Hickok45 - Use the RIGHT AMMO !

Back when I worked for the Housing Authority doing security, we carried 4 inch, 6 shot, .38 Special revolvers.  We were required to supply our own pistol and ammunition and any time we had any news hires I ALWAYS checked their carry ammo.  I found, .38-200, .38 Colt Short, .32 Colt, .30 Carbine and .357 Magnum somehow shoved into .38 special cylinders.  The woman who had the .30 Carbine rounds in her pistol also had bent the ejector rod and damaged the cylinder crane.  The guy who shoehorned the .357 Magnum loads into his had actually dented the cases at the crimp, and he had only gotten them to load after he had trimmed the bullets, which were Lead Round Nose's, to fit, and tapped them in with a mallet.  The guy who had the .32 Colt rounds was an 80 something year old retired St. Louis City Police Detective who took the ammo he used to carry in his old Colt Police Positive .32 service pistol and just put it in his brand new S&W Model 10 .38 Special.  He didn't think anything was wrong when the bullets rattled in the cylinder.  The extractor star just barely held the rounds in the cylinder.  If he did by some chance get them to fire, there was a very good chance he would have blown the cylinder up.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS, be sure you have the CORRECT ammunition for your firearm.

Use of the incorrect ammo can not only destroy it, it could also severely injure or K-I-L-L  Y-O-U!