38 Special + P - 125 gr SJHP - Remington Express - 500 Rounds

Video Transcript:

The UMC line of ammo from Remington is intended for low-cost range practice. But a step up from that we have the Remington Express brand. And that's a wide variety of pistol, rifle, and shotgun ammo specifically tailored for different shooting applications. This one is a Remington Express .38 Special hollow point intended for self-defense.

This .38 Special is a Plus-P load, meaning it's loaded to slightly hotter pressures than a normal .38 Special-- though still well below a Magnum load. Most .38 Special revolvers made in the last couple of decades are designed to handle Plus-P loads. But check your owner's manual just to be sure before you use this ammo.

The case used on this round is reloadable, nickel plated brass. The nickel plating helps to protect against corrosion as well as assist in reliable extraction. The bullet is a 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow point. The lead core is partially covered by a copper jacket, leaving the top half exposed with a hollowed-out center to ensure expansion on impact.

This is an older design for a self-defense round but still very effective by many standards and far less expensive to produce than premium, modern defensive loads. Even though it's loaded a little hotter than target loads, we still found this round to be very controllable and easy to shoot-- even when using our Ruger lightweight, snub-nosed revolver.

Function was great across the board, with no ignition or extraction problems in any of our six test revolvers. We used a Ruger GP100 to shoot a few rounds from the bench at 15 yards for accuracy. Once we got in the swing of things, we ended up with a nice group just an inch or two below our point-of-aim.

The Remington Express .38 Special Plus-P hollow point is a great low-cost alternative to premium self-defense loads and would also be a good round to practice with if you want something that's got a little more kick than a standard .38.