The Only Colt I Can Find is a 38 Super...

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Grapeshot

New member
I was looking all over for a pretty new Colt .45 ACP when I stumbled upon an opportunity to get a Bright Stainless 38 Super Government NIB for what I think is a good price. My question is, is the 38 Super worth the trouble? Also, are there defense loads for it besides the Cor-bon? Target/CCW/self-defense was my interest in it. Since new Colt 1911's are hard to come by, should I feel lucky to even be able to get a Super, or should I just wait for a Bright Stainless .45? Also, is the Super hard to reload?

Thanks in advance,
Grapeshot
 
The round is capable of GREAT accuracy. Not all Colts are. That is why so many can make a wonderful living from working on them. It is a powerful round and an old round. It is very popular in Mexico, Central America and parts of Europe where military calibers are illegal to own.

I had a Llama in .38 Super when I was a teen and it was capable enough to always get me head shots on squirels (when I did my job).

You can always find ammo for it all over the world; this availability is why you will see a lot of "special agents" using the .38 Super or the .380 as they are both universally available -- even if there are not many different kinds of ammo.

Try it first if you can. If not, like any Colt; buy it and send it away to get fixed. I think you'll find it to be a fine choice. AND you will find it to be a conversation starter more often than not with people of "international experience".

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Talk is cheap; Free Speech is NOT.
 
With all respect to Jody Hudson who suggests you get the .38 Super and send it off to be "fixed---"

If a good price, I'd say get it and try it out with a variety of loads--Really not too many factory offerings in .38 Super nowadays. The Super got a bad reputation for a long time because of the "semi-rimmed" cartridge. There was just too wide a variance of rim dimensions, and with unreliable head spacing, it was hard to get good accuracy. Some were quite good, and once you found what brass or brand of ammo it liked, you could do pretty well. I couldn't keep my lightweight Commander Super on a pie plate at 25 yards with factory ammo, and only with selected handholds. Enthusiasts found that by getting a Bar-Stow barrel that was specially chambered to have the round headspace on the case mouth, a la the .45 ACP and most others, and by carefully trimming cases, the Super would REALLY shoot. Better still, one could cut down, trim and ream .223 brass and make "Super" strong cases that were truly uniform. I just couldn't afford to spend the price for a Bar-Stow barrel, and swapped off my pistol.

Later on, Colt began cutting the chambers differently on the factory barrels, and they worked FAR better. A Super in bright stainless would be one of these later guns. I'd like to have one to fool with, but I don't have time to tinker with the projects I have on the shelf now . . . .

Best of luck.
RR

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---The Second Amendment ensures the rest of the Bill of Rights---

[This message has been edited by Rocky Road (edited August 10, 2000).]
 
Grapeshot-
I had a blued Colt Gov't enhanced 38 Super and I'm sorry I let it go. It was not an exceptional piece in any way- semi-sloppy barrel to slide fit, extractor was a little loose, shot 4" left at 25 yards- but it shot and shot and shot. Never a hang up. The factory loadings for 38 Super, alas, don't do it justice. Even the so-called +P formulations do little better than 9mm +P (130 gr @1250 for 38S vs 124 gr @1200 for 9mm +P). The corbon loads take the Super up to 1350 or so. the 9x23 Winchester is basically a rimless 38 super and is much hotter- 125 gr @1450 or so. Ask Richard Heinie at the gunspot.com forum about setting the 38 Super up for 9x23 Winchester. It is very controllable despite the horsepower, but alas, not very popular. Often all that is needed is a little extractor tuning to fire both rounds (Richard doesn't even recommend a recoil spring swap). If anyone knows anything about 1911's, it's him. The bottom line is, you'll pay more to feed the Super, and equivalent power can be had for less money. There are rounds with a much wider array of bullets and power levels available. However, the round is somewhat historically significant, can be very accurate with low recoil and blast, and has a certain "panache" or "moxie". As does the ol' 1911. Hope this helps!
vanfunk

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semper ubi sub ubi
 
Grapeshot, just this past winter I bought a new bright stainless Colt .38 Super. I will never sell it. If it's offered at a decent price, buy it now. Colt is not long for this world.
 
YEEEHA! I just bought an American classic! I paid $579.00 for it plus shipping, which came to $600 total. Thanks David and everybody else who responded. While I know very little about the 38 Super, what I have found on the Net impressed me, so much so that I think I'll like it BETTER than .45 ACP. Provided I can actually obtain Cor-Bons (115 gr. @ 1450 fps), I believe this gun will be EXCELLENT for self-defense. But I'm probably not fooling anyone, in the end I decided to live recklessly and follow my heart on this one.
The gun should be here tomorrow and I'll post my impressions. I won't have any ammo for a while, but when I get some I'll post the results. David, I too am rather fatalistic about Colt - some people say that when Bush wins, they'll start producing handguns again...but I didn't want to count on it.

Thanks again everyone!
 
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