John’s Growing Collection
Over the years this .38 Super Commander has been joined by two others, one a stainless-steel Colt Combat Commander and the other a Colt Commander slide and barrel on a Springfield Armory frame. In addition to these I also found a 1911 Government Model chambered in .38 Super from a Sheriff’s Department sale. Even some bad guys prefer .38 Supers.
I have always wanted, and please don’t ask me to explain why, a nickel-plated Colt .38 Super fitted with real mother-of-pearl grips. Yes, I know what General Patton said about pearl grips, but I doubt even he would challenge the many Texas Rangers who regularly carried pearl-gripped Colt Single Actions. My latest .38 Super is not nickel-plated as I had been hoping for but is actually better with high polished stainless steel; the finish will never flake and if it becomes scratched it is easily re-polished. To complete the package, I ordered mother-of-pearl stocks from Eagle Grips.
About two decades back in my quest for the perfect .38 Super I ordered a Springfield Armory Mil-Spec .38 with the idea if it showed possibilities, I would use it as a base gun and have it tightened, tuned and fitted with a good set of adjustable sights. That was the plan. However, the best laid plans not only often go awry for mice and men, but gunwriters too. Here it was actually a good thing as the .38 Super from Springfield Armory shot so well, I’ve not done anything to it except equip it with Herrett’s grip panels.
But what of the really special .38 Super exquisitely tuned and wearing adjustable sights? Once again Bill Wilson came to the rescue. He not only fixed my first .38 Super he also sent a full sized 1911-style .38 Super Combat Classic to me several years ago for a magazine article. There was no way this one was going back, and it now wears giraffe bone stocks by Scott Kolar.
This brings us to my latest .38 Super from Kimber and although they may call it a Stainless Target II, it’s also a superb trail gun. The .38 Super is certainly not made for big-game hunting, however with hard cast SWC bullets or jacketed hollow points, a quality holster, and some time to roam the sagebrush, foothills, forests, or mountains, it comes ready to serve right out-of-the-box. To me target shooting, as enjoyable as this may be, is a high-pressure situation; a gun on the trail is for relaxing and enjoying the moment.
In addition to my .38 Supers I also now have a “Super .38 Super” which overshadows both the .38 Super and .357 Magnum. Back in the days before I quit flying, I hunted the YO Ranch in Texas every year under the auspices of SCI’s Handgun Hunters Chapter. This is a charity hunt with the emphasis being two-pronged, that is having a good time hunting and gathering some trophies and also donating all the meat to the Salvation Army.
On this particular hunt I took a beautiful big bull bison. Three guns were offered as prizes for the top three meat gatherers one of which happened to be a brand-new .38 Casull semi-automatic from Casull Arms shooting a 147-gr. JHP at over 1,600 fps. Made available for shooting during one lunch break, only a couple of us took advantage of the free ammunition and test-firing of the new gun. I thought if I had any chance this was the gun I’d pick. Ending up in third place, I knew there was no way I would get this one. However, sometimes things really do work out and the other two winners had no idea what the .38 Casull was. I won it by default.
I have the same number of .38 Supers as I have grandkids, and picking a favorite .38 Super is about as easy as picking a favorite grandchild; in other words it ain’t gonna happen!
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