Tonight I bought a small box of mixed 38 S&W ammo, mostly to get the cases. Everything was going normally until I started shooting a batch of old Western ammo. This stuff has nickle plated cases and copper washed bullets, must be some of the old Super Police loads. Sound and recoil wise it felt a lot like the on British WW2 loads. I still have some of the FN made 173gn and that's what it reminded me of.
Not all 38 S&W is created equal
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Alk8944
US Veteran
The copper wash was called "Luballoy" and was supposed to help prevent leading. Yeah, sure!
If the bullets look like the standard tapered round nose then that is what they are. The "Super-Police" has a bullet which has cylindrical sides and a nearly hemi-spherical nose.
And the British .38-200, really had a 160 grain bullet by the time they standardized the cartridge.
Texas Star
US Veteran
The .38/200 was loaded with lead 200 grain bullets until 1938, when German protests per the Hague Accords caused them to jacket the bullet. At that time, the weight was decreased to 178 grains. It was never loaded with a 160 grain bullet.
The .38 Enfield was adopted in 1927, and examples to at least 1930 are known. I saw a movie about British officers in India in 1937, and they already had the .38, with the webbing holsters. I believe that most regular troops (who were armed with revolvers) going to France in 1939-1940 wore the .38's. Photos that I've seen support that. Only Reserve and rear line units and colonial troops seem to have still relied principally on the.455.
However, naval and Royal Marine units may well have had a lor of .455's. They seem to have been pretty far down the totem pole for new handguns. That's probably because they were less likely to need them in battle.
Standardization was less needed for them, too, and they were the only ones to regularly receive the Lanchester SMG, when land forces were getting Thompsons. The Royal Navy also still issued some .455 automatics well into or after, WW II. (RAF .455 Colts in WW II went mainly to Coastal Command, for use by flying boat crews. That helped to standardize the ammo situation.)
T-Star
