I have a customer who has an old S&W revolver chambered for 38 S&W. I can not find ammo for it, but found 38 Long Colt. Can these be safely fired in 38 S&W gun? From cartridge dimensions it appears this would be possible, but not vice versa.

.38 Long Colt is the base cartridge from which .38 Special, .357 Mag, etc were developed. Not a good idea and depending on the model, age & condition of the revolver, possibly a very bad idea. See numerous posts about .38 Special cases swelling or splitting in .38 S&W revolvers rechambered to .38 Special. .38 S&W is out there, it just takes awhile to find.

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I need ammo, not a ride.

Member rsl has 300 rounds of new 38 S&W ammo for sale in the "Accessories/Misc For Sale or Trade" section of the forum. Take a look.
George

The even-shorter .38 Short Colt cartridge (still made) can be fired in a .38 S&W chamber, but the bullet (and case) is a little undersized in diameter. I doubt if a .38 Long Colt cartridge could even be chambered in a .38 S&W revolver.

38 Colt New police (38 Colt NP) is a match for the 38 S&W.

The difference being in the bullet point profile. The case dimensions are the same.
Colt not wanting to put the competitors name on their product in the way of a caliber marking just re-named the caliber,,changing the projectile profile a touch.

38 Colt (short), 38 Colt Long,,and 38 S&W Special are all on the same case. Just varying lengths.
The case & the bullet dia are both smaller than the 38S&W/ 38 Colt N/P .

Just on the principal of it, while the .38 Short Colt case is a few thousandths on an inch smaller in diameter than .38 S&W, the proper .38 Short Colt bullet is a heel base one with a nominal diameter of .375", hardly smaller that the .38 S&W bullet at a nominal .361", +.000"/-.006" (SAAMI specification).


2152hq,

While you are correct about the .38 S&W and .38 New Police being basically identical, what possible good does that do the OP when the .38 NP has not been manufactured since at least the 1960s?

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Gunsmithing since 1961

But not now - that was back in the long-ago days. And for that matter, the .38 Long Colt also started life with a .376" heeled bullet.

The current Remington .38 Short Colt cartridges have the typical inside lubed .357" bullet (125 grain lead bullet). They are widely used in ICORE competition in .38 Special revolvers because of their more complete ejection that facilitates rapid reloading. The .38 Short Colt case works very efficiently for light reloads in .38 Special revolvers due to their small capacity, and I shoot them a lot.

Ammo for 38 S&W is readily available online. It's not cheap but it is available. A local pawn shop near me that is known for high prices has several boxes of Remington in stock for $36 a box of 50. Not bad from what I've seen online. Check with places like Graf and Son, Palmetto State Armory. Some are out of stock right now but keep checking. Graf and Sons normally sell Magtech 38 S&W for $25 and box with only $7.95 shipping.

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Get off my lawn!

Actually, your ownership of a 38 S&W provides you with a good excuse to start handloading. Brass is readily available (Star makes it) and there are several firms that make .360/.361 bullets. Lee makes dies that are very reasonable in price and work well.

A friend of mine had one, and we loaded the usual mild loads, and then decided to replicate the Brit .380-200 load in his M&P. Kicked a little more, but what a hoot to shoot.

Our standard for replicating a human torso is rotted doug fir stumps (hard outside, soft in the middle). Those 200 gr. lead thumpers do a pretty good job!

Most who shoot .38 S&W revolvers much will load their own to avoid supply and availability problems. I have, since about 1971 and always used .38 Super dies, works fine for me.

It's been mfg'rd since the 60's. Not a continuous run and not very often. But fairly fresh stuff is still around. Like a lot of calibers, they get relegated to the seasonal or once in a while run.

So,,What possible good does it do?,,
Perhaps the OP might run accross a box or two of clean 38Colt N/P ammunition for a good price. Maybe he has some and wasn't aware that they were the same.
Sounds like he's in a business. The revolver is owned by a 'customer'.

The last two boxes of 38ColtNP I bought were $12 a piece last fall at a show.
If you don't happen to know what they fit, you'd most probably pass them up even at that price,,another oddball to take upspace and waste money on.
You'd probably take a box of the 38S&W sitting next to them at $40/box if you really needed some thinking 'Oh Well,,the price is the price'..

Just passing on some info I thought may be of use in a search for ammo.
The OP says he has a customer w/an old S&W that it sounds like he wants to shoot.
Old revolvers,,old ammo,,they show up from time to time in the same places.

Not everyone only buys what new stuff is available on the shelf at Wally World on ammo delivery day.

You can check Gunbroker.com for 38 S&W brass or go to StarlineBrass.com and order new brass, when available, in lots of 500 and 1k. Good cast bullets can be found at Missouri Bullet Company. They have proper .361 dia 146 gr bullets, 500 for $35.50. You can also buy use die sets on Gunbroker.com and E-bay. Much cheaper to reload than to buy factory ammo. My last box of 50rds of Remington 38 S&W cost $33.00 + tax.

I reload the 38S&W with Hornady 148 gr HBWC.
A small charge of TB does the trick for me in my S&W Reg. Police and S&W top break 38 Perfected.
They shoot better then the white box of 38 S&W's I got someware.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

Yes, they were funny about that back in those days. Marlin did the same thing with the .32-20, marketing the .32-20-100 Marlin cartridge from c. 1900 until c. 1915. The only difference between it and the .32 W.C.F. was the bullet weight and shape.
Marlin also would mark its .30 W.C.F. guns as 30-30 so as to avoid putting Winchester's name on its barrels.

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318