Nobody told me about the 38 Super.

B

Brutus

New member
Been shooting for 50 years but never had any exposure to the Super.
Got a good deal on a Dan Wesson PM-38 just because I needed another 1911.
Wow didn't know what I was missing, been into it for a little over 2 years now and have fallen in love with it. Getting an honest 1400 fps. with a Hornady 124gr, XTP and it's a real tack driver. Liked it so much I bought a commander size aluminum frame Guardian which has become my primary CCW.:)
 
The 38 Super is such a fine caliber for a 1911…..so much fun to shoot. I especially appreciate the strong report and flame from the barrel. It’s one of those calibers that you simply need to reload in order to save $’s and to get the most in performance.
 
If you think .38 Super is something, then just wait until you hear about .45 Super!

Same concept, only with the .45 ACP cartridge.
 
I always thought the 38 Super was highly underrated, partly due to it's name and partly due to very early guns earning a notoriety for inaccuracy due to the way they headspaced, IIRC. Someday when I am all caught up with life I am gonna get one.
 
I have heard if it many times. Never had a chance to see or shoot one in person. Always though it was one of the cult follow cartridges like the 10mm
 
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The .38 Super is a neat cartridge, one mostly overlooked by US shooters for a long time.

It was not originally called the .38 Super. It was the .38 ACP cartridge with a new, high pressure loading, offered about 1929, in the Colt Govt Model and the gun was called the "Super". Eventually the name "super" name became connected with the cartridge and its been the .38 Super, ever since.

Original specs were a 130gr FMJ at 1275-1300fps (5" barrel)which was impressive considering that at the time, standard 9mm Luger was a 115gr at 1150fps or a 124gr at 1050fps (4" barrel).

The parent case the .38 ACP was one of Browning's designs, and like his other designs that predate the .45ACP they feature the "semi rim" design. Guns using the small rim for headspacing were not "inaccurate" they gave decent service grade accuracy. What was discovered many years later (I think in the 60s) by some custom pistol barrel makers that chambering the barrel to headspace on the case mouth gave better accuracy than using the small rim, and I think that the usual standard today.

The .38 Super is dimensionally identical with the older, lower pressure .38ACP and should NEVER be fired in a .38 ACP pistol.

In the late 70s going into the 80s and a bit beyond the people shooting combat type matches discovered that a hot loaded .38 Super would make "major" power levels and provide a bit lower recoil and a slightly higher round capacity than the .45ACP, something which gave them an advantage in their games.

The down side was that they also learned about "Super Face", where a hot loaded .38 Super case could blow out (where the chamber feed relief cut didn't support the brass) resulting in getting gas and brass in your face. Custom chambers better supporting the case solved that problem.

.38 Super has always been popular south of the border, because many latin American and South American countries prohibited pistols in "military calibers" so 9mm and .45acp were out, but .38 Super was legal.
 
Someday, I want to get a Les Baer Monolith Heavyweight in a .38 Super. He's done his homework on making his 1911 variants complement the .38Super.
 
The Colt "Super 38" was introduced in 1929. It was chambered for the 38 Automatic, and Colt's catalog at the time listed the performance as a 130 grain bullet at 1190-1200 fps.
Douglas Sheldon notes in his 1997 book, "Colt's Super .38, The Production History From 1929 Through 1971," that, "Contrary to popular belief, the cartridge ballistics were not changed in 1929 for the new model [Colt Super .38 pistol]…”

“The initial specifications in the year 1900 called for a velocity of 1260 feet per second with the Model 1900’s six inch barrel. Up until the introduction of the Super .38 Model, the velocity listed by cartridge manufacturers varied from time to time between approximately 1160 and 1280 feet per second.”

Remington upped the speed to 1300 fps in 1932-1933. I have a 1935 Remington-DuPont ammo catalog that shows the 38 Super Automatic pistol cartridge as a 130 grain bullet at 1300 fps from a 5" barrel. That same catalog shows a 9mm Luger load as a 124 grain bullet at 1210 fps from a 4" barrel.

Sheldon, Douglas G. 1997. Colt's Super .38, The Production History From 1929 Through 1971. Quick Vend, Inc. Willernie, MN.
 
I've only used mine as a game gun, running 130 grain bullets at 1000fps, but loaded some 147 JHPs to what I think will be about 1225, and just need to get the chrono to the range.
 
I don’t know how old you are Brutus, but reading articles about forays south of the border by Skeeter Skelton, back in the 70’s, caused me to plunk down money on the first Colt 38 Super I saw for sale.
 
I just picked up a Colt Competition 1911 in .38 Super this afternoon. It is my first pistol in this caliber and I look forward to trying it out.
 
Just can't get over how accurate and pleasant this cartridge is to shoot.
My favorite target load is a 115gr. Hap with a dose of Titegroup that clocks out at 1200fps and actually makes me look good. :rolleyes:
 
When I first started shooting USPSA in 2001, 38 super was the darling of Open
division. Regular Super and the rimless variants such as Super-comp ruled the
race gun world.
Over the last 20 years it has been almost completely replaced in Open by guns
shooting Major 9. I believe the largest factor driving the switch is the price of
brass. Most major matches have become "lost brass" matches, and Super brass
is expensive compared to 9mm.
 
Yup, brass.
A buddy builds race guns in the Seattle area, and he said, a couple of years ago, that he hadn't built a Super in ten years.
Another buddy, who was shooting in the Super Face era, said they were driving 124gr bullets at over 1500fps.
 
I've been shooting and reloading the Super since the '70s. I've had mostly Colts, but Kimbers and STI also. Just a fun and easy cartridge to reload. I've used several powders, but have settled on AA-9 for the warmest loads. If I ever run across any of the VV-N105 locally, I definitely want to try some of that too. With the AA-9 I've been using, 1450+ FPS with 124/125 grain bullets, and 1250+ FPS with various 147 grain bullets was easily achieved. Current Supers, even Colt, have better supported chambers, and brass is thicker in the case head area than that I used back in the '70s through at least the mid '80s. With the first couple of Colts I had, with poor chamber support, and using the thin brass available at the time, I did experience bulged cases, and flattened and pierced primers. I've mostly used the Starline Super Comp cases for years now, but also 38S, .38TJ and 9X23 Win. cases. My guns function reliably with any of them. I converted a couple Colt and Kimber Supers to 9mm also. Most factory 38 Super ballistics now days are a little better than standard 9mm, but not much. If a shooter wants to shoot .38 Super loaded to 9mm levels, might as well just shoot 9mm IMHO.

FWIW, I have used factory 9X23 Winchester, and reloaded for it too. Kind of lost interest in the 9X23 after seeing how easy it was to duplicate 9X23 ballistics with the regular .38 Super, using quality brass in well supported chambers.
 
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