38spl +P brass - anything special?

Can I load 38 spcl +P loads in brass without that headstamp. Is there anything special about 38 special +P brass? Or is the headstamp the only difference? I'll be shooting it in a 357 mag Blackhawk, so the pistol is up to the task.
Thanks, Jeffrey

As far as I know P+ was to tell the original owner of that brass case that it was loaded a little Hot! Same other wise.

Jim

Jeffrey I've found diffrent brands of +P brass can have thicker walls If your short on brass then load it. Sometimes it takes extra effort to load. As with all loading pick the brand brass you want to load +P in and work your load up in that brass. Every gun and every brand of brass can give different results when you start working with high pressure loads.That being said use safe guide lines and you should be ok working up +P loads in the brass of your choosing.I would load +P in brass that has only one cannuler as brass with two cannuler was laoded factory as wad cutter.

Starline indicated their standard and +P brass is identical except for the headstamp.

My .38/44 loads go into the +P just so it is recognizable to me personally.

Jerry

Depends on the vendor. I am VERY familiar with .38 Super +P brass from different makers.

Rem or PMC .38 Super +P will load until the headstamp is literally hammered off by hitting
the ejector. Win or WW +P or +P+ brass will almost certainly NOT survive the first firing
- same load, same gun.

Bill

Bill:

Have you made measurements on the various brands to see where they differ?
I would be interested in how the Rem, WW, and Starline compare.

Jerry

I just use good quality mil brass for +P loads, never had a problem. Then again, I only shoot them in 357's
1Shirt!:coffee:

Bill, that is an interesting situation! It would seem that the WW is just plain .38 Auto brass except for the headstamp then?
I like to sepparate my brass between +p and not for two reasons, a year later if i have a bucket of +p brass, i know it had higher pressure loads through it already, and two, if i have a box of loaded ammo with +p headstamp, i know exactly what load it has in it. This is important to us as we have two .38's that are NOT rated for +p ammo.

Brass will vary from maker to maker and lot to lot, but if everything is equal, the +P and regular brass is the same, only the headstamp is different.

Back in the day I shot a lot of PPC and other types of paper punching games I would sort my brass before loading began. To this day I sort newly acquired fired brass to remove the +P and Mil. cases from my .38 Spcl. piles. I`ve noticed that wadcutters seat with more difficulty in +P cases. Been told they have a heavier case wall and are designed for "J" bullet loads.Robert

I have an "unsupported chamber" which is just the normal chamber design used on most
semi-auto pistols - which means that the feed ramp area has a cookie bite of unsupported
brass, so here the brass is carrying the whole pressure load without steel wrapped around
it.

I never sectioned the different cases, I just knew the Rem +P would last forever, PMC the
same and WW - regardless of the headstamp - had to be culled and sold to guys with
"supported chambers" which is a barrel design with an integral feed ramp which lets the
chamber be less cutout and supports the case better than the conventional design.

Bill

I know when Brian Pearce wrote an article on the .38-44 and loadings for that he said that he found the .38 +P brass was not different except that he knew it was all newer than 1974. I do load my .38-44 loads in +P brass but like others that is to tell it from other loads (in addition to drawing a line across the bottom of the primer with a permanent marker).