38 S&W in 38 Special

[Randy_che]

A relative recently passed away and she had a 38 Special revolver loaded with 38 S&W ammo.  As one of the few members of the family that is interested in guns, I was asked if it was safe to fire the 38 S&W from the 38 Special. I replied that I was about 80% sure that it was not safe, but would do some checking. I can't really find any good info on the topic. Does anyone have the answer? Also, is the 38 S&W ammo a collector's cartridge now?
Thanks,
Randy

[John Traveler]

Randy,

Factory .38 S&W ammo will normally NOT chamber in .38 S&W Special revolver.  The cases are several thousandths of an inch larger in diameter. and the cartridge cases are different in length

That said, many thousands of surplus revolvers of years ago were re-chambered to .38 S&W Special to make them more saleable.  Examples inclue the WWII surplus .38 S&W "Victory" models and the Colt "Commando" models made for the British.  Many of those were re-chambered to fit both .38 S&W AND .38 S&W Special ammo.  They are not very accurate with .38 Special ammo, and the cases tend to split on firing because of the sloppy chambers.  Accuracy is poor because the .38 S&W barrel groove diameters are larger that for the .38 Special.

To answer your question, yes, it is normally safe to fire .38 S&W lead bullet ammunition in a revolver that will accept both .38 S&W and .38 S&W Special ammunition.  The exception may be old military FMJ jacketed bullet .38 S&W ammo that may cause bore obstructiojns.

The cartridge itself is not very rare or collectible except for original boxes in good condition.

If you do fire it, be careful of bore obstructions and split cases.

HTH
John

[Mikey]

Randy_che:  John Traveler is absolutely correct about the different chamberings in older revolvers like that.  Many simply had the chambers reamed to accept the longer 38 Spl cartridge and in addition to splitting cases, accuracy is poor due to the different barrel grove diameters.  In some of the older revolvers like that it is considered dangerous to fire any higher pressure 38 spls.  I've seen a few of those old revolvers come apart after some bonehead chambered 357s in them, because the chambers were usually just bored through, and then touched them off.  Not a good practice.

These oldies can be fired however, with safe ammunition.  The safest ammo to fire in them would be the old 38 S&W cartridge.  Ammunition is available from a couple of sources, and the CASS 38 S&W loadings are also safe.  

FYI - the 38 S&W cartridge is referred to as the 38-200 in British terminology and is the same case as the 38 S&W but with a 200 gn bullet.  The 38-200, at an approximate 600'/sec from a 4" revolver replaced the Webley 455 cartridge for battlefield use as the Brits projected the stopping power of the two cartridges to be similar.  

COl. Charles Askins used that cartridge during WWII and considered it an effective battlefield round.  When he returned to the US after WWII and entered police work, his two favorite calibers were the 45 auto and the 38 Spl with 200 gn bullets.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Dand]

Randy, I agree with the previous postings but I'd add that you would be wise to find a good hand gunsmith in your area and have him examine your gun.  There might be other issues with it as well.  You might inquire on this forum for recommended smiths in your area.

Good luck - always pays to be safe.

[S.S.]

There is also a 38 Short Colt that outwardly
looks a lot like the 38 S&W cartridge.
It will chamber & fire with no problems
in a .38 Special Cylinder.
Are you sure that is not what was in the gun?

[Questor]

http://yarchive.net/gun/ammo/cartridge_interchange.html

[Randy_che]

All:
Thanks for the input.  The stamp on the cartridge said 38 S&W, as did the box full of them.  However, I'm not 100% sure that it didn't say 38 S&W special. The pistol was an unmodified, fairly new 38 Special Taurus revolver.  The 38 S&W ammo did fit in the cylinders, but were more snug than the normal 38 Spec. ammo.  I was mianly concerned with the length of the cartridge of the 38 S&W compared to the standard 38 Special.  Even though it did fit the cylinder, I was concerned that the gap between bullet and end of cylinder could cause a problem. I was asked while out of state, and don't have access to the gun or ammo anymore. So far, I haven't seen anything that will lead me to believe that it is OK to shoot a 38 S&W cartridge from a normal 38 Special revolver, so I will recommend disposing of this ammo and just using normal 38 special.

Thanks again,
Randy