View Single Post
 
Old 05-14-2018, 01:28 PM
Absalom's Avatar
Absalom Absalom is offline
SWCA Member
Absent Comrade
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Oregon
Posts: 12,834
Likes: 10,103
Liked 27,995 Times in 8,452 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jag312 View Post
....
I have heard of catastrophic failures from shooting .357 Magnum cartridges in the early black powder guns with the straight chambers.
As far as I know, at least the military variant was bored through until the Model 1903, so close to the end.

When S&W came out with the .38 Special K-frame labeled “38 S& SPECIAL & US SERVICE CARTRIDGE”, to emphasize that the .38 Colt fit the Special, Colt supposedly claimed in some ads that the reverse worked also, which it did, just not partcularly safely.

Since .38 Colt brass isn’t that common, folks will often down-load Special cases to the lower pressures. Most commercial .357 cartridges are fortunately too long to fit the cylinder, or we’d hear about more cases, but there are probably some flat-nose loads like wadcutters that are short enough.
Reply With Quote