Posted 3 years ago
DizzyDeano96
(55 items)
Smith and Wesson replied to my email and I sent them a couple pictures, I think the alterations and bruising could be from the deactivation process, and the number under the cylinder doesn’t match the number on the butt (v749000) the number under the cylinder is far off it’s 1 116 39 would anyone know why the frame of the gun I guess would have been changed
Military..could've changed worn out parts. Check to see if its(cylinder) been bored for .38 special. That was a popular mod after import, as the .38 s&w round was older ammo
That was my first thought maybe military replaced broken or worn out pieces, how would you know if it’s been bored out, it did come with 3 bullets that seem to fit it pretty good and it says on the back of them .380
The .38 s&w is also referred to as .38 S&w short(so it's not confused with .38 long).
Found this explanation for you...
"A .38 SPL case legth is 1.155" while a .38 S&W is .775" so, if you slide something down the side of the chamber, measure when you feel the ridge. If it's more than 3/4" down, it's SPL cylinder."
Seeing the condition of the gun, I would not fire it.
As for the .380 mystery. This is absolutely the best explanation I could find, written by a firearms historian...
"Very short answer- in US parlance, a “.38” refers actually to a bullet with a NOMINAL .36 inch ( or “caliber”) diameter. The industry standard diameter is 0.357 inch, but diameters may vary by a thousand of an inch or so either way; nominal .38 caliber bullets may range from .355 inch to .358 inch diameter.
This is why “.38 Special “ cartridges fit in a .357 Magnum revolver- the Bullets and cartridge cases are the same diameter. The .357 Magnum was developed by putting more powder into a standard .38 Special; the case was made longer to prevent the MUCH hotter .357 Magnum from fitting into a .38 Special revolver that might be damaged by the greater recoil and substantially higher operating pressure.
As for .380 ? John Browning, who designed the .380 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) cartridge, wanted to make sure people did not confuse his his short, rimless. automatic pistol cartridge for the common long, rimmed .38 caliber revolver cartridges, such as .38 Colt, .38 Short Colt, and .38 Special, even though .380 has an actual bullet diameter of .355-.356 inch. So they tacked a zero on and arrived at “.380”, in spite of the fact, that the .380 ACP, like the revolver is really a “.36?.
Now for the oddball historical reason why all this happened:
Colt produced the first commonly available revolvers; the Navy Model, was sold and imitated around the world. It had a true .36 caliber bore and fired a .36 caliber diameter round ball or a .36 caliber conical Bullet. After the US Civil War, literally hundreds of thousands of nearly New. well made accurate and entirely serviceable cap and ball guns were made obsolete almost overnight by rapid overtaking of the market ( 5 years or less) by the modern style fixed revolver cartridge. Colt made an enormous business of converting these cap and ball guns to shoot fixed cartridges; every Village gunsmith did much the same. To avoid confusion on the market, converted guns were referred to as “. 38’s”, and the cartridges came to be referred to as “.38” cartridges, even though the bores of the guns were still .36 inch and the modern style fixed cartridges fired .36 caliber bullets. They simply referred to them as .38’s to show they fired fixed modern style cartridges. Blame it on the Marketing Department."