.38 Smith and wesson

[Bezoar]

Well weve had some good threads on this "obsolete" cartridge that was good enough to use by the chronically underarmed Brits in the world wars.

I know that Smith And Wesson is supposed to have made DA/SA revolvers with swing out cylinders in .38 SW. Who among us has one if they exist?

What kind of problems would be made if a .38 special was bored out to .38 sw aka 38/200?

 

[Old Fuff]

S&W made and cataloged their little I-frame (like a J-frame, but shorter) starting in 1917 as the Regulation Poice model. They had a 5-shot cylinder chambered in .38 S&W or a .32 S&W Long as a 6-shot.

The K-frame Military & Police was originally made exclusively for the U.K. and Empire. Lot's of past threads on those.

Don't rechamber a .38-200 (.38 Smith & Wesson) to a .38 Special Same way the other way around. It will only ruin the revoler.

 

[Sunray]

The Brits opted for the .38 S&W instead of the .455. It wasn't a case of being 'under armed'(they were barely armed at all after all the budget cuts). The 200 grain bullet was to add some punch.
"...What kind of problems..." The cylinders would be far too long. The S&W case length is 380 thou shorter than a Special. You'd have no end of lube fouling issues in the cylinders.
However, Smith & Wesson did make their Victory model in .38 S&W specifically for the Brits.