.38 Short Colt Revolvers?

38 Long Colt

I have 108 pieces of 38 Long Colt brass. They are all Starline cases from once-fired factory ammo (UltraMax brand).

But I have never attempted to load them. I don't know if 38 Spl dies will work or not (the resize/de-cap will, of course). I kind of assume that if not, 9mm will still work. For seating, I would guess that either a 38 Spl or my 38 SC will work. But . . . I don't know for sure because I've never tried.
 
"Load up some .38 Short's with XTP JHP bullets and you have a good load to keep in a revolver."

Given the limited powder capacity of a .38 Short case, and the short-barreled nature of most of the guns chambered for this round, I'd really question if you could get enough velocity from the round to get an XTP to expand.
 
My interest is different than yours, I load and shoot short colts in my modern 38/357 wheel guns for competition The loads that I have had good results with are published 9mm loads. I use 147/150 grain bullets and 125's. All loads are subsonic from 800 to 1000 FPS. Now I also will use these same rounds to practice with my 649 2 in. and my sp101 2 in and they work great.
 
I have a Hopkins & Allen Police Saftey top brake, 5 shot revolver, chambered in a 38 Short colt. A 38 S&W will chamber up but the bullet protrudes from the chamber and sometimes catches on the forcing cone. I have never shot 38 S&W in it. I have 3 boxes of old Remington factory ammo for it and 1 partial box of Peters 38 New Police ammo that very similar to the Short Colt with the exception that the brass on the New Police is about 1/16 longer. But it does chamber up in the gun with no problems.
It is a very interesting gun, the hammer is notched so it don't rest on the firing pin. When the hammer falls it is on an eccentric and it moves down and changes the arc so it can hit the firing pin. When you let off on the trigger it moves up and disengages the firing pin. I've always felt that it was a unique design for a gun maker back in the early 1900's, which is the patent date on the gun.

They were a economical gun in that day and were known as Saturday Night specials. But it is got quite a few nice features put in it. It's a small pistol and if it was carried in a shoulder holster rig, and with the men's fashion at that time of wearing double breasted tight fitting suits, it would conceal very well.
 
The .38 Colt New Police is not the same as the .38 Short Colt; .38 New Police was Colt's name for the .38 S&W. The two rounds are quite similar and due to manufacturing tolerances of both the guns and ammo, will sometimes interchange in a given revolver.

Jim
 
I have never shot the 38 S&W in my revolver. The cartridge seemed to large for it. I haven't shot the New Police either. Those cartridges are collector stuff. Matter of fact I haven't shot the revolver very much at all, one box of cartridges tops over 40 years. More of a conversation piece.
 
"Are you saying you can shoot .38 Short Colt in a .38 S&W chambered revolver? "

It's possible if the round isn't too long for the cylinder.

The .38 Short Colt will, however, be a loose fit in the chamber and may bulge or even split upon firing.

Not necessary or even intelligent thing to do.
 
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