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Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 4:22 pm
by SA1911a1
I have been gathering in some old top-breaks of late. Some of these are black-powder .38 S&W ammo. .38 S&W BP ammo is twice as expensive as .38 Short Colt BP. I have seen references discussing that the two ammos are close enough to be interchangeable. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Re: Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:12 pm
by Junk Yard Dog
Straight wall case, lead bullet, dies are available, so are molds, reload your own. I never compared the two rounds, I just loaded my own. I have to look into if there is a compatible size round ball for this load, fill the case with powder and thumb press the ball down on top of it, the old Turner Kirkland formula for reloading oddball BP straight wall cases.
Re: Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:10 pm
by entropy
.38 S&W and .38 Colt Short are the same case, dimensionally. Buffalo Arms has the BP .38 S&W rounds, @ $1 a round. Bullet diameter is .361. Hornady round balls are .375, this shop,
https://www.etsy.com/listing/167735041/ ... AtKM8P8HAQ , has .350 dia. round balls. You are better off getting the correct size mould and casting.
Re: Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:13 am
by Junk Yard Dog
Dixie will make you one of their original style molds in any round ball size you request, not expensive, I have a few they made up for me in odd sizes.
Re: Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 1:12 pm
by walnut red
38 Short Colt is slightly smaller diameter than 38 S&W, though sometimes they will interchange due to loose manufacturing tolerances. Usually the Colt will fit in the S&W but not the other way around. Before I bought 38 S&W dies I've loaded 38 S&W using 38 Super dies. The easiest projectile to find that works in 38 S&W is the 148gn hollow base wadcutter. Seat it so the bullet is ALMOST flush with the cylinder mouth, NOT the case mouth. These are usually soft lead and the hollow base expands well. 38 Short Colt is the parent case for 38 S&W Special. So cases are easy to make. If your 38 S&W chambers are a little loose using cut down 38 Special cases will sometimes result in a bulge, though I've never had one split. As an experiment I once cut down some 38 Super cases and loaded them as 38 S&W. They fired fine but were a pain to extract. 38 Super is a tapered semi rimmed case so can work but the cases tended to slip under the extractor.
Re: Question on interchangeably of ammo
Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:01 pm
by capt14k
Lax and Selway has .38 short colt for .50 and .62/round. Ammunition to Go has .32s&w short for .46/round and .38 short colt for .74/round. Hope info is worthwhile. I also have a few old top breaks. Got them as part of package deals but I they are fun to shoot.
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