During the late 1950’s an early 1960’s, the Army Advanced Marksmanship Unit, (now known as the Army Marksmanship or AMU), at Fort Benning, Georgia used converted Colt 1911 pistols in 38 Special for National Match competitions. There was a concern however with the...

The .38 Automatic dates from the beginning of the 20th Century. It was the first in a line of semi-auto pistols that were designed by John M Browning that were both licensed to and manufactured by Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut....

The 38 Casull was developed by Dick Casull of Freedom Arms around 1963. It is similar to the 38/45 Hard Head and based on the 45 Winchester or 451 Detonics case necked down, thus being able to handle much higher pressures than a standard 45 ACP case.       CAC was by...

This was the designation that Colt gave to the 38 S&W cartridge so that they did not have to stamp the name of their rival on the revolvers they manufactured. Colt had cartridges loaded for them with a flat nosed lead bullet, claiming it provided better stopping...

The 38 Colt Special is the same cartridge as the standard 38 Special cartridge. It was introduced in 1909 at the request from Colt so that they could use it for their handguns without using the S&W of their rival. Colt claimed that the flat nosed bullet provided...

This interesting cartridge was designed by David Dardick, who already started during the late 1940’s with his design, although the patent application for his “Open Chamber Gun” was only filed in 1954 and granted in August of 1958. The gun was designed to be a...

This is the improved, inside lubricated version of the original .38 Colt Navy discussed below. The case is longer than the original to enclose the inside lubricated bullet, but the overall length is basically the same as the Navy version. The US Ordnance Office...

The 38 Long (Caliber .38 Revolver, Ball) was developed in 1875 by Colt and is essentially a centerfire version of the .38 Long rimfire, originally developed by UMC in late 1873 or early 1874 for the Navy to use in their Colt M 1851 and 1861 revolvers that were...

Joseph Merwin has been involved in the firearm business since 1856 when he formed a company called Merwin & Bray although the company did not survive the Civil War and by 1868 he formed a partnership with William and Milan Hulbert who at that stage owned a 50%...

The long-cased version of the 38 Short Colt dates from around 1874. It is for all intents and purposes a copy of the British 380 Short Revolver. It was intended for metallic cartridge conversions of the old Colt 1851 Navy cap-and-ball Revolvers. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref....

This is the shorter cased version of the original 38 Short Colt (long case). It is interchangeable with the longer cased version shown above. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 363)              

-Work in progress updated 22-07-01- The 38 Smith and Wesson has enjoyed a long and colourful history since its introduction in 1877. It was developed by S&W as a black powder cartridge for the S&W Baby Russian Single Action Revolver, a scaled-up version of the...

The 38 S&W Long was only listed the Fiocchi and 1911 Alfa catalogues under the “Special Revolver Cartridges” the case length is between the standard 38 Special and the 38 Long Colt and might have been some compromise for weaker frame revolvers. (Erlmeier, Brandt...

During the early 1850’s the designation used for the revolvers in service was the 100-bore, or .36 cal. Colt percussion revolver, as used by the then Republic of Texas navy. The designation remained popular in the post-Civil War era with the Model 1851 Colt Navy...

The 38 Super is a higher velocity loading of the 38 Auto (ACP) and was introduced during the late 1920’s, about 27 years after the introduction of the 9mm Luger. During the early years and up to the end of WW2, the 9mm Luger was not well known in the US. It was only...

The 38 Super Comp story started in 1900 when John M. Browning developed the semi-rimmed .38 Auto or 38 ACP for his original design Colt pistol, that would become the prototype for the M1911 adopted by the US Ordnance Department for the 45 ACP. After Browning’s death...

Originally designed by Speer as a cheap alternative practice cartridge. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 371)                      The Termos-Plasticos headstamp is by Talset Comercio,...

This is basically the same as the 9mm/38 Super Competition but with a deeper extractor groove. It was named after Todd Jarrett, one-time IPSC World Champion.   

Experimental cartridge by Paul van Hee that were made for him in Spain, but the maker is not known. This is the 9 mm /.45 Long case version – the cartridge having the basic case dimensions of the .45 Auto cartridge, but with a longer, thicker case (case length 0.95"...

The 38-44 S&W was developed by Ira Albert Paine (1837 – 1889) in 1886 for a S&W Single Action No.3 Target Revolver. Together with the 32-44 S&W, these were low recoil target revolvers. Paine was a very good shot with a variety of weapons and performed all...

The 38-44 Special was simply a more powerful loading of the .38 Special which was an intermediate step prior to the introduction of the still more powerful .357 Magnum. The inability of conventional police service revolver ammunition to reliably penetrate automobiles...

The 38-45 Auto was designed by Bo Clerke of the Armory gun shop, Burbank, CA and was first announced publicly in the October 1963 issue of Guns and Ammo magazine in an article by Howard French. The 45-38 Auto is based on a .45 ACP case necked down to accept standard...

The 38-45 Hard Head is nothing more than the 45-38 Clerke in a different dress. Whereas the 45-38 Clerke is based on the .45 ACP necked down to 38 caliber, the 38-45 Hard Head is the same thing but instead of using the standard 45 ACP case with its 19,900 CUP pressure...