New Project: .38 Super Special

First I'd like to say that I'm very excited to have international viewers in Germany, UK, Brazil, Denmark, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and South Africa. I'd also like to thank my first two followers, when/if I get to be famous I will remember who supported me from the beginning. Thank you all.

So the new project is a .38 Super Special. A what? A .357 magnum chambered revolver being cut to accept full moonclips in .38 Super Comp. Why .38 Super Comp? For several reasons. The first being powder burn efficiency in the smaller case than the .38 special. the second is a shorter ejection stroke on the reload without having to trim cases. Work a few bigger lost brass matches and you'll have plenty of free brass. The third reason is that I am building this on an L-frame Smith and Wesson 581 and the Super Comp will give me a broader moonclip from the center opening to the cartridge slots. See photo below...this is a 646 .40 caliber clip for illustration purposes.

I chose to go with .38 Super Comp instead of moonclipping .38 Special or .357 Magnum brass because when those cartridge were designed the moonclip had not been invented yet. The result is that the groove under the case rim was not spec'd and so the different manufacturers have different size grooves. The resulting thickness of the moonclips lies between .020 and .025 inches. I can have a .38 Super Comp clip cut to be .035 to .040 inches which is the standard thickness of the sturdy .45 ACP moonclips. If you wonder why I am worried about any of this at all it's because of the people that step on moonclips while bumbling around a stage trying to paste. Whether they do it for ignorance or apathy the result is the same.

Now at this point you may be wondering or concerned about the pressures or chambering issues. This is very simply going to be a Minor power factor project. The revolver I am using readily accepts and ejects .38 Super cases loaded to Minor power factor. This is actually a project for my girlfriend who also shoots revolver with me and was having trouble with the heavier N-frame 625's in long falling steel competitions. So here we go! Stay tuned for further progress updates to follow on the machining, the clips and load development.