Black Hills remfg. 38 Special - does it fit in your J frames?

[Malysh]

I posted this question on S&Wforum earlier today.
Considering that many of us own and like S&W revolvers as well as Colts and a lot of you guys have superior experience, I thought I'd ask the membership here if they had any opinions about this.

Years ago I bought a box of Black Hills remanufactured 38 Special ammo by mistake.

I tried it in a few of my J frames, but the cylinders would not close with this ammo. I tried every one of the 50 cartridges in the box, full cylinders and individual cylinder charging holes.

I left the box for years. Yesterday, I went out to test fire the 1957 Mod 38 I recently got and a 1955 Colt Agent with hammer shroud. I brought this old box with me along with some other loads.
As I expected, the the Black Hills remfg. ammo would not work in this J frame either. It fit in the cylinder and shot well in the Agent.

Anyone else have the same experiences with this ammo?

[bmcgilvray]

Don't have any experience with the ammunition but that is really weird.

What style of bullet does it have? Does it seem too tight for the chamber as if it isn't fully resized? Do the primers protrude?

[WIL TERRY]

Some years ago I shot up a case [1000 rounds] per week for many many many weeks of BLACK HILLS REMANUFACTURED 38SPL 158fr SWC loads. All were shot threw S&W J-frame [ M36-1, M36-6, M60-6, M640; I do NOT have nor do I like any COLT DA sixgun ] fiveguns in DA point shooting. I never had the slightest problem with any of those twenty 50 round boxes per week. I put the brass back in the boxes and gave it all back to BHA who made 'em all new again for someone else to enjoy. By then I could pick the buttons off your shirt at 25 yards point shooting, left or right handed, and took EVERYONES'S money in sidebets. WISH I could still do it !!!
LET ME ADD THIS; you should contact BHA and tell them the problem.THEY WILL MAKE IT RIGHT !!!

[capstan]

Maybe they just forgot to resize the cases when they reloaded them and thus the base of the case doesnt quite go in your chambers all the way.
Did you brush the cylinder chambers out real good? Maybe some powder residue is caked on the inside.
Maybe the chambers on the smith arent to spec?
Maybe your headspace is too tight on that particular gun?
Just some thoughts.

[Malysh]

Gents, I cleaned and checked all cylinder charging holes on at least 3 J frames at the time I bought this ammo. The cartridges easily slid into the charging holes. They simply would not seat close enough in the back of the cylinder of these J frames to close the cylinder. I never bothered to check it in my S&W Mod 640 (my most recent production S&W), or the 1 K frame I have, a Mod 13-2 3" bbl. .357 mag. If the headspace can be visually checked by examining discharged primers, then I saw no problem. I have shot many other brands of ammo from all 3 of these J frames over the years with no problems at all, so I never had the chambers measured .
All of the J frames I tried worked great with many other brands of standard 38 Special loads, they just wouldn't work with these Black Hills reloads.

I did call the company shortly after I discovered this. The owner (can't remember his name) got on the phone, listened to me and asked if I could give him the lot number, which I did. He also said this might happen with the re-manufactured 38 ammo in older J frames, which sounded like tripe to me.
He said he'd check into it and get back to me at the phone number I provided. My answering machine tended to refute this, as I never heard back from Black Hills. Frankly, this never should have occurred and all I did was waste my money on the ammo and the long distance phone call. Since I tried using it yesterday with no luck in my most recent J frame, the 1957 Mod 38, it made me think I should ask around the two best revolver forums.

Whether it was a fluke in this specific box or a lot problem, or something with 3 older J frames (now 4 older J frames) that work with all other ammo, I will never know. I do know they never recontacted me and I've never bought another box of ammo from the company since then.

[Malysh]

Since this curious problem with the reloaded ammo, I took out my newest J frame model, an early 90s Mod 640 and tried this ammo. It fits fine in the newer J frame.
So maybe the owner of Black Hills wasn't making an excuse.
But I'm still confused, as a 38 Special cartridge should fit in any J frame as well as any other well maintained 38 Special gun.

At least it worked fine in my Colts. I will use it up in them eventually.

[bmcgilvray]

"...a 38 Special cartridge should fit in any J frame as well as any other well maintained 38 Special gun."

I agree. This really doesn't make any sense.