American Handgunner May/June 1978

efurbish an historic Canadian fort.Nothing definite yet, but word is thatCharter Arms is thinking of upgrading acouple of its revolvers. One will be their6" .357, which would sport a vent-rib andprecision adjustable sight if companymanagement takes the plunge. The otherchange would be a "factory custom" Bulldog.44 with superslick action, maybe aheavy barrel or a standard one with a ventrib, and classy adjustable sights. A hardchromefinish like the one on the outstanding"Backpacker" special edition ofthe Bulldog, might also be part of the asyet un-named deluxe -44. Larry Kelly theMag-Na-Port honcho whose special-editionrevolvers have always been so popular,got exceptional rave reviews with hisslicked up, ported, and plated Bulldog,and a factory gun with the features we describedabove should be a terrific seller.After all, since there is no competition in asmall -44 Special, price won't be much ofan object.The big news in ammo for the past yearor two has been the Treasury Load, thehigh performance .38 Special cartridgeWinchester-Western has produced forcertain U.S. government agencies. Notavailable for public consumption, it probablywill never be; it is what is known byinsiders as a "Q Load," a round made upsolely for a single buyer who is going touse a lot of it. We should note that Treasurypeople don't use mild .38 wadcuttersfor practice, and train their people entirelywith hot duty ammo. Until it went outof business, Treasury (and Secret Service,and most of the government cops exceptFBI) used only Super Vel for practice orduty.The Treasury loads we've seen aremade up on Government-headstampedcases, and are in effect well-designed 110-grain .38 special semi-jacketed hollowpoints,loaded to quasi--357 magnum velocities.What incidents have occurredwith Federal agents using this ammo arenot available to reporters, but word fromthe Feds we know is that the stuff performslike dynamite. Remember the individualwho vaulted the fence and chargedthe White House some months ago? Hewas dropped like a stone by a single .38Treasury Load through the &ht chest.Speaking of the' Treasury Load, "conventional"law enforcement agencies areeager to try it, California Highway Patrolhas adopted it as their standard load; Thatfamous and trend-setting law enforcementagency had allowed its men to carry 6".38s and .357s of their choice for years;we scooped the rest of the industry in thiscolumn~severa1 months ago when we reportedthat the agency was buying its mena new gun designed expressly for them;' * -: the Smith & Wesson Model 68, a 6" ad-. justable-sight -38 Special in stainless steel.