OT - What are all the names 38 S&W go by

[rjohns94]

I believe a few are:

38 short colt
38 colt new police
38 super police
38/200

am I correct in this?

Looking at a S&W new model in this caliber and the 38 short colt ammo sitting on the shelf that fits this pistol chambers.

[Terry Murbach]

NO. THAT LIST IS SLIGHTLY INCORRECT, SIR.

[Hobie]

I believe a few are:

38 short colt
38 colt new police
38 super police
38/200

am I correct in this?

Looking at a S&W new model in this caliber and the 38 short colt ammo sitting on the shelf that fits this pistol chambers.

IIRC it would be

.38 Colt New Police
.38/200 or .380/200 (also loaded with a 175 gr. TC bullet)
.380 Rimmed
and of course, .38 S&W (no short so far as I know)

The .38 cartridges are easy to confuse. The .38 Short Colt is not the S&W. The Colt cartridges are a separate line from the S&W with the S&W having fatter cases for internally lubed bullets earlier on (due to Russian influence I think, as in the .44 Russian cartridge). The .38 S&W has a slightly larger diameter bullet than the Colt. In fact, the Colt case used heeled bullets and when they switched to internally lubed we likewise switched to smaller .357" bores... This is why the .38s are really (now) .357s.

The .32 case race was "won" by S&W being developed from the .32 S&W (the short case) to the .32 S&W Long, to the .32 H&R and then the .327 Federal. The .32 Colt New Police is simply the .32 S&W Long with a flat tip on the bullet.

However the .38 case race went to Colt with the .38 Colt (now Short), .38 Colt Long, .38 S&W Special (ironic, huh?), .357 Magnum, .360 Dan Wesson and .357 Maximum. Interestingly, IIRC, the short cartridge was used primarily in the 1887 guns but the Long was introduced in 1875.

While the .38 S&W case wasn't further developed it was widely distributed with names as above. The .380 Short & Long revolver cartridge is different using a heeled bullet and was the the case from which the .38 COLT was developed. I've seen cartridge labels simply marked "380 MK IV" (IIRC it was "IV" but I'm not certain, might have been "VI" ).

[Ysabel Kid]

IIRC, in a modern loading, the .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt both use .357-caliber projectile. You can almost think of them as a .38 Special-Special-Special and a .38 Special-Special, respectively. This was not the case, of course, with the original chamberings, as these were outside lubricated heeled bullets.