Colt Police Positive- Ammo Questions, Please Help!

[bkelleher01]

My father-in-law recently approached me with a Colt Police Positive, which appears to be of an early 1900's vintage. He knows that I am an avid shooter and reload all my own cartridges, so he asked if I could make up some loads for his CPP. He said that it is chambered for .38 Short Colt and gave me two or three of the last six rounds he had left for it, so that I could could examine COAL and bullet weight. In my travels, I have not been able to find anything to support the idea that either the Police Positive or the New Police were ever chambered in .38 Short Colt. They were chambered in .38S&W, which I understand to be a separate cartridge, despite the fact that many practice shooting .38 Short Colt in their .38 S&W revolvers against better judgement.


To further muddle the situation, I prematurely purchased some .38 Short Colt brass, but it is nearly .020" longer than the brass of the rounds that he gave me to examine, which are at least 30 years old and clearly marked "38 S Colt". Can anyone please advise as to what might be going on here? I'm tempted to place an order for some .38 S&W Brass and dies, but I don't know how much more money I want to throw at experimentation. Thank you in advance!


-Ben

[wolverine_1]

I have never heard of Colt Police Positives shooting the Colt .38 Short either.  I'll look for my book on Colts and see if it lists anything but .38 Colt Police (.38 S&W).

[wolverine_1]

The 2011 Cat. of Gun Values doesn't say anything about any cartridge other than .38 S&W.

[bkelleher01]

Thanks, Gene! That's a huge help. I guess there's no harm done as I can play around with the .38 SC brass in my .38 Specials!

[Larry L]

Your CPP must be a real early one. It will be chambered for the 38 Police Positive which is the same as the Colt Short as it was later called. Colt, in attempts to keep up with S&W later chamber it to a 38 Colt Long which was the equal to the 38 S&W. The original 38 Police Positive chambering was only around for a short time. My brother has one unfired in the box.

[FPH]

I thought the early ones were .32 caliber.

[wolverine_1]

Cartridges of the World gives the following info:   .38 Long Colt          .38 S&W
                                                      Bullet Dia.               .357                       .359
                                                      Rim Dia.                 .433                       .433
                                                     Neck Dia.                .379                       .386
                                                     Base Dia.                .379                       .386
                                                     Case Leng.            1.03                       0.78

[FPH]

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