38 colt / 38 S&W ???? same??

[1911crazy]

Is the 38 colt the same as the 38 S&W???

[m-g Willy]

Is the 38 colt the same as the 38 S&W???

Same cal. and can both be used in same gun.
Only difference is the factory bullet weights.

[S.S.]

the .38 S&W is a larger diameter and thus will not chamber in a .38 Short Colt.
I think that this is what you are referring to.
A .38 Short Colt can be fired in a .38 special though
where a .38 S&W cannot.

[Hank08]

The .38 Colt New Police is the same as .38 S&W but there's a .38 short Colt and a .38 Long Colt that are different and fit a .38 Spl. chamber.
H08

[1911crazy]

I am totally confused when it comes to the older 38 calibers.  I see lots of the 38 older C&R revolvers for sale and i'm interested in them.

[shinjin]

I got into same quandry.
Colt duplicated a lot of S&W's ammo renaming it Colt Special or Colt Short BUT don't trust that. I compare sizes in reloading manuals and never shoot anything hotter than a Wadcutter load in any of them. Be very careful if you shoot them.

[Mikey]

No!  The 38 S&W is the same case as the British 38-200.  The 38 Colt and short Colt are just shorter versions of the 38 Smith and Wesson Special.  The 38 S&W/38-200 have a larger case head, about .385 to the 38 Spl .375.  The rim diameter is also larger on the 38 S&W and it takes a different shell holder than the 38 Spl.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Hank08]

Every .38 S&W case that I've ever seen can use the same shellholder as the .38 Spl. Try it. The rim diameter on the .38 S&W is actually slightly smaller than the Spl. In fact many folks that shoot the .38 S&W (the no. 1 cartridge for" pocker pistol" in Cowboy Action) load them in .38 Spl dies.  Works the case a little but doesn't seem to cause any case splits. I load mine this way and have shot them many,many times. Just about everyone has .38 spl dies. I've seen some shooters even using cut down .38 Spl. cases ,cut to .38 S&W length,that's  too much trouble, .38 S&W case aren't that expensive.
H08

[SHOOTALL]

After ya'll figure it out , keep in mind some of the old Colt 38 Colt revolvers had cylinders that were drilled thru allowing hotter 38 spl loads or 357 mag loads to chamber and fire. Not a goot thing . At one time I had one . And used 38 spl cases and a very very light load with a 148 gr wad cutter .

[Mikey]

Lyman uses shell holder #1 for the 38 Spl, and shell holder #21 for the 38 S&W.  Lee uses the same shell holder for both.  The base of the 38 S&W case runs .389, the 38/357 runs to .385.  Yes, you can size the 38 S&W through 38 Spl dies and yes, some older S&W and Colt revolvers wore straight bored chambers you could even stuff a 357 into.  Do I consider them the same - nope. 

[damienph]

I am totally confused when it comes to the older 38 calibers.  I see lots of the 38 older C&R revolvers for sale and i'm interested in them.

Most of the old 38 cal C&R revolvers that I've seen are chambered for .38 S&W, especially the old topbreaks.  They are fun to shoot and easy to load for.  Below are my two, an Iver Johnson Safety Automatic (top) and an Empire State Arms (middle), shown for size comparison is my Taurus M85 in .38spl.
 
They are in very good condition with tight lockup.  I shoot reduced loads with smokeless powder, 158gr LRN bullets. Not incredibly accurate, but I would feel confident of center mass hits with either one at self defense distances.

 
I also have one H&R .32 S&W topbreak, but I prefer the size of the .38s.

[darkgael]

A pic might help...left to right:
.38 S&W Special JHP and a WC load, .38 Colt (long), .38 S&W, loaded as the .38/200.


Diameter on the last is  .361-.362.
Modern, shortened .38 Spl cases will fit cylinders chambered for the slightly fatter .38 S&W; the reverse is not so more often than not.
You will notice that the .38 S&W has the thinnest rim.
Pete

[Horsefeathers]

Hello!  Back in 1951  I had an Iver Johnson Top brake revolver in .38 S&W cal. I was a teenager and this was my first hand gun. The local gun store me a box of .38 Short Colt ctgs. They would not chamber. The bullets out side diameter was larger than the case  inside diameter. Like a .22 LR ctg.      If both are the same why wouldnt they chamber? ( I shaved the lead down and they worked fine.) Horsefeathers

[darkgael]

Something amiss there. The .38 Short Colt, even with the heeled bullet, should have chambered in the .38 S&W cylinder.
This is not to doubt the truth of your experience.
The original. heeled, bullet for the Short Colt was .360 - .361", pretty much the same as the .38 S&W (.361-.362), certainly it should not have been larger.
The .38 Short Colt was the parent case for the .38 Long Colt, and then the .38 S&W Special, and ultimately the .357 Magnum as it has an interior diameter of .357.
The interior diameter of the .38 S&W is .361-.362"
Pete

[NickSS]

The 38 Short colt used a heal type bullet of .363" diameter.  The Army did not want a heal type bullet so Colt lengthened the case and loaded a hollow base .357 diameter bullet but left the barrels at .363.  They called this round the 38 Long Colt which the Army Adopted in 1892.  Some years before, S&W started producing break open pocket pistols and designed a cartridge they called the 38 S&W.  It had a bullet of .360 diameter and the case is fatter than the two colt cartridges noted above.  When this round became popular in pocket pistols and Colt wanted to adopt it they naturally change the name of the cartridge to the Colt 38 New Police.  It used the same powder charge and bullet weight but was loaded with flat point bullets in lieu of the S&W round nosed ones. 
You can make 38 S&W/38 Colt New Police. 380-200 British brass From 38 Specials buy trimming to length and loading with .360 diameter bullets.
By the way the reason that the 38 Special was more accurate than the 38 colt is that the 38 Special revolvers were made with .357 diameter barrels and not .363 diameter ones of the colt 38 long revolvers.