.38 Special vs .38 S&W

[Chris06897]

I am the happy owner of a S&W .38 Model 15-3. I see two different .38 cartridges mentioned for this revolver. Is there a difference? What is recommended? I just purchased some Norma .38 Special cartridges and hope they will work. Thanks and stay safe.

 

[sureshotbob]

Two different cartridges .38 S&W is fatter and should not fit in a .38 special

 

[pittpa]

I appreciate your optimistic attitude that you will have so many choices of 38 special to shoot in this revolver.

 

[cgt4570]

The .38S&W is a nearly obsolete cartridge that was first developed by S&W for the .38 single action first model top break 'Baby Russian' revolver in about 1876. It was originally a black powder cartridge. It uses a non-standard .360 diameter bullet. The cartridge is shorter and fatter than a .38 Special.
The British chose this cartridge with a different bullet and smokeless powder as their standard sidearm just before WW2. The late pre-war Hand Ejectors and the wartime Victory models that shipped to commonwealth countries were chambered in this. They called it the .38-200 round.

The .38 S&W Special was developed in 1899 using modern smokeless powder and a .357-358 diameter bullet. It was (and still is) a very common chambering in the U.S.

.38S&W is still sometimes produced in very limited quantities by Rem and Win. It's VERY hard to find.

.38 S&W Special, prior to the current ammo craziness was on par with 9mm for low cost and high availability.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Shop Hard! When you find some 38 Special with a price you can tolerate, buy it!
I recently bought 3 -300 Round PMC Battle Packs.
132 Grain. Have shot a fair amount of 130, never shot any 132!
But I will now!

 

[Chris06897]

.38 Special Prices

What is considered a good price? I have some I purchased at $0.32 per cartridge back about three years ago. My recent purchase was at $0.70 per.

 

[robertrwalsh]

AS far as I am concerned anything over $10 / 50 rounds for range ammo is high / outrageous. But then again I am really old.

 

[rwsmith]

I didn't shoot it all the time.....

AS far as I am concerned anything over $10 / 50 rounds for range ammo is high / outrageous. But then again I am really old.

....I did shoot wadcutters, but I had no qualms about shooting jhp ammo at the range every time I went.

 

[murphydog]

What is considered a good price? I have some I purchased at $0.32 per cartridge back about three years ago. My recent purchase was at $0.70 per.

Sadly, that is the going rate for practice/range ammo of all common centerfire cartridges, with no relief in sight.

 

[JH1951]

In my area, $50.00 / box of 50 would be expected. The problem is that there isn't any around to be bought right now.
A couple months ago I was buying it in the range of $16 ~ $20

 

[cgt4570]

I never bothered to set up for reloading .38 Special or 9mm because it was always cheaper to buy than make.
Wow times have changed! I probably have dies that I could make work.
I've never kept 9mm brass at the range (thousands and thousands of spent rounds) over the years. I only bothered to keep .38 Special maybe half the time. If I did a tactical reload on a K frame, I usually just dropped the brass and forgot it. :-(

 

[dthughes]

I am the happy owner of a S&W .38 Model 15-3. I see two different .38 cartridges mentioned for this revolver. Is there a difference? What is recommended? I just purchased some Norma .38 Special cartridges and hope they will work. Thanks and stay safe.

On the right side of the barrel you should see a stamp that says something like “38 S&W Special Ctg”. That is 38 special. Again if in doubt find one or two 38 S&W cartridges (not special) and see if they fit. Better still take it to a competent armorer or pistol smith for a checkup!

 

[Peak53]

It's a Model 15, so no thoughts about "nearly obsolete" .38 SW need to enter the discussion. Fire away with any .38 Special factory ammo you have, including the not-so-dreaded +P. They will all work, although the point of impact may vary somewhat depending on the load. I prefer to shoot 158 grain lead in mine for best accuracy.

 

[ArkieVol]

A 38 S&W cartridge will not fit in a model 15 which requires S&W 38 Special. Different animals.

 

[tom2]

I have dies and components to reload both special and S&W .38. I have an ex British empire victory model that was totally thrashed looking and I refurbed and refinished it.(60$, SOGD) I bought exactly one box of 150 gr. LRN for it. I bought 200 gr LRN bullets to reload for it and also the right diameter 200 gr. to use in special, also. They shot well from the old victory model and I want to load some Super Police equivalents for special. I would think that the heavy bullet from S&W loaded to it's potential would be equivalent or better than wadcutters from a special, which some people recommend for defense for recoil shy shooters. And the victory has a 5 inch barrel in the UK version for a little more MV.

 

[J. R. WEEMS]

38's

As noted above, they are TWO different cartridges. I load for both. I can say, while 39special bullets have, and no doubt are use in reloading the .38S&W, the results can be less than stellar. My bullets as sized by PENN bullets are the 'correct' size, .360 -- if found on the shelf, the cost has a wide spread, up to recently. These days, as noted above, any ammo is a hard find. .38 S&W up to recent could be found foe $19. a box For PPU & Mag- Tech, to $43.00 a box for Winchesters. Rem., which I guess is no more, was $23.00 to $33.00 a box. I just finished loading 1000 rounds of these and my cost using on hand components is $3.50 @ box of fifty. I have plenty of 38spl's loaded on hand and my cost is about the same, maybe a bit less. Brass is a moot point for either one and some of my .38S&W have been loaded over ten times a box. 38spl, even more so. Last brass I acquired was a case of once fire Federal brass that was free. Even though nickel, I took'ed I have more firearms that use .38 S&W than I do that use .38spl. Once again- they are NOT interchangeable. The .38 S&W is far from dead around here and I believe elsewhere, which will come to your attention if you search around. Much of the information out there for the 38S&W is, in my opinion not up to snuff- depending on who you talk to.

 

[filmmaster]

actually a 38 special and even a 357 magnum can chamber a 38 smith and wesson cartridge.

two reasons for that.

1. SAAMI upper tolerance limits for the special/magnum chamber are just at the same spec for a sw chamber

2. I dont know if current companies are using correct brass, or just using special brass/38 colt cut to size with a sw head stamp

 

[30-30remchester]

actually a 38 special and even a 357 magnum can chamber a 38 smith and wesson cartridge.

two reasons for that.

1. SAAMI upper tolerance limits for the special/magnum chamber are just at the same spec for a sw chamber

2. I dont know if current companies are using correct brass, or just using special brass/38 colt cut to size with a sw head stamp

Interesting post and information. I am not sure about source of information, so I have to experiment for myself. I even tried the old, boiling water freezes faster than room temperature water story that has been told for decades. This is not accurate. With the above thread I decided to try for myself. My dad had a model 36 S&W that he carried for protection. In 35 years, he never fired it. When he gave it to me it was loaded with 38 S&W ammo. When I explained he had the wrong ammo, we decided to shoot it. The gun he carried on many dangerous roads and situations, would not fire. It wasn't the ammo but the gun that would not work. Brand new model 36 would not fire with any ammo. That is another story all together.
So, for this experiment I grabbed my 38 S&W cartridge collection containing 45 different loads from old black powder to British WW2 fmj to modern offerings from Remington and Winchester.
I then grabbed 3 revolvers. A Colt Detective Special, a model 36 S&W both chambered in 38 Special and a S&W model 13 chambered in 357 Magnum. I tried various 38 S&W ammo in each gun and in different chambers of the different guns. The following results were obtained.

In the Colt Detective Special no 38 S&W load would chamber or even get close to chambering.
In the S&W model 36 several loading would completely chamber and the cylinder close. Not all chambers or all loads would but a fair amount would.
In the S&W model 13 chambered in 357, many of the 38 S&W's would chamber quite easily. Only a handful wouldn't. Also noticed that the chambers were note uniform on either S&W revolvers as some chambers would accept certain rounds while others would not. The Colt was adamant about not chambering any and none were close to chambering.

Limited experiment but might be relevant to this conversation.

 

[Baltimoreed11754]

And then to confuse the issue there’s this poor old Smith. A .38 S&W Victory that was rechambered to .38 spcl. When you fire .38 spcl you can see the step in the longer brass.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

Apples & Oranges! Two different cartridges that are not designed to be interchanged. Don't know where the OP got the idea that they were the same...?

P.S. Whether they can chamber is a different subject that really does not affect the above.