38 Special Short?
 

Magtech Sport Ammunition 38 Special Short 125 Grain Lead Round Nose Box of 50 - MidwayUSA

Please school me on this ammo. I've never heard of or seen .38spl Short before.

This appears to be designed for Cowboy Action shooting or something similar. The shorter case would be easier to extract. The .38 Special is a longer .38 Long Colt case, perhaps this is "reverse engineering" all over again.

I've used it before. My friend had a few boxes left in his closet he gave me. The only thing I remember about it was that it was very smoky and left lots of grainy residue on my revolver.

Please note. These cases are .38 spl. dia. They are undersized in .38 S&W. If you shoot them in your old Safety Dbl. Action or Victory Model, the cases will split.

A number of revolver shooters who compete in USPSA and ICORE use the shorter 38 Colt brass for perceived faster reloads with the shorter case.

Please don't parrot what you have "Heard somewhere" and have no experience with. The nominal difference between .38 Spl. and .38 S&W is .008", about 4 pages in a typical "slick" magazine. The smaller case will have a slightly higher probability of splitting when fired than a proper sized case, but to say it will split is assuming what simply isn't true.

One of the most extreme cases I can cite is fire-forming 7mm Remington Magnum cases to .458 Winchester Magnum, a difference of ca. .174", nearly 22 times the difference between the .38 cases, with less than 5% failures due to splitting. If anything was going to split this would seem to be a nearly 100% certainty, wouldn't it?

Perhaps you shouldn't assume the poster "has no experience" with cases splitting. Especially when you say:

For all you know they may have had an issue with cases splitting, in their gun.

I have never tried to shoot .38 Short Colts in a .38 S&W chamber, however...

I have had factory new .38 special non+P split on the first firing in S&W M&P's that were originally chambered in .38 S&W that have been lengthened to take .38 Specials, but not very often- like one in six.

I have seen the Mactech cases split in a Safety Hammerless and a '50s Terrier. Both in good condition. I have nothing against Magtech, the .38 & .44 spl. loads are great,and the brass holds up well in reloading. But these Spl. short loads are bad news in .38S&W chambers.IME

...interesting, new to me. Please forgive my ignorance on this, but: Can you safely shoot these out of a modern manufactured .38 / .357 revolver? If so, seems like a 3rd load option for a .38 /.357 wheel gun. Thanks in advance for the information.