Quote:
Originally Posted by rboineau
Accuracy will be generally poor shooting .38 Special cartridges in that gun, as the Long Colt bore is a bit oversize if I am remembering correctly. I wouldn't shoot ANY full-charge .38 Special cartridges in it, but an old Colt that I had in that Long Colt chambering did O.K. with factory mid-range hollow-base wadcutters or equivalent handloads. The hollow base apparently flared out enough to take the rifling pretty well.
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Hi rboineau,
I think there may be some confusion there with that.
As far as I recall, the Bores on the S & W M1899 through the '02 and on, were all the same, and, by then, .38 LC was same diameter Cartridge Case and same diameter Bullet as .38 Special anyway ( or vice versa ).
Possibly some Colt Revolvers of that time period, chambering the .38 LC Cartridge, had slightly larger Bores, I do not remember.
Much earlier in time, I think the .38 Colt Cartridge was a larger diameter Bullet, when it had been an Outside Lubed and Heeled Bullet of Hollow Base design, with the Bullet being the same diameter as the Cartridge Case...this dating to the 'conversion' period of the Cap & Ball Navys ad so on...but, this would have been in an earlier era than that of the time in which S&W introduced their M&Ps...
By which time, the .38 Colt Cartridge had been up-dated, and, changed to a then conventional and 'modern' form, and, from it, the .38 Special was devised, by lengthening the Cartridge case and using a slightly heavier charge of BP and a slightly heavier Bullet....leaving the Diameters of Bulet and Case, as they had been.
Mine ( S & W 'M&P' Revolvers of the M1899s, and '02s ) are as Accurate as any M&P could be, and more accurite than I can hold them of course, using standard .38 Special Ammunition or Black Power me-loads.
These were 'Tack Drivers' from the get go...
A Worn out Bore of course would spoil things somewhat, or worse than somewhat, for Accuracy over distance.