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When you say "A bit, yes", what is it you are responding to? I don't see me asking you if you have used 200 grain 38 caliber loads. But you have, and that's good - actual first hand experience. May I ask two questions? 1) What did you shoot with it? Something man sized? 2) It sounds like...

Those British Commonwealth countries you mention? They were not using 380/200. They were using 380/178. Why were they using it? It was what they had when WWII ended, so they just stuck with it. Much like the way most European cops kept carrying 32 ACP with FMJ bullets until the 1970's. It...

You ever hear about its use, or its effectiveness? Me neither, until I had been collecting and reading extensively about guns and ammo for a few years. A thing that people hope will work can hang on for a long time, particularly if there is nothing that works any better or (as is the case with...

The 38 Super Police load started out before WWII, as a load for 38 S&W (the short one from the 1870's, not the S&W Special). So it had reduced velocity, reduced speed of rotation, and greater bullet length compared to the standard load, all of which were supposed to make it tumble on impact and...

Once you push the hammer down, you don't have a DA trigger. The gun is still in single action mode then. The first bit of trigger pull then flips the hammer back out to the full cock position against negligible resistance, and what is left is the SA pull. If you want to put the gun in in DA...

I have a post-WWII Walther PP in 7.65mm, a Daewoo DH380, which is a copy of a Walther PP scaled up a little to be an 8 shot pistol in 380, and a Chinese Makarov in 9mm Mak. The Daewoo is oddly unpleasant to shoot, for some reason. It has harsher felt recoil. The Walther is the most pleasant...

If you are going to collect and shoot old military pistols, this book can be helpful...

OK, I thought I was clever in guessing that there were no percussion caps on the nipples of the revolver. Then Legionaire pointed out "Cartridge belt and a cap and ball revolver" and I realized I was a dope.

I think there are people who make good normal grips for the Makarov. But if you like mechanical novelty, there are these guys: https://zahal.org/product/fab-defense-pm-g-makarov-pm-pmm-pistol-grip-magazine-release-mechanism/ They have a lever on the inside of the grip that engages both a tab...

Wow. I am impressed. I NEVER detail strip my guns, because I am reasonably sure I would never get them back together and would end up taking a box of parts to a gunsmith. Particularly post-WWII guns, which often do not seem to be meant to be detail stripped outside a factory or armory. I...

Did you detail strip it, or just field strip? I guess the former, because you don't need to remove the trigger guard to field strip it. But you took a step up at a low cost, because having owned both, I think the Makarov is a better gun in just about every way than the Zastava 70.

Well, no, I wouldn't because I have had a number of S&W revolvers and I have almost always put aftermarket stocks on them. The only exception I can think of is a 3-inch round-butt Model 547. The factory grips on that were fine. But what I mean was these Magnas are different from other Magnas...

What is the story with those grips, anyway? I have a Model 15 from the 1960's (I think) that has diamond Magna's, and they do NOT look like those. Are those pre-WWII Magna type grips, or what? Also, I googled Colt revolver Fitz conversion. It turns out there is a Wikipedia article about it...

I have absolutely no answers to any of your questions. But here is a forum for everything about Smith & Wesson: https://smith-wessonforum.com/ There ought to be people there with the kind of specialized knowledge that your questions require. The internet is a big place, so I would not be...

Is there a book (for the non-technical reader) you could recommend about the evolution of steel, or of iron and steel? I would like to know more about this subject, but the Wikipedia articles tend to go right over my head. I've never been able to grasp what "malleable iron" was, for instance...

Mechanically speaking, the 547's are very interesting guns, because of the unique extractor mechanism, and the equally unique moving standing breech support for the cartridge being fired. But by today's standards, it is too bulky, and in particular, much too heavy for a 6-shot 9mm Para pistol...

I think it is a Colt prototype for a swing out cylinder revolver with simultaneous extraction and ejection. That would probably put it in the 1880's. But asking for a model number shakes my confidence, because a prototype would not have one, in the ordinary sense of a model number. It may...

There are a lot of Sentinels around, although the asking prices are getting higher. I guess that's because they're getting older and age = big price to some sellers. Massad Ayoob speaks highly of them them in his 2010 book "Greatest Handguns of the World", although he points out that as...

The 4 inch is quite pleasant to shoot, even with +P loads. I have only used the factory Police Positive wood grips, which are similar in style to the Detective Special wood grips, but longer. That grip shape fits me well, whereas I have never found an S&W K-frame square butt grip I am really...

There used to be a small business in replacing Agent barrels with Viper barrels, because Vipers were much scarcer than Agents and therefore worth more. A factory letter would show it was a fake, but that is where gun shows came in handy. I'm suprised you could still find a Viper barrel in good...