel, but again, why struggle to save a gun you could just as easily trade? Glock claims the guns blow up because of hot reloads, I think. But I’m fairly sure they also claim Glocks are pretty, so…
I’d lose two rounds of capacity if I got a .45, but being shot 14 times with a .45 is arguably about as bad as being shot 16 times with a .40. I think the benefits outweigh the loss. After all, as all real he-men know, a .45 round will kill a criminal every time, even if you just throw it at him. Or mention it. And it will take a car door off. And it will pick a mugger up and throw him six feet backward. And…let’s see, what are the other lies they tell?
It’s not as effective as a pump-action shotgun, which will make a criminal’s head explode if he hears you rack it. This is one of my all-time favorite fairy tales. Yes, criminals listen to see what kind of gun you have, and unless it’s a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, they barge right ahead. And as we all know, a semi-auto is TOTALLY SILENT when you rack it, and even if it weren’t, it wouldn’t scare anybody. An AK makes a racket when you chamber a round. So does a .45. I would be afraid to bet fifty cents that I could tell the difference between the sound of an AK and the sound of a pump gun in a dark room. Who seriously believes a criminal with an IQ of 85 knows the difference? Think about it. I mean, most people are so clueless they think a shotgun is the same thing as a rifle.
I always get comments on this. Even though there is no evidence whatosever that the sound of a particular gun’s mechanical bits has ever had a unique affect on any criminal. It’s great arguing about a point so unworthy of discussion no one has ever collected data on it. Gun sounds don’t kill people. Lead kills people. So does running out of shotgun shells during a gunfight. People always say pump guns are great because the cops use them. Of course, cops were using six guns long after everyone else went to high-capacity semi-autos. Cops ride Harleys, for crying out loud. Would you rather cross a desert on a Harley or a Honda? I know what I’d pick.
I should post a clip of a gun racking and ask the pump-gun freaks to identify the weapon.
If pump-action shotguns were that great, you wouldn’t have to load them. You could just buy an MP3 of the sound and play it at the criminal on your Ipod speakers. It would be like saying “it” to the Knights of Ni! Get the mop ready.
CUSTOMER: I need a shotgun.
SHOP OWNER: Here’s a Saiga-12 semi-auto shotgun. It has a 20-round magazine you can change in three seconds, AK-47 reliability, and low recoil, and it fires about as fast as you can pull the trigger.
CUSTOMER: Forget that. I want a five-shot pump that takes a long time to rack, reloads in a minute and a half, and SOUNDS funky!
SHOP OWNER: You seem like the kind of guy who could appreciate this limited edition Mossberg tactical thong, signed by David Caruso.
Anyway, the .45 is pretty much impossible to question with any credibility. It may not be the best, or even as good as the Holy Hand Grenade, but it’s real good.