May have made a mistake, but bought 38 S&W ammo to use in USPSA in an effort to find a shorter cartridge that makes reloading quicker. Some online advice says the bullet is slightly larger and will lead up the 357 substantially.
I had found and shot Magtech 38 Special Short ammo which reloaded well, but barely could knock over a steel plate!
I'm only shooting in practice matches now which is why I don't mind using less powerful ammo.
Thanks in advance!

38 S&W will not work in the 627 but .38 Short Colt will if you reload it. The original loadings are kind of light loaded so you really need something more powerful to knock down the plates. Save your SC brass.

Unless your chambers are oversized, .38 S&W shouldn't fit.
As mentioned above, .38 Short Colt or .38 Long Colt are correct for any .38 Special or .357 Mag.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

When in doubt, call the factory.

Sometimes 38 S&W will fit and sometimes it will not. I once owned a S&W Victory in which 38 Special fit in all chambers and 38 S&W fit in only 3. I would not worry about leading but I'd be concerned about a stuck bullet.

I would not attempt to fire .38 S&W ammo in a .38 Special or .357 revolver, particularly in USPSA completions, for a number of reasons.

USPSA has power factor rules for minimum power of ammunition used. The power factor is calculated by multiplying the bullets velocity (in fps) by its weight (grains) and dividing by 1000. The minimum power factor for minor division is 125. A 158 grain bullet at 750 fps in .38 S&W only makes 118.5 PF. .38 S&W ammunition will not make power factor, meaning that in any formal competition you would be disqualified on the chronograph.

Apart from that the .38 S&W cartridge is slightly larger in diameter than .38 Special/.357 Magnum, so you will have difficulty in loading the cartridges into the cylinder.

.38 S&W brass can be reloaded using .38 Special dies but case life is shortened greatly. And given that the case thickness of the .38 S&W is less than the .38 Special and prone to damage during the reloading process, case life is already short. Alternately you could remove the recapping pin from a .38 Special sizing die and run commercial rounds through it to size the brass down. I’m sure someone has done it at some stage but I wouldn’t.

The easiest option is to go with the .38 Short Colt loads, but as you say they are marginal at dropping plates which are calibrated to a 9mm 125 PF round.

A second option would be to shorten .38 Special cases for reloading, but that reduces case capacity and requires reducing powder charges accordingly. I have no idea how much charges would need to be reduced, but given the already light charges of fast powders popular in reloading the .38 Special it is another recepie for disaster.

You could also get your cylinder cut for full moon clips and use 9mm ammo. Accuracy with the .356 diameter bullets could suffer beyond 15-20 yards. The 9mm can be reloaded with 125 gn .357 projectiles with no difficulty.

Or you can trade in your 627 for a 929. With a revolver the additional 2 rounds in the cylinder is a clear advantage to revolver shooters. 9mm ammunition at PF levels is readily available and the cartridges are short.

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View from down under

All other considerations aside, some .38 Special/.357 chambers may be oversize enough to accept .38 S&W cartridges which have a slightly larger diameter. If they will fit, you can fire them. As stated, .38 Short Colt cartridges will fit and fire in any .38 Special/.357 revolver, as the case and bullet diameters are the same as .38 Special/.357.

You have the gun and ammunition, only you, OP can answer your question. Does the .38 S&W ammunition you purchased chamber in your gun? If it does you can shoot it, there are no safety concerns in spite of what some have posted above. If it will not chamber, you can't shoot it in your gun. This should be obvious.


And your .38/.357 chambers do not have to be oversize to accept .38 S&W. Maximum .38/.357 tolerances and minimum .38 S&W tolerances slightly overlap. Current production .38 S&W seems to run on the small side too.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Thank you all so much.
I haven't tried to chamber the ammo, but did put some in moonclips. I bought two brands of S&W 38's. One fit in the clips, the other wouldn't load the 8th round. The gun is a 627-2, an 8 shot.
After all the advice, I'm going to eat the shipping cost and return the ammo.
There is more to getting set up with a 38 revolver than I anticipated. Standard rounds flop all around making reloading slow. Maybe a different moonclip would hold them better.
Thank you all again!

Well looks like I’m selling 250 rounds of 38S&W myself! Apparently ammo cannot be returned!
A lesson well learned

Cant. You have incoming email
Best,
J. R.

I never thought much about it because I knew 38S&W was a bigger dia case and bullet that 38sp. We had a town Marshall about 25 yrs ago that
bought 38S&W ammo for a Ruger Security 6 that I had sold the village. He
insisted he shot it all the time in a m10 S&W. At the time I had a Colt and
S&W 38sp and 38S&W wouldn't chamber in either. This shut him up. After
that I have checked it in several 38sp and have not found one it chambered. All the 38S&W ammo I've had was Win or Rem. I have seen
38sp cut off and loaded with 357" bullets for 38S&W revolvers.

It is confusing isn’t it. 38 s&w is 38. 38 special is 357. Or is 38 special 38 extra long colt. Sheesh!!! It is interesting to read how all the old calibers are related. Years ago I bought a top break 38 and didn’t take long to find out 38 special wouldn’t fit.

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Bobby SWCA #4067
SWHF #1144

FWIW, I owned a mid-60's Ruger BH that would chamber .38 S&W.

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Good shooting.

First came the .38 Short Colt, followed by the .38 Long Colt. In 1899, S&W came out with the .38 S&W Special, essentially an elongated .38 Long Colt cartridge.. It held more black powder (the .38 Special was originally designed as a black powder cartridge) and so had more power. All three of those calibers can be fired in any .38 Special or .357 Magnum revolver. The .38 S&W cartridge very closely resembles the .38 Short Colt cartridge but has a slightly larger diameter case and bullet. One can safely fire .38 Short Colt in any revolver chambered for .38 S&W. .38 Short Colt ammunition is still loaded today, and I like it for use in .38 Special snubby revolvers as the fired cases eject more positively.

Regarding .38 Special and .357 revolvers, SOME .38 Super ammunition brands will fit and function in SOME of them, while other brands will not. I have a Ruger Security Six revolver which will accept any brand of .38 Super ammunition (but I have not tried .38 S&W in it). I have other .38 revolvers which will not accept any brand of .38 Super I have tried. The .38 Super case has a semi-rim, making it feasible to use in a revolver, assuming it will chamber completely. My experience is that .38 Super ammunition fired from a .357 revolver seems quite light in comparison to firing .357 Magnum ammunition, about like firing .38 Special.

I should also be noted that the percussion revolvers in .36 Navy caliber were the the basis for the .38 caliber cartridges that followed.

I have fired .38 S&W off in my old favorite Model 10 Heavy Barrel on several different occasions. I did a test a few years back with a box of Winchester Western .38 S&W cartridges. Out of 50 rounds about half would easily chamber in the Model 10's chambers. A few more would chamber with difficulty. The remainder of the box couldn't be forced.

What you forgot to add was that the original .38’s were heel shaped bullet calibers, like the .22 rimfire, where the outside of the bullet was the same diameter as the case. It was only much later that bullet diameters were reduced to case inside diameter dimensions, hence why the 38 Special is a .357 bore, 44/40 is a .427 and .44 Special .429.

I am not too sure where the .38 S&W fits into this time frame. Somehow I seem to recall that it was developed after the change to inside case diameter dimensions but I may be wrong there.

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View from down under