I just purchased a safety hammerless 38 S&W. According to the serial number it was made in 1898. It is very good mechanical condition and locks up tight. Will it be safe to shoot with modern 38 S&W commerical ammo? Thanks, Tom

Tom: It should be safe to shoot with standard commercially-loaded ammunition. I wouldn't abuse it with Buffalo Bore's offerings or hot hand loads.

This is an older woman, and while she may be in good condition, her frame wasn't heat-treated. (This wasn't accomplished until the late 1920's).

Have her inspected by a competent gunsmith to make certain she's in good, serviceable condition then enjoy her with some 146-grain RNL.

You'll be in for a real treat, because she'll "dance" as if she's a "prom queen" and you'll walk away with a smile on your face a mile wide!

There's nothing quite as sweet as the older S&W revolvers.

Captain O

Captain O
Let me guess, your not married are you?

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Don Mundell

There is a bunch of new .38 Short Colt ammo on the market now, and its even weaker than factory .38 S&W (and usually cheaper, too). It shoots fine in my breaktop. Here's a thread with pictures:

Gonna try some .38 Short Colts in my Safety Hammerless (Updated with range report)

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Remington .38 S&W Match is good and Privi Partisan has it too.
In stock ammo, guns, magazines, and reloading supplies for available sources.

There is good evidence that these vintage 38 Safety revolvers will function just fine with modern factory ammo from companies like Remington & Winchester. Your revolver design and materials remained the same for most all of its production. The guns made after the introduction of smokeless powder were the same as guns made in the last days of BP and are still around in huge numbers. Any gun can break, but there should be no need to be concerned about safety when going to the range.

I do not know the specifics of 38 Short Colt and it is interesting that Barnes does not list this caliber in my Cartridges of the World book?? I do not know what the bullet diameter was, but 38 Long Colt is .357", which is small for the .360+/-" bore diameter of the 38 S&W caliber guns. Some revolvers do not shoot well with the smaller bullets, but others work fine. I always err on the side of buying and shooting only what is marked on the barrel.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I didn't know much either until right now about the caliber except about its use for the old cap-and-ball to cartridge conversions. A quick check through the search function reveals that this obsolete round apparently hasn't been that obsolete in the last few years. There seem to have been quite a few threads in the ammo and reloading subforum dealing with it.

.38 short Colt is a shorter version of the .38 long colt, and is not the same as .38 S&W. It has both a smaller diameter bullet and a smaller diameter case. While I am pretty sure that it will function in the top break guns chambered for .38 S&W, I don't now anything about its pressure, and the cases will swell.
Edit: I checked the pressure specs, and the SAAMI limits for .38 Short Colt are lower than for .38 S&W, so there should be no problem there.

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Tom
1560

If the bullet in a 38 Short Colt is .357, you may not get the bullet to properly catch the rifling of a 38 S&W barrel and accuracy could suffer. The cases of any cartridge with that bullet diameter will swell in a 38 S&W barrel. I used to cut down old 38 Special cases for reloading and when fired in my 38 S&W revolvers I would get bulged or split cases. The rounds functioned fine and I am sure the 38 Short Colt rounds will fire just fine. Accuracy is the only thing that may suffer when using that caliber.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Widowed and divorced. I have buried 4 out of 6 children as well. Why do you ask?

Tom:

Don't shoot anything but .38 S&W round through it. If you shoot .38 Short Colt ammuntion down the barrel, accuracy will likely be poor and you may "streak" the barrle with lead. Why abuse the old piece with ammunition that wasn't made to fire in the revolver?

The .38 S&W is/was a good short-range cartridge.With top-break revolvers that were rather weak, modern loads are at the lower end of the power spectrum, so as not to "shoot the guns loose" and sooner than necessary.

Use the proper ammunition and enjoy this fine, old revolver.

Thanks for all the replies. The gun locks up perfectly, and appears very sound. It even has a nice bore. I found it in a pawn shop, and having always wanted one, even though the finish was well worn I hoped it would make a fine shooter. I gave $200 out the door, not having a clue of what they go for. For this ones shape I think it was a fair price. Again thanks for the ammo advice. I will try to find some next week and see how it shoots.

Enjoy our old revolver and shoot it with the 145-146 grain .38 S&W loads from either Privi Partisan, Remington or Winchester. There's plenty of ammunition for the revolver that's safe to shoot.

Blessings to you!

Captain O

Well, I shot the old Smith yesterday. I had a box of Winch. factory loads, and it was a pleasure to shoot. However, those sights were made for eyes newer than mine. The best I could do was about five inches at thirty feet. Thanks for all the advice.
Tom

In the immortal words of the Rolling Stones:

"What a drag it is getting old".

I resemble that remark!

As Popeye would say, "It's embarriskin".

I recently inherited a .38 New Departure and was told that you should never use .38 Special with it, is this true? I ask because no place near me (Cincinnati, OH/Northern Kentucky) seems to sell regular .38 ammo.

Welcome to the Forum. There is no way to get a 38 Special round into a 38 S&W chamber. A standard round is longer than the cylinder, unless you have fully seated wadcutter ammo. Even then, it would not seat into the 38 S&W cylinder unless someone had reamed out the chambers. If so, you will probably find such an alterated 38 Safety in pieces after a few rounds. Very dangerous proposition if attempted since the 38 Special round is way to powerful to shoot in a top-break revolver.

Go online and you will find 38 S&W for sale. Try ammunitiontogo.com since they currently have the ammo for sale.

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Gary
SWCA 2515