It's not like I'll lose any sleep not knowing.

38spl can be shot in a 357...223 can be shot in a 5.56...except for 22mag a lot of rimfire firearms will fire 22short,long and LR.

Are there more examples like this? Was it by design or was it two guys at the range and one says "Hold my beer".

Just curious...

Isn't a 40 S&W just a 10mm short?

.32 S&W, .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Mag, and .327 Fed Mag can all be shot from a .327 Fed Mag chamber. Sometimes .32 ACP will work, but not dependably.

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SWCA#3597

Good question, and I don't have an answer. I understand the how but don't know if it was intentional or just a happy accident.

Many shotguns can fire 2 3/4, 3 and 3.5-inch shells. Someone here will know the facts.

Apparently you can shoot almost anything out of a Brazilian full choke (.387) .410, including .454 Casull. (And 30/30, .45 Colt, .444 Marlin, and .44 Magnum)

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I don't really see they accomplished anything.......Neither one had the guts to hold it and shoot it.

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44 Special and 44 Russian can be fired from a 44 Magnum.

That’s the point - they expected it to blow up. It didn’t.

Steel is hard, lead is soft, bullets squoosh down. There is a lot of steel around a .410 single shot chamber.

Springfield Armory once fired a .45 ACP round through an unmodified 03A3. All they got was a long skinny bullet and a .30 hole in the target.

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.458win mag in a .458 Lott

In the case of 357 Magnum and 44 Magnum, the magnum cartridges were developed from the shorter “Special” cartridges (which were lengthened versions of earlier cartridges). The magnum versions were lengthened to prevent them from being fired in the older revolvers that weren’t designed for those high pressures. The earlier, shorter cartridges can be safely fired in the Magnum revolvers.

Obsolete and very rare, but fits into your question none the less.

.41 Special (.41 Police originally for a minute) and .41 mag.

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BT
EGO VOLUNTAS HAUD OBEDIO

In the case of 10mm, a lighter loading was introduced for the FBI because the 10mm was uncomfortable or uncontrollable for some shooters. The 40 S&W was a shortened version that gave the same ballistics as the light 10mm, but could be chambered in 9mm-sized guns. The 10mm needed a 45 ACP-sized frame. The 40 S&W can’t reliably be fired in a semi-automatic gun because the cartridges headspace on the mouth of the case. A 40 S&W might fire, but it might move enough to keep the primer from igniting. The 40 S&W can be fired in a 10mm revolver with moon clips, which serve to headspace the cartridges.

Note that .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt cartridges can be fired in any .38 Special or .357 revolver. But the .38 Short Colt is the oldest. There are many different 9mm cartridges that can be fired in .38 Super pistols.

I used to shoot .40 S&W out of an FBI 1076 all the time. Never had a failure to fire. The extractor holds the cartridge in place.

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That is possible, but it does put stress on the extractor and it can break. Somewhat like firing 9x19 in a .38 Super M1911, but eventually the extractor claw will fracture. I once had it happen to me. The extractor was not designed for that purpose.

You broke an extractor shooting .40 out of a 10mm, or 9mm in a .38 Super?

Because .40 in a 10mm works fine.

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An awful lot of "standard" cartridges can be fired in "improved" chambers - in fact, firing a standard round in an "improved" chamber is often the normal way of fire forming the brass to the "improved" chamber dimensions.

Of course, things like case length need to be considered - I've lost count of the number of .300 Win Mag cases I've seen left on the range that were obviously fired out of .300 Weatherby Mag chambers - what little was left of the neck was comically short. But it would seem that no harm was done.

As far as additional handgun rounds . . . can't you in principle fire .45 Colt out of .454 Casull chambers? And both of these out of .460 S&W? (I vaguely recall reading that Freedom Arms' .454 chambers were held to closer tolerances and that "some" .45 Colt ammo might be on the tight side.)

45 long colt through .410

Many of the older firearms were designed to accept ammunition of varying power levels. Some examples would include:

-.32 Smith & Wesson, .32 S&W Long, etc.
-.38 Colt, .38 Colt Long (morphing into .38 S&W Special, .357 magnum).
-.44 S&W Russian, .44 Special (morphing into .44 magnum).
-.45 S&W Schofield, .45 Colt (and a bunch of "improved" varieties).

Lots of other examples. Also, many calibers were offered in "gallery loads", typically a simple lightweight bullet (or round ball) with little or no powder charge (relying on primer energy), for use in informal target shooting at short ranges (typically in bars and private clubs, popular with upper class folks).

Several popular cartridges were loaded to different performance levels, usually identified by labeling on the factory boxes. An example would be .44-40 (offered for Colt revolvers, Winchester or Marlin rifles). Another example would be .32 WCF (.32-20), loaded for handgun and rifles of various manufacturers. Differences in power levels, bullet weights and diameters, etc.

Probably the most enduring examples would be .22 rimfire ammo. BB Caps, CB Caps, Shorts, Longs, Long Rifles, various others. Prior to WW2 there were dozens and dozens of variants, every manufacturer offering their own proprietary designs, some of which were interchangeable but many were not.

Most firearms makers concentrated their offerings on proprietary cartridges (securing future sales of ammunition). Colt resisted chambering their revolvers for S&W or other cartridges for decades, unless required for a large contract or foreign sales. S&W co-opted the .38 Long Colt as the basis for the new .38 S&W Special, rather than starting with their own (quite similar) .38 S&W, but the target market was military contracts that already included thousands of Colt revolvers with chambers bored straight-through, capable of accepting the longer cartridges at increased power levels (although still loaded with black powder charges).

Prior to the 1960s there was no SAAMI, no standards of any kind. Brand recognition and marketing efforts were the only considerations for most firearms and ammunition.

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While not recommended, I've shot light .410 shotshells out of a .45-70 rifle with decent results and zero harm. It was so my elderly mom could blow up some apples I put on a post, while feeling ZERO recoil.
You can shoot .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Mag through a 7.62 Nagant revolver all day long, but the brass will balloon just a little bit.
.30 Mauser., .30 Luger and 7.62 Tokarev are often interchangeable, but don't run the hot Rusky stuff in the early Lugers and Broomhandles.
Then there are all the Marble's chamber adapters from the '20s and '30s that let you shoot various pistol cartridges out of full sized rifles...The good ole' days. .32ACP in .30-06 was probably the most common.

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Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

Just to give a ridiculous example, about 60 years ago I tried to shoot some 22LR in a 45-70 Springfield 1873. Believe it or not, on one attempt the firing pin actually struck the rim of the cartridge and it went off. The result was a 22 case that unfurled in a spiral configuration and a bullet that simply dropped out of the muzzle (probably the result of lowering the muzzle). It did go bang, though. I never tried to do it again, just did it to see if it would work (kids do silly things sometimes). As I recall, it took several tries before I got it to go off.

On a more serious note, I have used 38 spl in 357s and 44 spl in 44 mags frequently, as designed. I found that 32 acp chambers, fires and extracts reliably in my 432PD, chambered in 32 H&R mag. That is rather unusual. I sold quite a few Charter Arms in 32 H&R when I worked in a lgs, and none of them would do that. I discovered the ability of my 432 to do that just out of curiosity, as I had an old box of 32 acp left over from some long ago gun. Some of my customers gave me boxes of it after buying ammo at Walmart, thinking that a 32 is a 32 - I reiterated that they had to buy the correct ammo
The result was some free plinking ammo for me.

.45CS-.45 Schofield shoot fine in a .45colt chamber and with a spacer .450 and .455 Webley.

Thompson/Center used to chamber Contender barrels for both .45 LC and .410 - maybe they still do. They even came with a screw-on choke (with straight grooves to stop the spin) for use with .410 shotshells.

The choke had to be removed when firing .45 LC.

.22 WRF shoots just fine in my .22 MRF guns.

Of course there's people shooting all kinds of things in gun that weren't designed for it. Just a few I've ran into:

I knew a guy who would shoot .410 out of their 45-70 trapdoor.

I had a cousin who wrapped tape around 20 gauge shells so he could shoot them in a 12 gauge single barrel.

At a local range, I met a guy who was shooting 300 Win mags in his 300 Weatherby.

I once had the husband of a coworker bring me his daddy's old rifle to look at because it wouldn't fee shells. He was trying to load 22 WMR in a 22 WRF rifle.

A local gun pawn shop showed me a Winchester 94 chambered in 375 Winchester. The owner didn't know what it shot, but told me it wouldn't chamber the 375 H&H ammo he had. It's a good thing it didn't!

460 mag/454 Casull/45 Colt.

I've had success with this too.
I read a couple of articles (Long ago) that said this was a no-no.
Seems safe enough to me.

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My club's indoor range was recently remodeled and all "magnum" ammo was outlawed. Had to switch to .38 spl and 44 spl, etc.

Starline has introduced .41 Spl brass, but boy was it hard to find any reasonable loading data. What I did find classified it as a wildcat cartridge.

I DID go ahead with it and was quite pleased with the results.

But I do not think you can fire 2 9/16" shells out of 2 3/4" chambers

Safe, yes. Waste of an expensive shell? Yes...

9mm in a .38 Super chamber. The extractor holds the case against the breech face in the slide so the primer can be struck by the firing pin. It works, but not forever. Using the extractor to set the cartridge headspace for the 9mm in a longer chamber is not the best idea. Same for using a short .40 S&W cartridge in a longer 10mm chamber. It can work, but eventually the extractor will fail.

The interesting thing was that when my extractor claw broke off, the fired 9mm case was not ejected, it remained in the chamber. That proves that the Browning short recoil design requires the presence of an extractor.
See: Can you shoot 38 Super in a 9mm?

Also see #4 here: 9mm - In a .38 Super? | 1911Forum

Also, 45 Schofield and 45 Cowboy Special should work in this or any combination up to the longest chamber. I have a Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley in 454 Casull that can handle all four 45s if needed.

Prior to WW2 Astra (Spain) offered 9mm pistols that would function with any of the common 9mm cartridges of the time (9mm Browning/.380ACP, 9X19 Parabellum, 9X21, etc). I think it was the Model 600 series.

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[QUOTE=diyj98;141574628

I had a cousin who wrapped tape around 20 gauge shells so he could shoot them in a 12 gauge single barrel.

[/QUOTE]

I have wrapped tape around 12 ga. shells to shoot in 10 ga.
I have cut the brass off 16 ga. shell and inserted 20 ga. and used in 16 ga. Do the same to shoot 16 ga. in a 12 ga. Larry

I can find .22 WRF cheaper than .22 MRF.

Not really. After all, the Bureau issued the model 13 .357 Magnum. The size of the 1000 series pistols and the N frame length reach to the trigger was the major issue. That one could adapt a 9 mm size frame to the .40 made it a better fit (and more concealable) for a great many more people.

The multi caliber Astra was the model 400. While it would fire the .380, it wouldn't eject the spent case. .38 Super was way over pressure and exceeded the design intent, not a good idea. Would work with 9 mm Browning long, 9 mm Largo and a bunch of other cartridges of similar ballistics and dimensions, .38 ACP (NOT Super) included. Also the 9x19 mm, case held by extractor. The Astra 600 was a dedicated 9x19 caliber pistol.

I think you are speaking of the Llama “Extra” military pistol, many of which hit the surplus market back in the late 1960s. They were basically close copies of the M1911. They were caliber marked as “9mm/.38” so many believed that meant that they could be used with both 9mm Luger and .38 Super ammunition. While that was sort of true, what it really meant was that both 9mm Largo (the Spanish 9x23 military round) and .38 Super could be used, not too surprising given that those two cartridges were very similar and largely interchangeable. While 9x19 cartridges could be used in the Extra, it was never designed for or intended to use 9x19 ammunition, and was subject to extractor claw failure as previously described. The Astra 400 was an entirely different pistol design which was designed for use with the 9x23 Largo cartridge only. The similar Astra 600 used the 9x19 cartridge only. Neither was intended for using other cartridges (but the Astra 400 could use the .38 Super round).

That's what I have been told. 40 S&W is a short 10 MM.

I've shot literally more than aa million shotgun shells...and never even thought about doing that. Ya learn something new every day. Oh the statement about not shooting a 2 9/16 inch shell in 2 3/4 inch gun is wrong. It is shorter and shoots just fine. In shotguns longer shells sometimes won't chamber but if they do, they'll shoot. Pressures will rise sometimes quite a bit and usually will not extract/eject from pumps and semiautos. Ejection ports are shorter generally or the ejector is wrongly placed for some like the 2 3/4 inch 870

Yes, the main problem in shooting a longer shotshells in a shorter chamber (at least in a repeating shotgun) is in ejection, as the ejection port may be too short. I have yet to see anything definitive showing that there is a significant chamber pressure increase. In fact there is no reason to assume that there would be. Just think about it.

I have an early Winchester Model 1912 in 20 gauge which has a 2.5” chamber. It handles Winchester and Remington 2-3/4” shells just fine, but not Federal shells as the fired Federal plastic cases are just a wee bit longer and will hang up on ejection. And they are difficult to remove. So I do not use them. I have measured that 2.5” chamber to be very slightly more than 2.6”, which is about the same length as fired Winchester and Remington plastic 2-3/4” shells. Federal fired plastic cases measure a little over 2.7”. Not much, but enough to cause a problem.

As far as pressures. The old paper shells were much thicker than plastics. Definitely raised pressures in them. The other thing was they seeeed to increase gun recoil...noticed more so in break open shotguns which seemed to have more drop in the stock. Increased pressures more so with 3 inch in 2 3/4 inch chambers. Back when I worked on guns I did the conversions on Browning 16 ga making the ejection port longer. Also extended the chamber and forcing cone. They did seem to shoot better patterns by doing so. Not a hard job but it was more time consuming on the Browning. I also remember fitting a few 3 inch M-12 bbls to 2 3/4 inch guns but it was a bit more extensive. Not many know the original length of 410s was 2 inch and originally the 28 was marked as 2 7/8 inches. The plastic wads sealed the bore better than the old card wads so they could use somewhat smoother bores. Powder charges were reduced with plastic wads too

I don't think anyone said .38 S&W - .38/200 - .38 Colt New Police and the .380 Rim.

As a side, I really enjoy shooting the .38 S&W and especially the .38/200 in an Enfield revolver.

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SWCA #3437

38 S&W, 38/200 and 38 Colt New Police all use the same case I think. They are just different loadings. I'm not sure about the 380 Rim. There are a lot of cartridges with 380 in their title that are completely different dimensions. I like to shoot my Enfield also. They are really interesting guns when you get into them. I'm not too sure it would have been my first choice to carry into battle though.

The official British military nomenclature for the cartridge was .380 Revolver Mark 1 (or II). It was never officially called the .38/200. Colt .38 New Police and .38 S&W cartridges are identical except for a difference in bullet nose profile.

I was verifying the zero on my old 30-06, when my groups went to heck. Keyholing and spread all over the target. Some joker (most likely me) put 280 Remington hand loads in a cartridge box labeled 30-06.

280 cases are slightly longer, but they chambered in a old 03.

Never Been there done THAT...but did once shoot a (1) 25-06 in a 270. Just sounded off...DUH. I did watch a fellow trying to stuff a 300 H&H into a 30-06 once. At a sight in day at a range. I traded him a box of 30-06 for his box of 300 H&Hs. His rifle actually shot well

Too lazy today to read all the replies but my S&W Model 632 Carry Comp Pro .327 shoots more than the Federal 327. 32acp and up.

That sucker is loud as heck in 327.... If you miss it will scare 'em enough that they will turn tail and run.

Since you handload, you can still shoot what is very nearly a "magnum" out of .38 spl and 44 spl brass - modern spl brass is plenty tough enough for any sane load. Just be careful not to mistakenly run these loads through actual spl revolvers.

You probably know this already, but the Lyman 358156 bullet (a Ray Thompson design) actually has two crimping grooves - crimp it in the second groove using .38 spl brass, and you've got nearly .357 Mag case capacity. And of course, we all know what Elmer Keith did with the .44 Special.

I don't NEED a magnum load to target shoot. If I DID load to near magnum velocities, it would violate the spirit of the club rules.