Money into noise with a 38 and 38/44

I went out yesterday and went blasting with a 1934 38/44 S&W Heavy Duty and a 1978 38 Special Colt Diamondback.

It was and interesting experience. I don't normally do vintage comparisons like this so I was not really thinking about it. I was just out testing Herco reloads before I made some big production runs of them.

What I found was the 1934 Heavy Duty was more accurate by a hair in my hands at 15 yrds. Not a lot but noticeable. The difference was the trigger which was about 2 lbs single action and the gun fired nearly when you thought about it. This 38/44 is an older long action so follow through was important while the hammer fell.

In comparison the Heavy Duty had a better single action trigger, was easier to shoot double action as that big N frame cylinder once you got it rolling just floated until the gun fired. You just have to keep steering it on target. The mass of the gun also makes it easy to fire well with full power loads.

The Diamondback on the other hand had excellent grips (Pachmeyer) compared to service grips on the 38/44. It had great sights with nice flat blade sights compared to a cut in the top strap on the 38/44. Where it fell flat on its face was the over 12 lb double action trigger and the heavy 5 lbs single action trigger. It is hard to shoot a gun well when the trigger weight is probably twice the weight of the gun.

So my summary is my Herco loads were fine in both guns. In the Diamondback the cases would general fall out of the cylinder without even using the ejector rod. In the heavy duty, the lightest tap and they would come out. Since my loads are not "current book max" I will not post them but they are reasonable loads from days gone by.

Having fired 700 rounds yesterday I am pleased with my loads and will now crank off a many thousand since I bought 8 lbs of Herco and I have many cases to be filled.

Today is 357 Maximum day so now it is off to load up the truck and head to the range.

Rswartsell,

I never really liked the 357 but I respect it for what it is. It is a great gun but I prefer the Python for the way the barrel hangs a bit nicer during the double action take up.

I am a big 38/44 fan as this picture will show. I hate to say it but this shot shows less than half the collection today. I need to redo it.



But, my Diamondback is my first shooter and I learned to shoot double action on it so I tend to like the colt stacking trigger pull. The 38/44's though have this nice long trigger pull that you can give them a tug and start the cylinder rolling and the guide the sights back on target as the cylinder continues to roll in and the gun fires. The Diamondback forces you to really hold it carefully as the pressure stacks and seats the gun into your grip prior to firing.

My new current favorite is the 4" long action 38/44 I picked up and wrote about in another thread. What a great gun for carry and quick shooting. It weighs a lot though.

This was my 38/44 Outdoorsman collection this spring before I added several more. Several come up locally at a dealer so i was picking off one every couple of weeks for a while there. They were all post war though but my goal was to stop them from being converted to other calibers which is a pet peeve of mine. So I just bought them and stuffed them in the safe. I actually like to shoot my Outdoorsman's more due to the better sights, but as a collector the Heavy Duty is more fun to collect. More variety and history in the HD's.

I will agree with Old Fuff that my other Diamondback has a great trigger pull and is right at 2 lbs SA. I have shot it extensively and I decided to retire it and bought another (this) one as a replacement. I presumed that it was par for the course and I just did not remember how heavy the trigger was when I bought my other one decades ago. I figured it would just wear in over time.

Maybe a trip to Colt might be in order?

The 38/44's and I are a "thing" as I am now focusing my collection on them. Just for the fun of it I checked and yes I now have 46 of them. 34 Heavy Duty's, 12 Outdoorsman's.

My oldest is a first weeks production (April 1930), I have the lowest known serial number and I think the second highest.

I am still (always?) in the accumulate phase so my 38/44's are squeezing the rest of the guns out of the safes. The key is to just keep grabbing the better ones you see and adding them to the pile.

Right now I am after a 4" Transition (post WW2), a light lug 38/44 HD and an Outdoorsman with a Registered Magnum barrel on it. The latter 2 are my holy grails. I have given up on the idea of getting one of the aluminum frame experimental "light" heavy duty's.