.38 S&W or .38 Short Colt

[spinmove_]

So, a friend of mine finally wanted to go shooting. He brought along his guns today. One was a PT92 and the other a vintage S&W revolver. With the revolver, we’re not sure exactly what he has nor exactly sure what it’s chambered. It’s definitely NOT .38 Special. Here’s a pic of the barrel of his revolver.



He had some rather old cartridges that were marked .38 Colt and they were flat point lead bullets.

So what the heck is this thing chambered in? What’s the difference between .38 S&W and .38 Short Colt? Are they somewhat interchangeable?


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[Lester Polfus]

According to the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, .38 Smith and Wesson, and .38 Colt New Police are the same cartridge.

.38 Short Colt is for use in .38 cartridge conversion revolvers.

The ".38 S&W CTG" on your friends revolver denotes .38 Smith And Wesson. Ammo is available via mail order.

[Lester Polfus]

Oh, and the question that inevitably comes to mind is "Can I get this converted to .38 Special?"

My understanding is that it has been done in the past, but is a bad idea, but I don't recall why.

[Kan S LaTrans]

Oh, and the question that inevitably comes to mind is "Can I get his converted to .38 Special?"

My understanding is that it has been done in the past, but is a bad idea, but I don't recall why.

The 38 S&W projectile is actually closer to 38 caliber than the 38 Special. The 38 Special projo is a nominal .357 and the 38S&W is a nominal .361....yes...there are small variations, but the Special will not engage the riflng in a 38S&W barrel as it should and accuracy will suffer if you don't have a 38 Special barrel installed. The conversion also requires a whole new cylinder because the case of the 38S&W is shorter, but thicker. So by the time you have jumped through all those hoops to convert it, you have spent more than you would for a 38 Special.

Buy dies for 38 S&W, order a few hundred pieces of brass from Starline and have some fun loading some plinker rounds. It will cost a LOT less.

[03RN]

Not really plinking ammo but good stuff for serious use.

125 grain fp hard cast at 1000fps
https://www.buffalobore.com/index.ph...uct_list&c=143

[spinmove_]

According to the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, .38 Smith and Wesson, and .38 Colt New Police are the same cartridge.

.38 Short Colt is for use in .38 cartridge conversion revolvers.

The ".38 S&W CTG" on your friends revolver denotes .38 Smith And Wesson. Ammo is available via mail order.

Thank you very much. What does the CTG stand for? That’s the part that threw me off.


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[OlongJohnson]

CarTridGe

[spinmove_]

CarTridGe

Lol, that looks like how some kid would make up their handle in Call of Duty.


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[BehindBlueI's]

What’s the difference between .38 S&W and .38 Short Colt? Are they somewhat interchangeable?

Bullet profile, flat nose vs round nose. Yes.

[fatdog]

One less expensive alternative to buying the .361 sized bullets is to use the 148gr hollow base wadcutter bullets intended for .38 specials. They will "pop" and fill the rifling even though they are sized .357 or .358.