Welcome back to Wheelgun Wednesday, TFB’s weekly article series where we talk about everything revolver-related. Today we take a look at something old, Speer Target-38. These were practice rounds you can use in a revolver chambered in .357 Magnum or .38 Special. I got a chance to check them out years ago so here they are.

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Speer Target-38, Paper Punchers

These belong to my friend Keith, my machinist friend back in Pittsburgh, PA. He showed me these years ago and I took these pictures but never posted them except maybe on my Instagram.

The Speer Target-38 was made for indoor practice. These ones are .38 caliber and so you can use them in revolvers chambered in .357 Magnum or .38 Special. They are plastic wadcutter bullets shoved into a red plastic case that has a large pistol primer. There is no gunpowder. But the best part is that they are reloadable. So if you shoot them into a paper target with a soft backstop you can pop the projectile back into the red case after you pop the old primer out and shove a new large pistol primer into the red case.

I used Keith’s Colt revolver to shoot the Speer Target-38 round in his machine shop.

One might consider using these as Simunition but it is not recommended. Sim rounds like UTMs are only 335 FPS and are not made of hard plastic. According to the warning on the side of the box, these can shoot over 500 FPS.

Here is a video shooting the Target-38. To my surprise, it was not loud at all. It sounds like those old cap guns that shoot those paper rolls.

We used an old blanket in the shop as a backstop. It punched right through it.

Photo by Speer

Photo by Speer

Sadly, these rounds are discontinued by Speer. But you can see how simple they are. You can still find them on some websites for sale. I wonder if someone could replicate these with 3D printing?

What are your thoughts on plastic practice paper punching rounds like the Speer Target-38? Should they come back?