Has anyone ever cut 38 brass to 9mm length and then load them up to 9mm data and pressure and shot them in 38 or 357 revolvers? I’m thinking about doing it and bench resting them at 25yds and seeing the results.

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Where we go one, we go all

Not sure why you'd want to. Just load .38 case to same level. No cutting.

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The best I can with what I got

9mm data is over pressure for .38, even +P, and less than the limits for .357.
Hodgdon Landing | Hodgdon

Follow published data. Anybody can blow up an old .38 revolver by increasing the pressure enough. What's the point?

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Science plus Art

When there are these ( Best 9mm Revolvers (2020) - Complete Buying Guide | Peak Firearms ) out there would there be a need to cut down a .38 Special and shoot it out of a .38 Special? Covid-Bored?

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Some shooters will load .38 Colt to use with moon clips to speed ejection and reloading with the short case. Might work with a .357 chambered gun.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

That pressure is higher than I would want to put in a 38 Special firearm that was in less than good operating condition

So mark those rounds in some obvious way and be careful where you use them

Presuming that you want the shorter cases to reduce the speed loader wobble so that you can do timed reloads faster . . . just use 38 Colt short brass like many competitors do and be done with it

Or go full board and get a second cylinder that is chambered for 9MM and use that on your revolver.

I have two of my 627s setup with cylinders chambered for 9x23 Winchester. Just like any 357 Magnum revolver will fire the shorter 38 Special, 38 Long Colt and 38 Short Colt cartridges my 627s will fire all the shorter cartridges like 38 SUPER, 38 ACP, 9x21, 356TSW, 9MM, 380 ACP and others

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"Acta non verba"

Colt SAA, you should be able to find something those will shoot just about anywhere. Gotta love those non-picky eaters!

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The best I can with what I got

Why waste your time triming down a 38 case for a 9mm type load when you can just add or adjust a powder load to get what you want ?

A 38 case will never get 9mm speeds.

You have too much time on your hands............

There's a lot of folks here taking a long walk out of their own way to come tell OP his question is wrong while avoiding providing a good faith response.

If you don't have a response to the question asked, try keeping your mouth shut instead off flooding the thread with nonsense posts.

Future users of the search feature thank you.

One suggested I just buy a 9mm revolver; I think cutting and making about 24 cases to experiment with would be a lot less expensive and you then would literally have a 9mm revolver that the brass headspaced on the rim as a revolver should.
Some suggested I should just load 38 brass to 9mm pressures; well how would you know what charge that was? No data. And I wouldn’t want to get those loadings mixed up with other 38 loadings. I’m just wondering how much the longer jump to the throat would affect accuracy benching it at 25 yds. Anyway, I just thought it would be a neat experiment.

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Where we go one, we go all

I've never done it and it sounds interesting, but the bullet will be that much further from the forcing cone leaving more distance to travel and more variation. I would think that even if done within safe pressures the accuracy might suffer. Let us know how you make out. Good luck.

You might just get some .38 S&W cases and try it. Haven't done the math on the case length comparison. But visually look about the same.

Keep us posted and don't hurt yourself or the gun.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

I look forward to your tests. What's the purpose of your tests?

9mm equivalent loads should work in a .357 rated revolver. But, will your shortened .38 special brass be any different than .38 Short Colt brass?

I know several shooters that run .38 SC in their clips to speed revolver reloads for USPSA matches. Those loads tend to be USPSA minor power factor and well with in .38 Special loads.

Good luck,
- Dave

I did some experimenting about 30 years ago along these lines.
I used 135 Grn LRNFP and at the time I was using a lot of W231. I don't recall anything remarkable in speed of reloads or accuracy and lost interest due to the volume of shooting I was doing!

Smiles,

Why not just get a revolver that fires 9mm and .38 spec./.357? I've been doing that for many years with this old model Ruger Blackhawk from 1970. Cylinder changeout is easy and quick, and one can get ammo for it anywhere in the world.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Do a search on the term 9mm Federal Rimmed . Introduced in 1989 . Charter Arms and S&W made revolvers until it was discovered they could be fired in 38S&W revolvers with unpleasant results, lots of S&W top breaks out there ... can we say the word "Liability" ... a lawyer could have a field day with this case ...so ...
Both firearms and ammo have been obsolete for a good 25 years .
A single round now sells for $5.00 on the bullet collector market .
Gary

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Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Gwpercle beat me to it. 9mm Federal - Roberson Cartridge Company

Over my reloading "career" I have done a lot of experiments, many "jes cuz I wanna know". I have reloaded more 44 Magnums than any other caliber and I played with different components, different loads in both 44 Magnum and 44 Special brass and even some "custom length" 44 Magnum brass for feeding in a specific levergun. (I did some testing of reloading 209 battery cups with large pistol, large rifle and magnum primers too. Of any great importance? Probably not, but now I know). I doubt if my experiments would have gotten many good replies, but I wanted to know (I thought about what I was doing beforehand and kept my experiments fairly safe).

I don't see any practical use for the OP's experiment, and may potentially dangerous in some guns, but all knowledge is good and sometime a guy just wants to know...

Pardon the clipped quote, but your last point sums up my thoughts exactly. I've read, but not confirmed that at one time a high mucky muck at the US Patent Office claimed "all things that can be invented have already been invented." Much the same as Bill Gates saying "540k should be enough for anyone."

If we fail to do things just because of the naysayers we're in tough shape. Curiosity and wonder are great things in my book. I don't want to derail the thread, but: What is at the end of the universe? What's out there??? That always gets my curiosity and wonder in a spin.

No, but I've trimmed many, many cases to .38 short Colt length and loaded them to .380 ACP levels. They are lower recoil and quicker to eject with the short ejector rods on 2" J frames.

BTW my method is to use a tubing cutter to cut 3/16" or so off and then the LEE .38 short colt trimmer chucked in a drill motor.

Just get some .38 Short Colt brass from Starline. Those are already the same length and case volume as 9mm. For all intents and purposes, it IS a rimmed 9mm, the same as a cut down .38 Special case.

I shoot a lot of .38 Short Colt in my 627s on moonclips. They are plenty accurate for shooting matches. The Short Colts don't work well with speedloaders, they're too short to get in the chamber before the speedloader releases them.

The .38 Special cut down may have too much taper in the bottom half of the case, and need to be reamed to keep a seated bullet from bulging the case.

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protocalldesign.com

They are too fat to fit.

May be for folks from Texas...........they say everything is bigger in Texas.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

Try chambering a .38 S&W in a .38 special.

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/ByF...0Blackhawk.pdf

Start paying hard attention about page 5. Load and article is for a Blackhawk 9mm only.

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Front sight and squeeze

Source for 9mm Federal Brass?

I believe this should be helpful to answering the original question at hand. 😎

If the issue is being able to shoot 9mm bullets in a .38 special gun, ,just load the 9mm bullets onto your .38 cases and use the appropriate .38 special load data.

Since there is some overlap in bullet weights between 9mm and .38 special finding the right load should be too difficult i.e. 147 grain 9mm load vs 148 grain .38 special load or 124 grain 9mm load vs 125 grain .38 special load.

I have 2 revolvers set up with alternative cylinders for 9mm by Pinnacle High Performance Gunsmithing. Both use moon clips and head space on the cylinder. One is a 686 Mtn Gun. That alternate cylinder will use 9x23, 38 Super, and 9mm. It would probably do .380 but I have not tried it. The original cylinder is untouched and does 38 in all variations and 357 mag.

The other is a Model 10-5 3 inch. That alternate cylinder does only 9mm and, maybe, .380. The original cylinder is untouched. I refer to it as my "split personality" Model 10.

I have also loaded .355 bullets in 124 grain in 38 cases and used load data for corresponding 125 grain 38 loads. No problem with any of them.

I do not load ANY 9mm to +P or above charges. I do not want to tempt fate and I used up all my luck in 31+ years as a LEO.

Attached Images

	20 12 26 Mod 10 3 inch loaded 38 & 9mm cylinders.jpg (56.1 KB, 10 views)
	20 12 26 side view 9mm & 38 cylinders.jpg (66.0 KB, 9 views)

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SWCA 3417 HF 642 NRA-TC

At $3.43 each, lol, I think I will pass. Thanks for the link anyway.

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Where we go one, we go all

.38 Short Colt is only .20/piece.

https://www.starlinebrass.com/38-short-colt-brass

Why???????????

And in stock; I checked yesterday.

As for cutting down 38 Special brass that short, it might be problematic. I have noticed a lot of pistol cases tend to thicken up the case wall as they get closer to the web section of the case. And that when I noticed this, it started a little bit below where a bullet designed for that cartridge would normally seat. So if you trim off .4 inch off the 38 Special case, you might run into problems with seating bullets because of the thicker brass walls intruding into the bullet seating area.

Just a thought.

Why do people drag race? Sounds like a project for a model 27 N frame. A 125 or 110 jacketed bullet sized at 357 doing 1700 fps with some Bullseye.---I have a 45 long colt that shoots a 17 caliber bullet.

Attached Images

DSC04943.jpg (103.9 KB, 8 views)

So, could you cut them down, and make "9mm Auto Rim" eliminating the need for moon clips in a 9mm revolver?

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otis

No...the 9x19 is thicker at the base than a 38/357 case. It is a tapered case. Try to chamber a 9x19 in a 357 cylinder to see what I mean.

If you shot a shortened 38 in a 9x19 chamber (assuming you could get the cylinder to close, which is doubtful due to rim thickness), you'd probably split the case near the base.

The 9x19 is not simply a shortened 38/357 with no rim.

Precisely...maybe you all got Covid (Cabin) fever but this got to be the most peculiar post I have seen on this forum...

Do you mean to use .38 S/W brass, loading to .38 S/W and shooting in a .38Special. Do them and when loaded will work in a loose chambered .38 SPC. as someone just said, WHY? I believe I read once that the little empty space in a .38SPC case was there for a reason. Some thing about loading Full wad cutters too deep in a .38 case. Not good....

would not the .355 diam. .380 bullet be a little small in a .357 barrel? The 9mm .356 bullet be a little better.

While talking about something different, Buds offered a 9mm conversoin kit to convert my Ruger .LC380 to 9mm, so I orderd on . Got a new slide, barrell assembly complete with a 9mm mag and really works great. If ordering one be sure not to order the one for lc380 striker fired model.

your .17 in 45LC got me thinking. Anyone here remember people chambering a .17 barrel in .22lr . the idea was that the bullet would swage down to .17 and do something great. What that was, I can't remember.....