Winchester top five pistol cartridges
Updated: January 9th, 2013
A Winchester Ammunition rep disclosed to Joe @ ArmsTalk the top five pistol cartridges that they produce …
- 9mm- Winchester also has a military contract
- .40 S&W- Number one LEO round
- .38 Special- I found this surprising
- .45ACP
- .380ACP- our topic finally shows up!
- .357 Sig
I too am very surprised to be .38 Special right up there!
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I've shot CAS for years. .38 Special is very common. Authentic, no, common, yes. Thing is even in the early days of CAS some of the most available guns were .357 Mag Ruger Blackhawks. Aside from that, it's a low recoiling round that meets the sub 1000fps, all lead bullet, match requirements with no special loads. Plus, its *much* cheaper than shooting the .44's and .45's. I started shooting .44 Mag's with reloads loaded to .44 Special levels, then I shifted to a .44-40 and .45 Colts. Eventually I ended up with a set of Ruger Blackhawks, and then New Naquero's and a Marlin 1894 lever action, all in .357 Mag, but using .38 specials for the matches. I cut my ammo price down per match by about 2/3. When you're shooting regularly that makes a huge difference. Aside from the Rugers and Marlins, most of the repro guns like 1873 Colt clones, Schofields, Winchester 66 and 73 repros etc. can all be had in .38 Special as well.
I'll chime in as not surprised about the 38 special given my most of my handguns will shoot it. I usually send 100 to 150 of these downrange every trip to the range.
This does make me think once more about getting a 9mm.
I'd love to know where all the 380 is going. I haven't seen it on a shelf anywhere local in quite a while.