Strange 38 S&W cartridge question

[emmagee1917]

Here I thought full moons were a new idea and that S/W developed the idea of the clips ( half moon ) . They did get a US patient on it , but RCS is right , Webley - Fosbery beat them by a decade or more .
Chris

[RCS]

Chris, You can go back to the early S&W No 3 revolvers for homemade "speed loaders" (not related to the clips)

[Bob S]

That rim is a heck of a lot thicker than any 38 S&W case I own .... and it almost looks like it was turned on a lathe.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Johnny P]

A strange loading of the .38 S&W. No where on the box does it indicate that the cartridge is a .38 S&W, but the picture on the back shows the cartridge, and the case is stamped .38 S&W. Western made a Super Police loading in both the .38 S&W and .38 S&W Special. The 200 grain bullet is slightly longer than the cartridge case.

[Varmintpopper]

http://stevespages.com/page8d.htm

This appears to be a 38-40 Winchester cartridge
Go to the above site and look for 38-40 on the
chart and it will give You the dimensions to
compare Your Cartridge with.

Good Shooting

Lindy

[emmagee1917]

I would guess that with the 200 grain bullet that this would duplicate the British 38/200 loading. This is a much more powerful load and would be the equal of a 38 S/W +P or +P+ today. Kind of like the 38spl hot loading S/W came out with just before the .357 magnum. Althouth the case is the same , the round is not.
Chris

[Johnny P]

The .38 Super Police was only loaded to approximately 625 fps, so not too +P+.

The .38-40 cartridge was much larger than the .38 S&W, firing a .400 bullet.

[John Sukey]

Just a note, on the .44 Winchester and the 44-40. The case is the same, BUT the .44WCF uses a bullet a few thou SMALLER IN DIAMETER. I found that out the hard way. I have a pair of Merwin & Hulbert pocket models. One is chambered in 44.Win and the later one is chambered in 44-40. A .44.40 bullet will NOT chamber in a .44 WCF cylinder.
Ordered a bullet sizing die from Lee to swage .44-40 bullets to .44 Win diameter.

[emmagee1917]

Johnny , the 38 S/W reload is about 1.6-1.8 grs of Win 231 behind a lead bullet of I think of 200 grs ( could be less - going by memory ) . The 38/200 , which is around 640 fps , so about the same as the SP , requires 2.5 to 2.7 grs. in the case to get there. I load 2.7 behind 200 gr .358s ( out of S/W victories and Colts which wear .38 spl size bbls ) and they shoot to point of aim.
My point was that using about half again as much powder does make it too strong to use in your tip-up type US guns.
Chris

[John Sukey]

I wonder if the round is a 38 short Colt instead of a .38 S&W. The round has been long obselete.