10" 38 S&W Single Shot Chamber Length

[glowe]

A few months ago, I picked up an unserializd 10" 38 S&W barrel to go with my Model 1891 SA. It was in the white and never been mounted, so I fitted it to the 1891 frame and blued the barrel. It fits great and functions well. I have been shooting 38 S&W brass for awhile and recently noticed that the chamber looked long. The chamber measures 1.5" long and a 38 Special round drops right in. I am wondering if this is normal for these single shot barrels? I can not see any evidence that the chamber was lengthened.

Anyway, I really like Trail Boss in these old revolver calibers and found that the space available in a 38 S&W case is too small to get much above 450fps. I decided to try loading 38 Special cases and found that I have plenty of room for Trail Boss to bring the velocity up to 600+fps and the accuracy is much better than the 38 S&W. I also find my standard deviation for tested 38 S&W rounds is very high (over 100fps) with Unique, and I think it is a result of the load being so small (2.2 grains), but my Trail Boss loads tested have less than 30fps deviation.

I like the chamber being long enough for the 38 Special round, but wonder if it is standard or not?

 

[deadin]

Any chance that it could be chambered in the 38/44 Target round?
I don't have one to measure, but seem to remember that they were even longer than the .357 Mag case.

 

[opoefc]

Dean, You remember correctly. A 38/44 Target case is .467 in long, including the rim. A .357 Mag. case is .303 in. long, including the rim. A S&W SS barrel in 38/44 would be very unusual, but with S&W "never say never." Ed.

 

[Jim Watson]

A 1.5" chamber sounds good for .38-44 Tgt.

I have made cases for my No 3 Tgt by cutting .357 Maximum to cylinder length. It bulges a bit but not much with suitable loads, if any smokeless load can be called suitable.
145 gr RN seated submerged, 2.7 gr Bullseye = 617 fps.
Sure to be faster in a straight 10" barrel.

 

[glowe]

Thanks Guys. I assume then that the standard 38 S&W chamber was shorter than mine. Interesting that this barrel was sold off from the factory long after these pistols were manufactured. If the barrel was bored out, it certainly does not show up in the chamber. Also, this barrel was never mounted on a frame, so why would someone bore it out and not use it? I am sure the barrel was never fired, since there were no marks on the pivot plates. When I was fitting it to my 1891 frame, the first time I installed it, there were marks from opening it only once.

I had lots of problems with accuracy with the 38 S&W and got some good advice from the good members on this forum, but now I would assume that the short cartridge in a long chamber might never be accurate. Now I am interested in trying the old 32-20 trick of cutting a 357 max to the exact chamber length and fully seating the bullet into the case. I should be able to work up a Trail Boss load to 600-650fps and will see what kind of accuracy is there.