38S&W ammo

[maverick0379]

I came accross an old box of 38S&W ammo by western x. I can't find any info on this stuff. Its a partial box. Anybody got any ideas what this stuff is worth. The box is marked 38swp. The bullets are nickel cased with a cooper bullet.

:Fire:

[SP101GUY]

I have a full box of that same ammo laying around. I tried to sell it at a gunshow, but the old guy told me it wasn't old enough to be worth anything. He said just shoot it up and have fun, but I don't have a gun to shoot it in.

AJ

[maverick0379]

I'm in the same boat. It won't fit in a 38sp. Guess we are lucky ammo does not expire. It will be worth something one day.

[9.3X62AL]

38 S&W case diameter runs about .386", while 38 Special case diameter runs about .379". The Winchester or Western "copper-colored" bullet is often called "Lubaloy", a company trade name for their lead bullet alloy. I'm pretty sure the copper coloring seen is a plating, since the few Lubaloy bullets that I've fired and recovered were lead-gray internally.

There are number of us Old Cranks here that reload and fire the 38 S&W recreationally, and the caliber still has a place in the defensive shooting scheme of things, as at least one recent thread bears witness to. While the tacticool Mall Ninjas and other like/similar posers might not find the caliber appropriate in their A/Os and other fantasy sequences, I like the caliber in my Webley-Enfield, S&W M&P, and Colt Police Positive. It whacks small game and varmints cleanly and leaves behind meat for the pot--a thing not true of some more modern varmint-specific calibers.

[LouisianaMan]

Welll, Maverick & SP101, too bad we're not in the same neck of the woods, or I'd buy it off of you just to test in my guns!

Few if any guns are made in that caliber anymore, but it was an extremely popular dresser drawer or vest pocket gun from the 1880s to at least the 1960s, and a lot of those remain in dresser drawers across the country. The current factory ammo is loaded on the low end of its power scale, due to the possibility that many old relics would fail if used for any hotter load.

That's too bad, because the round can be loaded to low-end .38 SPL power in a lightweight revolver, a very useful combination for many.