I should know this, and I've probably asked this before, but I don't remember or know the answer.

1 reason I ask is I saw some .38 short colt at a local store and was thinking it would be a good powder puff load for ladies or kids. It was expensive though. But you could buy a few boxes and reload for it. IF, you could shoot it in a .38 special....

Although it would probably just be cheaper to do light .38 special loads if you're gonna reload.

I don't remember what all loads are safe to fire in a .38 special, besides the .38 special.

You can shoot both .38 long and short Colt in .38 Spl chambered guns. May be easier to reload Long Colt depending on your dies. Some .38 Spl dies are too long to crimp .38 Short Colt.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

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NRA Benefactor Member

The gun gamers are the only excuse for the existence of the short Colt. Makes for faster reloads. No reason to use anything except special cases if you reload.

That reminds me of a bet I lost to an LGS owner when I told him that .38 S&W wouldn't load into my .38 Special revolver. He said it would.

I lost.

I am not sure if one should shoot .38 S&W in a .38 Special revolver but it fits into the chambers......

The classic .38 Special target load of 2.7 grains Bullseye under a swagged 148 grain hollow base wadcutter does not recoil significantly more than .38 Short Colt and is less trouble to reload. In factory loads it is also probably less expensive than .38 Short Colt.

Historically .38 Short Colt came first. It is factroy loaded with an outside lubricated bullet the same diameter as the case. The bullet has a smaller diameter heel that is seated in the case. .38 Short Colt cases were lengthened and loaded with a smaller diameter inside lubricated bullet to create the .38 Long Colt, an early army cartridge. That case was lengthened again to create the .38 Special.

The early .38 cartridge that is not intended to fit in .38 Specials is .38 S&W. It has larger case and bullet diameters.

Edit to add: The difference in diameters is so small that many .38 Special chambers will accept some brands or lots of .38 S&W cartridges. Some of the .38 Special guns I tried would accept the .38 S&W factory cartridges I had but others had chambers that were too small. No doubt ISCS Yoda's LGS owner supplied the cartridges used to win their bet.

The 38 short Colt and the 38 long Colt.

The 38 Short Colt was lengthened to make the 38 Long Colt, the long Colt was lengthened to form the 38 Special and in turn that was lengthened to get the 357 magnum and lengthened again to get the 357 Maximum...and that's about where the madness stopped !

When it comes to the 38 S&W , 38 Super Police aka 38/200 and 38 Colt New Police....none of these should fit a 38 special chamber ....but you never know. The 38 Super Police is not to be confused with the 38 Super, I wish all this weren't so confusing....but it is !
Gary

38 S&W brass has a larger diameter than 38 special brass/chamber. If you have a chamber on the loose side of the specs it might work. Or you could probably reload .38 S&W using 38 special dies and get the brass that's skinny enough to fit. However your average .38 S&W round shouldn't fit into a .38 special cylinder. Of course if the round happens to fit it isn't going to hurt the gun if fired.

I get that 38 special wadcutters would be easier to reload. But I find it hard to believe that there isn't a bit of difference in the short colt. With some diminuitive shooters, ever bit counts. Somehow my wife managed to hurt her hand shooting wadcutters through my Colt DS. It left a mark on her right hand. I'm like, waaaaaaaa? Admittedly, I think my 442 is more comfy to shoot because of the hogue tamers and the nice bit of cushy rubber over the back of the frame to soften recoil.

So the long and the short of it is that .38 short and long Colt will fire in .38 special. I may pick up a box of the short colts for the heck of it. But they weren't cheap.

Long, long ago, I was buying ammo for my grandfather's Colt 1877. All I knew was that it was .38. I think I found one box of .38 Long Colt. Also, .38 wadcutters would fit. And, .38 S&W sometimes would fit. Many were too tight for the chamber, but would fit with some persuasion. Amazing what dumb kids will do sometimes.

To help your wife enjoy shooting .38s consider an inexpensive heavy barrel police surplus Model 10. They are a lot more pleasant to fire and easier to hit with than a snub nose J frame.

I found Winchester .38 Short Colt case walls were thicker not very far down. Most of the .38 cast bullets I was using bulged the lower portion of the cases unacceptably. I had to use my shorter & lighter bullets. No doubt other brands or newer cases vary. I did not really crimp them. I just turned the flare back in with a 9 mm die.

I have loaded bullets as light as 90 grains in .38 Special. Dean Grennel designed short "button" type .38 wadcutters that could be stacked three in a .38 Special case or loaded singly. I think they were 70 grains or less. Also one of the early Speer reloading manuals had loads for round balls.

Getting back to factory loaded .38 Special, the military used a 130 grain FMJ round nose bullet that was loaded about 100 fps slower than the most common 158 grain RNL .38 cartridges. That is more or less duplicated by Winchester white box target cartridges and similar inexpensive .38 Specials made by other brands. Their low price can not hurt.

I was also one who thought that .38 S&W didn't fit into a .38 Special... well, it fits.
At least Winchester Super X .38 S&W and Models 10-7 and 65-5 do...

How old were the boxes ?
Depending on how long they have had it the price may be very negotiable.

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

I would be surprise if 38S&W fit a 38sp in S&W, Ruger, or Colt.
They would have to have a very sloppy or worn cylinder.

You better be surprised then. It pays to only bet on things you already know the answer to. Of my roughly 30 .38 Spl/.357 Magnum revolvers about 24, 80% of them, will chamber some .38 S&W cartridges. Of the several .38 S&W and .38 Colt New Police cartridges in my collection, all of them will chamber in some of my revolvers, and some of them will chamber in nearly every one of my .38/.357 revolvers! The majority of my revolvers are S&Ws ranging from the early 1900s to the 1980s, a couple are Colts.

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Gunsmithing since 1961