.38 S+W Top Break H+R Danger

[C.R.Sam]

This afternoon I was looking at a very nice top break five shot .38 S+W H+R, nickle plate in excellent cond, timing good; all in all looked like a shooter. Person who had just acquired it had no knowledge of the difference tween 38 S+W and .38 special. Just for drill I looked in the cylinder and didn't see any step. Dropped a +P .38 special round in it with no problem at all. Then checked with .357 round, the cylinder was long enough to take .357 wadcutters if they were seated deep. Could be a messy accident waiting to happen. Hopefully we gave the owner an education.

I have only looked at a few of the old .38 S+W chambered revolvers and this was the first one that I noticed with through bored cylinder. There probably are others out there owned by people who think a .38 is a .38.

Sam I am, grn egs n packin.

 

[radom]

There are also some .380 mark II(.38 S&W) victory models that where converted to the special by the importers. They replaced the barrels to a proper dia special marked factory barrel and just lengthend the chambers.My brother has one and I noticed that 3 chambers will take a 158gr .357 round. Make me a bit shakey as I was shooting a model 28 with the hot N frame type loads. Could have been the first model 10 to reach Mars.

 

[fastforty]

The .40 S&W will easily chamber a .357 Sig. No telling what would happen since there really wouldn't be much pressure retention, but I'd bet it wouldn't be pretty.