I don’t think people are buying ammo to resell it, I thought it was more due to survivalism. And in survivalism, nothing is ever enough. You can have thousands of rounds in a safe and these people still want more.
I would be surprised by that occurrence. From SAAMI, the pressure standard for the .357 Magnum cartridge is between 45,000 and 48,500 Copper Units of Pressure (CUP). Which aren’t PSI, but piezoelectric transducers weren’t around then. The .38 Special + cartridge is between 20,000 and 21,500 CUP. Figures from SAAMI’s website, and specifically, here: https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ANSI-SAAMI-Z299.3-CFP-and-R-Approved-2015-12-14-Posting-Copy.pdf Scroll down to about page 12.
+P+ is not listed. I doubt it’s that much greater, but I don’t know.
EDIT: I think I’ve got it. There is a cartridge called .38 Super, and it was usually chambered in semiautomatic pistols. It was notable for being much higher pressured than say, .45 ACP. .38 Super does have a +P version, and that version will have a slightly higher pressure spec than .357 Magnum.
That’s a political opinion.
Pretty sure I’ll time out of another edit. If you scroll down on the link I had in my prior post, you can get pressure readings in PSI. That hierarchy will show .38 Super+ having a higher chamber pressure spec than .357 Magnum, whereas the CUP hierarchy did not.
There are ammunition manufacturers that make hotter +p+ .38 Special loadings than others. Some, if this message board exchange is accurate, that did approach a lower pressure .357 Magnum. Considerably above the original +p+ loading. Oops.
AIUI, the original Winchester +p+ 1970s “Treasury Load” 110 grain .38 Special, was a few thousand PSI above +p, hence the moniker, the waivers of liability Winchester Cartridge Company (I guess this was pre Olin-acquisition) required of Law Enforcement agencies that purchased the ammunition, etc… But nowhere near the chamber pressure of .357 Magnum. Still unpleasant to shoot out of a J-Frame snubbie, IME. Great, OTOH, in a K-frame .357 Magnum.
I don’t think it is, its a problem because no matter how much ammo you have stockpiled, people want to buy more which means the shortages will be hard to end.
It isn’t like toilet paper where after you buy a few 24 packs you don’t feel compelled to buy more for yourself. Some people can’t get enough ammo.
Actually, primers and powder have been largely unavailable for over 2 years now. My orders got delayed, delayed, and then cancelled. Unless you know someone, you just cannot get those supplies.
Well, I guess I better get practicing with medieval weapons, then:
Stranger
Note that there are several .38 "calibers’ that should not be chambered and sometimes wont chamber, such as the outmoded .38 S&W. Mind you they likely wont blow up the gun if you did somehowforce them, but stick to .38 Spcl in .357… or .357 of course.
To be fair if you go shooting pretty often at ranges (or since all the indoor ranges are closed shooting at designated shooting areas out in the desert) you’ll often wind up having to stockpile enough ammo to make the news if they were to find out. I only shoot 9mm and .38/.357 and instead of getting price gouged at the range I’ll buy 1,000 to 2,000 rounds at a time since it’s cheapest when you buy in those high quantities. The problem is because I only shoot three calibers I wind up shooting almost 500 rounds per range trip depending on how many guns I bring, which means I wind up having close to 5,000 rounds total per ammo type sitting in my gun safe. Then whenever a shortage happens I wind up getting a bit paranoid thinking “Well if I do a range trip once per month, and I’m not able to get any ammo, I’ll be completely out within the year”.
+P is an industry standard meaning overpressure, if a gun is just marked with +P it should be fine, but the absence of a mark doesn’t mean it’s unsafe, but avoid in older models.
++P or +P+ or whatever is a manufacturer’s term for anything about +P, often it’s the equivalent of putting “XTREME SOUR” on candy, but doesn’t tell you what to expect.
Incorrect. That’s a factual observation of the “extreme prepper” psychological viewpoint.
Whether it is either a political opinion or a direct observation of the mental illness mindset of certain gun owners seems beyond the scope of this thread and I won’t participate further in either area.