Military .38

[Shooternz]

I am trying to identify some .38 ammo a friend has been given, It is FMJ the only markings are 38 B1 and are in a plain brown cardboard box,
Any body know what this is? Robert.

[fecmech]

If you were in the USA I'd say it's 130 gr. FMJ at approx 800 fps. That is what the US military loads were. I don't know about your neck of the woods.

[Lefty Red]

+1 on that info. Standard 38 loading, on this side of the pond.

[Scharfschuetze]

Is that "38 B1" on the box or is that the headstamp?

Are these 38s the 38 S&W Special or the 38 Smith & Wesson. The 38 Smith & Wesson was used by the Australians (and maybe the Kiwis?) in WWII.

US Military M41 cartridges have the arsenal initials and last two years of the date they were manufactured. E.g., LC 45. All the M41 ammo that I was ever issued also had crimped in primers; although a few members here report some examples were not crimped.

M41 US Military issue 38 S&W Specials.

[MtGun44]

Check case dimensions - substantial possibility this is .38 S&W ammo as the
Commonwealth countries tended to follow Britain's lead and use the .38 S&W rather
than the more common, in the US, .38 Special. I believe that the standard
British .38 S&W load used a 200 gr bullet, where the US .38 Spl civilian standard
is 158 lead RN and military 130 JacketedRN. Most US naval aviators in WW2 carried a
.38 Special with 130 jacketed tracers, more as a signaling device than as
a self defense tool. Of course, the case diameter of the .38 S&W is a good bit
larger than .38 Special, as is the boolit diam, too.

Bill

[Shooternz]

Thanks for the replies, the 38 B1 are the headstamp and they are .38 Special, The .38/.357 are very popular here the .38S&W is used in the classic service pistol match but not anything else,
Back when we first started pistol shooting in the early 1970's .22Rf and .38 special was what we cut our teeth on,
only matches we could shoot were UIT/ Olympic type, Now we have most styles of pistol shooting except plinking tin cans that is frowned upon, Robert.

[Tackleberry41]

I ended up with a pile of military brass when I bought a big bag of once fired 38spcl at the gun show. Some date stamped back to the 50s. I really dislike dealing with crimped primers, well guess we will see how that goes now that I finally broke down and ordered one of the RCBS swaggers.

[Tristan]

I ended up with a pile of military brass when I bought a big bag of once fired 38spcl at the gun show. Some date stamped back to the 50s. I really dislike dealing with crimped primers, well guess we will see how that goes now that I finally broke down and ordered one of the RCBS swaggers.

Tackleberry, I've been looking for some military 38's, so if you want to save your swaging primer pockets for rifle brass, maybe we can make a deal...