I went to the gravel pit after work on Tuesday, as I had a wild urge to shoot the double stack 38 Super.I hadn't had time to shoot it since I bought it.
This gun is a bit of an oddity.
Stock photo
Mine didn’t have a fiber optic front sight, but after yesterday, it is going to get one. I have old eyes.
I really dislike ambidextrous safeties, so while I had it apart for a new trigger and trigger job, I fit and installed an extended, single sided safety and oversize firing pin stop. I am most pleased with how all that came out. A 3lb pull that is absolutely crisp and clean. It shoots extremely well.
The gun originally came as a combo with barrels and recoil springs for 9mm and 22 tcm, neither of which I was interested in. My attention was on the 17 round magazine capacity and the size of the breech face. If it would fit a 9mm, it would fit a 38 super. The 38 super is a semi-rimmed cartridge, much like the .220 Swift. That means the rim is bigger than the case, but not as big as you would expect to find on a .357 or 38 special. It is somewhere in between. While this is fine for single stack pistols, it absolutely will not work with a double stack because the more rounds you cram in that magazine, the worse the rims tilt the ammunition. Fortunately, there is a very simple solution and that is the 38 Super rimless, also called the 38 Super Comp (for competition). Starline sells the brass in bulk and it’s reasonably priced. Normal 38 super dies work just fine for resizing and reloading.
I originally considered just running a chambering reamer in the 9mm barrel, but decided against it as the chamber for the 9 is bigger at the aft end than the chamber for the Super and I didn’t want to over work my brass. So, I ordered a short chambered barrel from Remsport, along with reamer and headspace gauges from Brownells. No, I had never fit and chambered a barrel to a 1911, but I was about to learn.
I fit and installed the new barrel and etched “38 Sup” on the hood, so it was easy to distinguish from the others. I also bought an additional 9mm barrel and re-chambered it to 9X23 (a very hot/high pressure competition round). I did the 9X23 for no better reason than to have a switch barrel 1911 that would fire four different cartridges.
I took a pressure series of loads with me, starting with velocities just below factory ammo, to a top velocity exceeding a .357 Magnum in a 4” revolver (just over 1500 fps with 124 gr bullet). It fed and fired everything I threw at it. Not a single hiccup. I did note that the firing pin strikes looked pretty shallow and cratered as if the fit of the firing pin to the firing pin hole was a bit sloppy. I have ordered a new, high mass firing pin with an oversize tip so I can fit it to the breech face properly.
This one is a keeper. It is accurate, very reliable, and delivers 17+1 rounds of 124 grain hollow points at impressive velocities. What’s not to love?
Next trip will be with the new firing pin, a tweaked extractor, and will be shot on paper for accuracy. First trip was pressure series only, even though I did attack some cans in the process.
Bill.
This gun is a bit of an oddity.
Stock photo
Mine didn’t have a fiber optic front sight, but after yesterday, it is going to get one. I have old eyes.
I really dislike ambidextrous safeties, so while I had it apart for a new trigger and trigger job, I fit and installed an extended, single sided safety and oversize firing pin stop. I am most pleased with how all that came out. A 3lb pull that is absolutely crisp and clean. It shoots extremely well.
The gun originally came as a combo with barrels and recoil springs for 9mm and 22 tcm, neither of which I was interested in. My attention was on the 17 round magazine capacity and the size of the breech face. If it would fit a 9mm, it would fit a 38 super. The 38 super is a semi-rimmed cartridge, much like the .220 Swift. That means the rim is bigger than the case, but not as big as you would expect to find on a .357 or 38 special. It is somewhere in between. While this is fine for single stack pistols, it absolutely will not work with a double stack because the more rounds you cram in that magazine, the worse the rims tilt the ammunition. Fortunately, there is a very simple solution and that is the 38 Super rimless, also called the 38 Super Comp (for competition). Starline sells the brass in bulk and it’s reasonably priced. Normal 38 super dies work just fine for resizing and reloading.
I originally considered just running a chambering reamer in the 9mm barrel, but decided against it as the chamber for the 9 is bigger at the aft end than the chamber for the Super and I didn’t want to over work my brass. So, I ordered a short chambered barrel from Remsport, along with reamer and headspace gauges from Brownells. No, I had never fit and chambered a barrel to a 1911, but I was about to learn.
I fit and installed the new barrel and etched “38 Sup” on the hood, so it was easy to distinguish from the others. I also bought an additional 9mm barrel and re-chambered it to 9X23 (a very hot/high pressure competition round). I did the 9X23 for no better reason than to have a switch barrel 1911 that would fire four different cartridges.
I took a pressure series of loads with me, starting with velocities just below factory ammo, to a top velocity exceeding a .357 Magnum in a 4” revolver (just over 1500 fps with 124 gr bullet). It fed and fired everything I threw at it. Not a single hiccup. I did note that the firing pin strikes looked pretty shallow and cratered as if the fit of the firing pin to the firing pin hole was a bit sloppy. I have ordered a new, high mass firing pin with an oversize tip so I can fit it to the breech face properly.
This one is a keeper. It is accurate, very reliable, and delivers 17+1 rounds of 124 grain hollow points at impressive velocities. What’s not to love?
Next trip will be with the new firing pin, a tweaked extractor, and will be shot on paper for accuracy. First trip was pressure series only, even though I did attack some cans in the process.
Bill.
