Can you make 38 .200 brass for Webley out of 38 special?

[sheepdog]

About to get a Webley 38 to play around with. I know these are .361ish insread of 358ish. Ive heard of people shooting 38 special out of these safely though I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Wondering however it I can trim down 38 brass and cast some boolits from the 9mm makarov mold for this little guy. Is this safe? Ideas? Load data?

[ReloaderFred]

It will work to trim .38 Special brass to .775", but not well. The .38 S&W case is nominally .386" in diameter, while the .38 Special case is .379" in diameter. You best bet is to just buy some .38 S&W brass for your new toy. It's available from Remington, Winchester and Starline, to name a few.

It is possible to load the .38 S&W with .38 Super dies, since there is only .002" difference in case diameter and they're both straight walled cases. Of course you will still need a .38 Spl./.357 Mag./.38 S&W shell holder.

Your Makarov bullet should work fine, though a little light, so the sights probably won't be regulated to the lighter bullet. They will shoot, though.

I've got a swaging die that produces a .361" diameter RNFP bullet and I've been bumping up .358" bullets for some friends who shoot .38 S&W Pocket Pistols.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[zxcvbob]

The diameter is not really a problem. After you fire them once, they kind of fireform, sort of (the case web doesn't expand so they look a little funny) The rim thickness is a problem; shortened .38 Specials will drag just enough to keep the cylinder from rotating properly.

Try it and see. Lee .38SW trimmers are cheap. Maybe your Webley has more headspace than mine. I bought some Starline brass and I'm waiting for nice weather to try it out.

[KCSO]

The cut down special brass will bulge at the base and when loaded with a 360+ bullet will look like an anaconda swallowing an antelope. 38 S and W brass is not hard to get and will be just right.

Yes in the old days folks would ream out the chambers of the 38 S and W guns to take 38 special and even 357 magnum. It is not a good idea but that doesn't stop some folks. I had a fellow once buy a box of 357's from me and I asked what 357 he had, he outs with an old 38 victory model that had been rechambered with maybe a drill bit. I said the shells wont fit. His reply was they worked just fine if you cut a little off the nose of the bullet so it didn't poke out the cylinder so much.

Who says God doesn't watch over fools and children!

[MtGun44]

.38 S&W brass is much better.

Bill

[Matthew 25]

Sheepdog...I'll send you some 38 s&w dies for nothing if want them. I think I still have them.

[0verkill]

I wish I would have saw this sooner. If you still need some 38 S&W brass I think I have a few I could part with.

[Char-Gar]

Trying to make 38 S&W cases out of 38 Special cases is not a productive activity. It would only be a last ditch, make do project. But some 38 S&W cases and dies, or sell the pistol.

[Grapeshot]

About to get a Webley 38 to play around with. I know these are .361ish insread of 358ish. Ive heard of people shooting 38 special out of these safely though I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Wondering however it I can trim down 38 brass and cast some boolits from the 9mm makarov mold for this little guy. Is this safe? Ideas? Load data?

I have to agree with the others, trimming .38 Spl's are not a good idea. I had an Enfield in .380/200, .38 S&W, that I tried using some .38 Spl's trimmed back and a hollow based .357 180 grain swaged bullets I made. The accuracy was OK, but not a tack driver. I slugged my bore and found that it was .358 so I could use standard .38 Spl bullets in it. I bought a Lyman 195 grain RN mold that dropped a .359 cast bullet that worked well with a charge of 3.5 grains of Herco.

I also used a 9mm Sizing Die to size my .38 S&W cases. This seemed to be right on the money for MY Enfield.

[Four Fingers of Death]

A bag of 100 bulk brass isn't expensive and will last for yonks.

[NickSS]

I have done this with 100 cases when I first got my Enfield revolver mostly because I was broke at the time and had lots of 38 spl brass. It works and I am still loading it but I have to admit that buying brass is much easier and have bought a few hundred Starline cases and use them too. For bullets I have a Lyman SWC mold that casts 178 gr bullets that come out .360. I run them through a .360 sizer just to lube them and fire them in my Enfield. Works great and actually some British ammo used bullets of 200 gr and others (most of the ones used during WWII) were 176 gr so my loads are really close to what they used weight wise.