Home on the Range

More on barrel length with .38 revolvers

Tony really loves the Kimber brand. The 4” barreled gun was a Kimber. Tony expected it to shoot the best because it is, after all, a Kimber.

That didn’t happen. Although the shooters certainly did enjoy shooting the Kimber, the Auto Ordnance Thompson with a 5-inch barrel won out because it had a smoother and lighter recoil and the grip was nice.

This Wednesday, we are shooting .38 caliber revolvers with different barrel lengths. After last week’s comparison, Tony isn’t so quick to say there’s not much difference between .38s if they have different sized barrels.

What happens when four of us shoot three .38s with much different length barrels?

We’ve often seen that men have a tendency to purchase .38 snub-nosed revolvers for their women because these guns have great take-down power. You just point and shoot, and the gun will never jam. Isn’t that the best?

On this Wednesday, it doesn’t turn out that way. At all. We are shooting at the 7 1/2-yard line.

This time, we have a Smith & Wesson model 36 .38 Chief’s Special with a 1.85-inch barrel, a Ruger Security Six with a 4-inch barrel and a Smith & Wesson Model 14 K-38 Masterpiece which has a 6-inch barrel. All have double-action triggers, which means you don’t have to cock the hammer first to fire the gun. However, you can cock the hammer first if you want to, and shoot it like a western-style revolver.

We rate all three guns on the trigger difficulty, its travel length, the amount of recoil we experience, and on how we like the grip. A 1 means it is easy or we like it, and a 5 means we don’t like it or it is difficult. Therefore, the highest scoring gun is the one we like the least.

The Chief’s Special is that small revolver guys buy for their women. The barrel is short and the gun weighs about 20 ounces. So, while it is made of metal, you can probably carry it in a sturdy purse. This revolver carries 5 rounds.

Two women and two men shoot the Chief’s Special. The Special rates a total of 34 points when you count up trigger, difficulty of trigger, recoil and grip. Most of the high score is because we all experience the recoil as very hard, so two of us give it a 3 and two give it a 4 out of a possible 5 points. Since 5 is the worst recoil, is this the gun you want? Will you practice with this gun so if Mr. Bad comes at you, you’ll be able to protect yourself?

We shoot the Ruger Security Six next. It can be shot as a .38 or a 357 magnum. We’re shooting it as a .38 today.

The Six has a lot of mass to absorb recoil. It weighs 2.2 pounds: not quite twice the weight of the Chief. Because of its mass, the recoil is much less than the Chief’s. The 4-inch barrel makes it more accurate to shoot than the snub-nose Chief. You can carry 6 rounds in the cylinder instead of 5 in the Chief. The Ruger’s score comes to a total of 21 points. Much much easier to shoot than the Chief. You can envision spending an hour at the range with this gun.

Last, we try the S&W K-38 Model 14 Masterpiece. We weren’t surprised that the long 6-inch barrel produced better target shooting than the other two revolvers.

The Masterpiece is sleek, compared to the Security Six, but even though the Masterpiece doesn’t appear beefy like the Six, it does weigh a little more at about 21/2 pounds.

The Masterpiece gets a total of 19 points from us: the fewest points meaning that we found it the easiest to shoot and the most accurate as well. We give it only 1s and 2s for recoil instead of 3s and 4s for the snubby Chief. Like the Security Six, the Masterpiece holds 6 rounds in its cylinder.

I wouldn’t purse carry either the Security Six or the Masterpiece because they are so large and heavy. On the other hand, I wouldn’t carry the snubby Chief because it has too much recoil and it’s hard to hit the target.

Although Don Gammill in the Truth About Guns calls it “an absolute packing pleasure,” well, maybe if you’re a big guy and carry a big knapsack.

We four have been shooting at the range almost every week for several years. Today, we each shoot 3 rounds of each revolver, making 12 hits possible for each target. As you can see, the Chief’s target only has 4 holes. The middle target, the Security Six, has 9 holes, and the Masterpiece has 10 holes.

If a person were to purchase a Chief’s Special for an inexperienced spouse, then yes, that .38 would fit in her purse. Chances are, she won’t want to practice very often because the recoil is so harsh. If she has to use her gun, is there much likelihood that she will even be able to hit the target when the 4 of us, who shoot regularly, are not very accurate with it?

According to NRA’s American Rifleman: “When helping a woman select a gun, take into account her needs, not your personal preconceptions or pet ballistic theories. A woman needs to be comfortable with a gun, whether or not it fits your ideal of stopping power, magazine capacity and penetration.”

Looking at Security Sixes, which have been discontinued but you can still find them, Joseph von Benedikt in Shooting Times says: “All things considered, Ruger’s long-discontinued Security-Six revolver is still an outstanding option for the personal-protection-minded among us who prefer a wheelgun to a semiauto.”

Finally, an article in the Truth About Guns discusses the S&W K-38: “the K-38 Masterpiece is truly that—a world class Masterpiece. This model is an outstanding shooter, a great piece of S&W history, a finely crafted work of art…”

A sturdy person with some range time can do well with the Chief’s Special. The Security Six has been a great carry gun for police officers. The Masterpiece is a wonderful gun for target shooting.

All three of these revolvers have their place for shooters. The one you choose should be the one that fits your hand best and that you can shoot comfortably and accurately. Can you handle the recoil? Do you want it for carry, for all around defense or for target practice?

“Looking at the targets, I’m seeing a trend that longer barrels make for greater accuracy,” muses Tony. “I didn’t know barrel length would make such a difference.”