Is .38 Super sufficiently uncool?

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LRDGCO

LRDGCO

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I am rather curmudgeonly. I own a. 308/7.62 NATO rifle but I have no enthusiasm for the cartridge. I remain a fierce partisan of the 30-06 and it's progeny cartridges and own a lot of rifles that shoot rimmed cartridges. I own a 6.5mm rifle: the ancient Swede, not the modern cool kid version. I despise the 9mm Luger cartridge and all pistols that chamber it (except the BHP, blessings upon JMB), and would not accept a pistol so chambered if offered to me. Indeed, it is only with some serious misgivings that I purchased a striker fired semi-auto pistol in recent years. Happily, it is in the obsolete, very untactical, soooo uncool .40 S&W, so I feel ok about it. Sort of.

So, I need help. I have always fancied a 1911 in .38 Super. The 1911 is sufficiently uncool with the europhiles and tectikewl crowd that I feel confident there. But I'm hoping some millennials and 9mm aficionados will tell me how hopelessly out of date, backwards, useless, and otherwise uncool the .38 Super cartridge is so that I am at no risk of being trendy, up to date, or 'with it'. God forbid.

So, Glockmeisters, have at it please.
 
Don't worry, some millennial will come by and dump on it for being "semi-rimmed", won't feed as well as a 9mm, won't fit in a grip that holds 9mm double stack, it was originally chambered in one of those old guy 1911s that will get you killed on the street, nobody makes high speed low drag ammo for it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
 
38 Super does not have a big enough ironic beard.

Since it is from the earlier part of last century I think it is sufficiently uncool enough for you.

IMO the .38 Super is much cooler than the now trendy again 10mm of which nobody seems to be able to decide on. It came out years ago and was declared too powerful so it’s little brother came out instead and was popular with LE for a couple of decades then fell out of favor again only at the same time that 10mm fell back into favor.
 
.38 Super is way cool, but I won't spread that around on social media. The europhiles and tectikewl hipsters won't ever find out about it!


Wait...I guess I just did.
 
rpenmanparker said:
Yes, you are relying on how uncool being a grownup is.
Click to expand...

To form the humor, sure. Wasn’t it one of your generation who famously advised 400,000 of your contemporaries not to trust anyone over 30?

If i were shopping for a new caliber it would be in .38 super. Done.
 
Sure hope it is uncool. Just bought one in a Gold Cup. Uncool adjustable sights and uncool 5" and steel frame. I have not even fired it yet. My 2 others are Springers, so hoping I'm triple uncool.

38 Super.JPG
 
38 Super and 38 Super-Comp use to be king of USPSA Open division. That dominance has faded as guys figured out you could load 9x19mm long and push pressures a bit beyond SAAMI pressure limits and make Major power factor in 2011's and other double stack Open guns with 9x19 barrels. Sometimes call 9mm Major it has replaced many 38 Super/Super-Comp guns. 9x19mm brass is cheaper and easier to find.
 
It's not what they figured out, it is what the rules were amended to allow. When I was shooting IPSC,, Major power factor was 175 and the 9mm P if loaded to less than 1.26" OAL was specifically prohibited from scoring Major. I had a Miller chamber which allowed me to load heavy bullets to 1.27" and use Super magazines.

Now the power factor is lower, 165 Major in USPSA, 160 for IPSC Open, and there are suitable powders besides Blue Dot, so you can load them up without much risk.

But the Super is a good round, better suited to the long action of the 1911, Internet kewl factor and reverse snobbism aside.
 
When I was preparing for IPSC, I had wished I had gotten my Mark IV in .38 Super, rather than .45 ACP, as I customized it for that, and pin shooting. .38 Super works a hell of a lot better with compensators, as it's pressures push the comp down far better than low-pressure .45 ACP. Didn't matter to me, as my practice load was light enough that the comp merely acted as a weight, and my major load was with enough pressure, that it seemed it took the same tiny amount of effort to get back on target. None of this mattered in the end, as my IPSC time was cut short by a career change. Just remembering back to where I once coveted the Super.
 
Cant say as I've ever worried about what other folk thought about my gun and caliber choices. Of course I'm a fan of that new fangled .308 and the Euro chic 9mm. :D

That said...

460Shooter said:
I think it’s an awesome cartridge and wish more guns were chambered for it.

I want a Dan Wesson in 38.
Click to expand...

I agree. Next time I get the itch to reload for a new caliber (probably right about the time the snow falls this winter) I'm going to get a .38 super barrel fitted for my DW Valkyrie.

Easier to get the OK by the wife over a whole new Dan Wesson.

Or so i hope!
 
38 Super is Retro Cool.

If you own anything plastic or a striker you can't be retro cool.

You're a poser. :D

Retro Cool
Something that is so uncool, that it becomes cool. It can only become retrocool in a group when the majority of the group excluding the dumbasses can agree that whatever wasn't cool is now officially cool.
Click to expand...
 
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