38 Short Colt Centerfire... What guns shoot it?

[1858remington]

Most of the time when a gun says it shoots 38 short centerfire its talking about the 38S&W round. I'm interested in the 38 Short Colt, the baby brother to the 38 Long Colt, 38 Special and 357 magnum.

I recently bought a gun in 38 Short Colt. It's a neat little double action 5 shot and I haven't been able to determine who made the gun. I believe it was made overseas around the late 1800's to early 1900's.

Loading it was easy. 9mm dies and a 38 special shell holder. 2grs trailboss powder and 95gr .357diameter 380 bullets. Brass was from Starline brass.


Information on this round seems scarce, and guns specifically made for the caliber even harder to find.:banghead:

My question is, what other revolvers were made for, and shot this round?

 

[Japle]

Any gun that's chambered for the .38 Special or .357 Mag will handle .38 Short Colt. I use them in my S&W 327PC for steel shooting.



If you're going to use 9mm dies, switch out the sizer die for a .38/.357 die. Otherwise, you don't have to change anything unless you want to change the seating depth. I use Berry's 125 gr HP, so I leave the seating depth the same as my 9mm loads. The taper crimp die works fine, too.

ETA: My load is the 125 gr Berry's HP over 3.6 gr of TiteGroup in Starline brass. Velocity is 775 FPS and the Standard Deviation is 9. It's a nice load.

 

[1858remington]

I was looking for information on older guns chambered for the 38 short colt cartridge.

The only problem I see with shooting them in a 38/357 revolver is the long jump to the forcing cone. Doesn't this have an effect on the accuracy?

 

[Japle]

The only problem I see with shooting them in a 38/357 revolver is the long jump to the forcing cone. Doesn't this have an effect on the accuracy?

Not enough to notice. There are lots of shooters using the SC in steel competition. Pinpoint accuracy isn't needed, but the rounds still have to go where the sights point.

 

[dscampbell]

Pinkerton detective agency issued a good number of police positive revolvers chambered in this caliber. I carried one in San Francisco working a side job for them in the mid 1970s.

 

[Old Fuff]

Pinkerton detective agency issued a good number of police positive revolvers chambered in this caliber. I carried one in San Francisco working a side job for them in the mid 1970s.

No, those Colt Police Positive revolvers were chambered in .38 Colt New Police, which is identical to the .38 S&W cartridge. Both are interchangeable with each other. The reason for the Colt version is because they didn't want to stamp anything on their revolvers that had any association with "that company down in Springfield, MA."

The .38 Colt New Police/.38 S&W cartridges are larger in diameter then the .38 Short Colt, which was originally used in some early solid-frame pocket revolvers made by Colt during the 1870's, as well as some Cap & Ball to metallic cartridge conversions made during the same period.

The .38 Short Colt was also popular as a mild loading that could be fired in any revolver chambered in .38 Long Colt, which during the late 1800's and early 1900's was the official U.S. Military handgun service cartridge.

 

[dscampbell]

Thanks for catching my error. I guess the memory is the second to go.