vanfunk
Member
Hello all:
I recently acquired a Colt New Army (commercial model) in .38 Long Colt. The gun is mechanically sound, and the finish (including fire blued screws) is about 90%. Like many of these, the chambers are bored straight through. While the conventional wisdom is to shoot only .38 Long or Short Colt through these, a comparison of Long Colt vs standard velocity .38 Specials yields little difference:
.38 Long Colt: 150 grain bullet at 770 fps
.38 Special: 158 grain bullet at 755 fps
The web is full of admonitions NOT to shoot .38 Specials through these old Colts, but nowhere has it been explained to me exactly WHY. Can anyone share some info here? There wouldn't seem to be a hair's difference between these standard loads. What am I missing?
By the way, the action on this revolver, while extremely smooth, is quite heavy - prolly on the order of 16 lbs double action and 8-9 lbs single action. Other than giving the internals a good cleaning and lube, is there an easy way to lighten the trigger pull? The revolver is 110 years old, so I don't want to do much to it, but it would be nice if there's an easy, minimally invasive fix for the heavy trigger.
Thanks!
vanfunk
I recently acquired a Colt New Army (commercial model) in .38 Long Colt. The gun is mechanically sound, and the finish (including fire blued screws) is about 90%. Like many of these, the chambers are bored straight through. While the conventional wisdom is to shoot only .38 Long or Short Colt through these, a comparison of Long Colt vs standard velocity .38 Specials yields little difference:
.38 Long Colt: 150 grain bullet at 770 fps
.38 Special: 158 grain bullet at 755 fps
The web is full of admonitions NOT to shoot .38 Specials through these old Colts, but nowhere has it been explained to me exactly WHY. Can anyone share some info here? There wouldn't seem to be a hair's difference between these standard loads. What am I missing?
By the way, the action on this revolver, while extremely smooth, is quite heavy - prolly on the order of 16 lbs double action and 8-9 lbs single action. Other than giving the internals a good cleaning and lube, is there an easy way to lighten the trigger pull? The revolver is 110 years old, so I don't want to do much to it, but it would be nice if there's an easy, minimally invasive fix for the heavy trigger.
Thanks!
vanfunk