chris downs
New member
Loading .38 special I find this cartridge. I found it when I was crimping and felt nothing on the upstroke. The short case is a .38 Long Colt.
Found While Loading .38 Special
- Thread starter chris downs
- Start date
Loading .38 special I find this cartridge. I found it when I was crimping and felt nothing on the upstroke. The short case is a .38 Long Colt.
chris downs
New member
chris downs
New member
Obviously. I bought 1000 used cases and ran them thru a case gauge after resizing (caught a couple of 357 mag cases that way). But I had never even seen a .38 long colt!
What kind of gauge?
Might just be my personal OCD but when I buy a bunch of bulk brass, I look at each and every one, before loading, (usually when filling the ammo boxes) looking for are they all the same headstamp? and any other differences.
Have found the occasional .44Mag case mixed in with .45 Colt brass.
A lot of the "once fired" brass is range pick up, (often just swept up) and often loaded into bags by weight, not precise hand count. The better guys will fill the bag by scale weight, and then toss in two or three more cases, just to be sure.
Might just be my personal OCD but when I buy a bunch of bulk brass, I look at each and every one, before loading, (usually when filling the ammo boxes) looking for are they all the same headstamp? and any other differences.
Have found the occasional .44Mag case mixed in with .45 Colt brass.
A lot of the "once fired" brass is range pick up, (often just swept up) and often loaded into bags by weight, not precise hand count. The better guys will fill the bag by scale weight, and then toss in two or three more cases, just to be sure.
chris downs
New member
Hornady case gauge. The .38 long colt drops in perfect into the gauge.
Crunchy Frog
New member
The .38 Colt (later known as .38 Short Colt after a longer version was developed) is, in a way, the parent cartridge of the .38 Special. It was developed for use in early cartridge conversions of .36 caliber percussion revolvers and was topped with a heeled outside lubricated bullet. Think of a scaled up .22 Short and you have the idea.
.38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt cartridges can be fired in .38 Special revolvers. Some cowboy action shooters who load “Frontier Cartridge” (ammo charged with black powder or a black powder sub) like the shorter case which makes for a more manageable pistol load when filled to capacity.
.38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt cartridges can be fired in .38 Special revolvers. Some cowboy action shooters who load “Frontier Cartridge” (ammo charged with black powder or a black powder sub) like the shorter case which makes for a more manageable pistol load when filled to capacity.
I don't use that gauge, I am not really familiar with it. Is it for .38 Special? If the .38 long Colt drops in perfectly, what does a .357 case do??
Is it, possibly only checking the rim (for proper headspace) and not the case length?? OR, Might it show a too long case, but not a too short one, since revolvers generally don't care much about cases that are short but do care about ones that are too long?
chris downs
New member
Too long a case and the top of the case head sticks out the top when the case mouth engages the bottom of the case. It cannot find a short case that has the same case diameter and same rim geometry.
I suspected as much. I use my calipers instead of dedicated case gauges, for that very reason. Also, I already have them, and they do every caliber eqully well.
I just set the caliper jaws for the length I'm looking for (max length or trim to length, etc) and then pass the brass through the jaws. Too long is obvious, and so is too short. Just right barely fits, too long won't fit at all and too short slips through with excessive "slop".
No, you're not the only one....
