Can I shoot .38 Short Colt in a .38 S&W CHAMBERED revolver?

[TruthTellers]

First off I'm talking about the cartridge called .38 S&W, not a .38 Special S&W revolver. They are two different things, feel free to look them up.

Okay now that that's taken care of, I've been having this odd desire to own a .38 S&W top break revolver because top breaks are cool and .38 is the biggest caliber I can get a DA top break revolver in if we exclude the .455 Webley.

Thing is, I have a .38 Spec revolver and I wouldn't mind shooting .38 Short Colt in it from time to time, so I figure if I'm going to reload for .38 S&W or .38 Short Colt I may as well only do it for Short Colt if they will work in a .38 S&W revolver.

I've read that .38 S&W revolvers the US sold to the UK during WW2 were brought back after the war and sold in stores. Quite a few of them had the cylinders bored to chamber the longer .38 Special, which was rapidly increasing in popularity, but there are some differences between the two cases; the .38 S&W is ever so slightly larger in diameter than the .38 Special. This can lead to budged cases and tough extraction.

Since the .38 Short Colt is lower pressure, does anyone here think they'll have similar issues? Might this be worth making some sort of "sleeve" I could put over the .38 Short Colt cases to add metal and help prevent bulging?

 

[1919FAN]

38 special can shoot 38 Colt. 38S&W can only shoot 38S&W period doing otherwise would be unsafe.

 

[chuckster]

First off I'm talking about the cartridge called .38 S&W, not a .38 Special S&W revolver. They are two different things, feel free to look them up.

Okay now that that's taken care of, I've been having this odd desire to own a .38 S&W top break revolver because top breaks are cool and .38 is the biggest caliber I can get a DA top break revolver in if we exclude the .455 Webley.

Thing is, I have a .38 Spec revolver and I wouldn't mind shooting .38 Short Colt in it from time to time, so I figure if I'm going to reload for .38 S&W or .38 Short Colt I may as well only do it for Short Colt if they will work in a .38 S&W revolver.

I've read that .38 S&W revolvers the US sold to the UK during WW2 were brought back after the war and sold in stores. Quite a few of them had the cylinders bored to chamber the longer .38 Special, which was rapidly increasing in popularity, but there are some differences between the two cases; the .38 S&W is ever so slightly larger in diameter than the .38 Special. This can lead to budged cases and tough extraction.

Since the .38 Short Colt is lower pressure, does anyone here think they'll have similar issues? Might this be worth making some sort of "sleeve" I could put over the .38 Short Colt cases to add metal and help prevent bulging?

You might get more answers in the reloading section.

 

[weehooker]

Some will argue you shouldn't shoot LC from a 38 special revolver due to pressure concerns. (Particularly and older/pre-+P model). Competition shooters do shoot them out of 357 chambered revolvers all the time as they load better in moon clips.