.38 Special

The .38 Special was designed and entered production in 1898 as an improvement over the .38 Long Colt which, as a military service cartridge, was found to have inadequate stopping power against the charges of Filipino Muslim warriors during the Philippine–American War. Upon its introduction, the .38 Special was originally loaded with black powder, but the cartridge's popularity caused manufacturers to offer smokeless powder loadings within a year of its introduction. Despite its name, the caliber of the .38 Special cartridge is actually .357 inches (36 caliber/9.07 mm), with the ".38" referring to the approximate diameter of the loaded brass case. This came about because the original 38-caliber cartridge, the .38 Short Colt, was designed for use in converted .36-caliber cap-and-ball Navy revolvers, which had untapered cylindrical firing chambers of approximately diameter that required heeled bullets, the exposed portion of which was the same diameter as the cartridge case. Except for case length, the .38 Special is identical to the .38 Short Colt, .38 Long Colt, and .357 Magnum. This nearly identical nature of the three rounds allows a .38 Special round to be safely fired in revolvers chambered for .357 Magnum. It also allows .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt rounds to be safely fired in revolvers chambered for .38 Special. Thus, the .38 Special round and revolvers chambered for it have a unique versatility. However, the longer and more powerful .357 Magnum cartridge will usually not chamber and fire in weapons rated specifically for .38 Special (e.g., all versions of the Smith & Wesson Model 10), which are not designed to handle the greatly increased pressure of magnum rounds. Both .38 Special and .357 Magnum will chamber in Colt New Army revolvers in .38 Long Colt due to their straight-walled chambers, but this should not be done under any circumstances, due to dangerous pressure levels up to three times what the New Army is designed to withstand. == History ==

The .38 Special was designed and produced in 1898 as a higher-velocity round with better penetration than the .38 Long Colt, which was in government service in the Philippines during the Spanish–American War. The .38 Long Colt revolver round would not penetrate the shields of the insurgent Philippine Moro warriors, and the government contracted with Smith & Wesson for a new revolver round. The .38 Special held a minimum of 21 grains of black powder, 3 grains more than the then-current .38 Long Colt, and muzzle velocity (with a 158 grain bullet) was 100–150 feet per second greater. In the late 1920s, in response to demands for a more effective law-enforcement cartridge, a new standard-velocity load for the .38 Special was developed by Western Cartridge Company. This .38 Special variant, which incorporated a round-nosed lead 'Lubaloy' bullet, was named the .38 Super Police. Remington-Peters also introduced a similar loading. Testing revealed that the longer, heavier .357-calibre bullet, fired at low velocity, tended to 'keyhole' or tumble upon impact, providing greater shock effect against unprotected personnel. At the same time, authorities in Great Britain, who had decided to adopt the .38 caliber revolver as a replacement for their existing .455 service cartridge, also tested the same bullet in the smaller .38 S&W cartridge. This cartridge was called the .38 S&W Super Police or the 38/200. Britain later adopted the 38/200 as its standard military handgun cartridge. round In 1930, Smith & Wesson introduced a large-frame .38 Special revolver with a 5-inch barrel and fixed sights, intended for police use: the Smith & Wesson 38/44 Heavy Duty. The following year, a new high-power loading called the .38 Special Hi-Speed with a metal-tip bullet was developed for these revolvers in response to requests from law enforcement agencies for a handgun bullet that could penetrate auto bodies and body armor. That same year, Colt Firearms announced that their Colt Official Police would also handle 'high-speed' .38 Special loadings. The 38/44 high-speed cartridge came in three bullet weights: , , and , with either coated lead or steel jacket, metal-piercing bullets. The media attention gathered by the 38/44 and its ammunition eventually led Smith & Wesson to develop a completely new cartridge with a longer case length in 1934. This was the .357 Magnum. During World War II, some U.S. aircrew (primarily Navy and Marine Corps) were issued .38 Special S&W Victory revolvers as sidearms for use in the event of a forced landing. In May 1943, a new .38 Special cartridge with a , full-steel-jacketed, copper flash-coated bullet meeting the requirements of the Hague Convention was developed at Springfield Armory and adopted for the Smith & Wesson revolvers. The new military .38 Special loading propelled its bullet at a standard from a revolver barrel. This ammunition was intended to prolong the life of S&W M12 and Colt Aircrewman revolvers equipped with aluminum cylinders and frames, which were prone to stress fractures when fired with standard 38 Special ammunition. By 1961, a slightly revised M41 38-caliber cartridge specification, known as the Cartridge, Caliber 38 Ball, Special, M41, had been adopted for U.S. armed forces using 38 Special-caliber handguns. The M41 ball cartridge was first used in .38 Special revolvers carried by USAF aircrew and Strategic Air Command security police, and by 1961 was in use by the U.S. Army for security police, dog handlers, and other personnel equipped with 38 Special caliber revolvers. The FBI Load combined a more powerful powder charge with a 158-grain unjacketed soft lead semi-wadcutter hollow-point bullet designed to readily expand at typical .38 Special velocities obtained in revolvers commonly used by law enforcement. The FBI Load was later adopted by the Chicago Police Department and numerous other law enforcement agencies. +P+ ammunition is intended for heavier-duty .38 Special and .357 Magnum revolvers, as the increased pressure levels can result in accelerated wear and significant damage to firearms rated for lower-pressure .38 Special loadings (as with all .38 Special loadings, the .38 Special +P+ can also be fired safely in .357 Magnum revolvers). == Performance ==

loaded cartridges and a hollow-base wadcutter bullet, used for target shooting Due to its black-powder heritage, the .38 Special is a low-pressure cartridge, one of the lowest in common use today at 17,000 psi. By modern standards, the .38 Special fires a medium-sized bullet at rather low speeds. In the case of target loads, a bullet is propelled to only . The closest comparisons are the 380 ACP, which fires much lighter bullets slightly faster than most .38 Special loads; the 9×19mm Parabellum, which fires a somewhat lighter bullet significantly faster; and the .38 Super, which fires a comparable bullet considerably faster. All of these cartridges are usually found in semi-automatic pistols. The higher-pressure .38 Special +P loads at 20,000 psi offer about 20% more muzzle energy than standard-pressure loads, which places them between the .380 ACP and the 9mm Parabellum; similar to that of the 9×18mm Makarov. A few specialty manufacturers' +P loads for this cartridge can attain even higher energies than that, especially when fired from longer barrels, producing energies in the range of the 9mm Parabellum. These loads are generally not recommended for older revolvers or ones not specifically "+P" rated. All of the above specifications for 38 loadings, and the .357 Magnum, are applicable when fired from a barreled revolver. The velocity is reduced when using barreled guns. Power (muzzle energy) will, of course, decrease accordingly. Although only a few US police departments now issue or authorize use of the .38 Special revolver as a standard-duty weapon, the caliber remains popular with some police officers for use in short-barreled revolvers carried when off duty or for undercover police investigations. It is also widely used in revolvers purchased for civilian home defense or for concealed carry. == See also ==