S&W pistol, unused and very old, requires 380 special ammo. Have searched thoroughly web sellers and google. Can’t get a straight answer that is reproducible.
Is 38 special the same as 380 special? Is 380 acp the same as 380 special? I can find no sellers that list 380 special or 380 spl for purchase. I am happy to substitute when allowed, but don’t want to use the wrong thing.
Ammo expert help, please.
You will need to compare the cartridge and chamber specifications.
The chamber dimensions measured from your gun
will determine what cartridge(s) it is chambered for.
Another source for cartridge specs.
https://www.cip-bobp.org/en/tdcc
Is this a revolver or a auto? Some pics of the gun and markings on it may help.
Chamber measurements are difficult for most people to accurately obtain, so the better approach is to start with figuring out what is the model of the gun? And serial number helps as well because then it is generally possible to date the gun and match it to a known list of cartridges it was chambered in.
The .38s are an especially troublesome group of cartridges because there was just a tangle of various .38 cartridges introduced beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with confusing and often-nearly overlapping names.
For example, there is both a .38 ACP and a .380 ACP and they are NOT interchangeable and, in fact, they aren’t even both .38 caliber.
To add to the confusion, some manufacturers applied their own branding to cartridge names. For example, the .38 S&W was “rebranded” as the Colt .38 New Police because Colt did not want to make a revolver for a cartridge that had their competitor’s name on it.
The bottom line is this is an area where safety dictates that you have to know exactly what you have and what cartridge will safely chamber.
This is a revolver, 5 round capacity, external hammer, sa/da. The barrel says 38 S&W spl. Is this standard 38 special ammo. Is the S&W irrelevant, so that any 38 special will work, but not 38 S&W that is not designated as special?
Doing some online research here is some Info. I found:
Be sure to read the bottom part
The .38 Smith & Wesson is even older than the .38 Special, with the former having been invented in 1877. While it never reached the sheer popularity of the Special, the Smith and Wesson take on a .38 round found important military contracts, especially among the British and their then imperial holdings. While it has fallen out of favor since, the .38 Smith and Wesson was in wide military use in both world wars, as well as the Korean war.
In terms of specifications, the .38 Smith and Wesson shoots a bullet of around 175 grains at somewhere around 700 ft/second, depending on the particular loading. Compared to the Special, the Smith and Wesson is a heavier, slower-moving round that functions on lower pressure. It’s for that reason that they’re not interchangeable.
38 S&W vs 38 Special
The .38 Special and the .38 Smith and Wesson are not interchangeable. The .38 Smith and Wesson is larger in diameter than the .38 Special. That makes it physically impossible to chamber a .38 Smith and Wesson in a .38 Special gun in most cases. An exception to this is in cases of ammo that is out of spec, or if a cylinder is particularly worn in a revolver.
Because it is smaller, you can fit a .38 Special round into a .38 Smith and Wesson Gun. This is, however, a bad idea. If the gun is an auto-loader, it likely won’t function at all. You may be able to fit the smaller round in a revolver, but, in the unlikely case that you can manage to keep the round in place and the round goes off when struck with a firing pin, it will almost certainly rupture the case.
That would cause a lot of hot gas and shrapnel to form, and it has to go somewhere, likely into the shooter. Thus, even if it physically fits, it is in no way a good idea to attempt to interchange these cartridges. With that said, both of them are interesting and certainly have a place in the handgun world.
The barrel says 38 S&W spl.
This is significantly different than your original post. Are the markings worn or difficult to read? Is it REALLY an actual S&W brand pistol, or are you guessing that because of the S&W in the cartridge name?
There are too many different cartridges and old revolvers that carry some flavor of the .38 designation, so this isn’t an easy one to figure out with some exact information. Various flavors of the .38 service pistols were made in the US, Britain, and many ended up in service in the British colonies. Later, many British service pistols came on the surplus market and were converted to other .38 chamberings, so even the markings on the barrel can’t be trusted in some instances.
I’m assuming that you can’t find a model number and/or a serial number on the actual pistol?
IMO this is one to take to a gunsmith, find out exactly what you have, and get a definitive answer on what cartridges may be safe to fire.
Rlee Scott wrote:
The barrel says 38 S&W spl.This is significantly different than your original post. Are the markings worn or difficult to read? Is it REALLY an actual S&W brand pistol, or are you guessing that because of the S&W in the cartridge name?
IMO this is one to take to a gunsmith, find out exactly what you have, and get a definitive answer on what cartridges may be safe to fire.
Could not agree more. Absolutely NOT safe to guess.
My sincere apologies for the confusion I created. This pistol is a 50+yo Smith & Wesson revolver, maybe never fired. 5 shot, ext hammer sa/da. Black metal frame. On the side of the barrel I misread the print. It says:
38 S&W spl, NOT 380. So my question remains, is the correct ammo 38 special? I see no ammo boxes that say spl and no ammo boxes with S&W except for 38 S&W without the spl designation. I understand from reading that 38 S&W is a different cartridge.
Smith and Wesson developed the 38 special. The correct name is the 38 S&W special. They still label their modern guns 38 s&W spl. Most people have shortened the name. Do you have a model number?
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