The Quest Part One

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, a group of people felt the urge to protect and serve the general public. We called them law enforcement officers and the operate on many different levels. We have them at the city, county, state and federal levels and they belong to many different organizations, all of which have mutated and evolved over many years to meet differing needs. As the times have changed, the needs of the LEO have changed.

Originally, the Officer's probably carried whatever type of firearm they wanted to or happened to own. The idea of a standardized weapon or set of weapons probably didn't occur until at least the 1970's and then it was mostly in the larger forces. I think I remember reading that it was the NYPD who first declared their officers could only carry a particular type of weapon. It had more to do with identifying who was an undercover or plain clothes officer in a high stress situation than for any other reason. Unfortunately, until the FBI shooting in the '90's, legalities and politics played more of a role in selecting police weaponry, that performance did.

Okay, from roughly the 1920's until the 1980's, most police departments relied on a particular revolver caliber over all others. This article is a short history of this cartridge.

The .36 caliber cap and ball revolver was one of the staples of the Civil War and the old West. The .44's and .45's got most of the glory, but the .36 from Remington and Colt as well as others was extremely popular. As people began converting the cap and ball to modern cartidges Colt developed a cartridge called the .38 Colt Short for use in these guns. The .38 referred to case diameter rather than bullet diameter. The .38 Colt Short fired a 130 grain bullet at about 770 ft per second. The actual bullet diameter was about .374 or .375 and the bullet was externally lubricated.

In 1875 Colt created an "improved" version of this cartridge called the .38 Colt Long. This cartridge fired a 150 grain, .357 or .357 diameter, internally lubricated bullet at 770 ft per second. This cartridge was adapted by the army in 1892 and remained in service until 1911 although it performed poorly in the Spanish--American war and resulted in the adoption of the 1911 Colt in .45 ACP by the army.

To further confuse things, in 1877 Smith and Wesson introduced their own 38 caliber. Called the .38 S&W it fired a 148 grain lead round nose .360 bullet at roughly 720 ft per second. This became a popular round with law enforcement. Colt adopted this round, athough they called it the .38 Colt New Police and loaded a flat nose bullet in their rounds.

In 1922 Smith and Wesson and Colt created a new version of this cartridge which launched a 200 grain bullet at 620 ft. per second. Smith and Wesson called it the .38/200 while Colt Preferred the .38 Super Police.

In 1902 Smith and Wesson introduced an inproved version of the .38 Long Colt. It had the same basic cartridge, but utilized more powder and took advantages of improvements in handgun manufacture and modern metals. Unfortunately it would chamber in the older, more fragile guns, and police officers tend to be poor, so new cartridges were loaded in old guns and bad things happened. To prevent this, the cartridge was lengthened and the name was changed to .38 Special. Within a year of production the .38 Special was switched to smokeless powder. Because it was loaded to relatively low pressures, the cartridge was capable of handling more pressure and eventually would be released in higher pressure loads called +p and +p+.

The .38 special is an extremely popular cartridge and filled a great need. It is capable of great accuracy and can be packaged in long barrelled target guns. It is most seen in modern times in short barrelled revolvers that conceal easily. It is easy to forget though that the 3, 4, and 5 inch models were once considered the medicine necessary to combat the "new" crime wave, the traveling bank robbers of the Bonnie and Clyde era. The new heavy metal car bodies were ample protection from the .38 S & W and .38 Colt Long cartridges. The more powerful .38 Specials would penetrate the car bodies. With a 158 grain bullet traveling at roughly 770 p/s it gave a little more punch.

Modern .38 Specials are available in barrel lengths from 1/2" to 10". Some specialized autoloaders will fire the cartridge too. Ammunition is available in anything from 90 grain to 180 grain standard loads. Specialize fragible ammo offers even lower bullet weights. It is availabe in +p and +p+ loads offering higher performance if you and your gun can take it. Revolvers are offered in heavy, heavy-medium, medium, light and ultra light frames. Some of the short barrelled revolvers offer only 5 rounds but others offer 6.

In 1934 Smith and Wesson introduced a lengthend version of the .38 Special. It held more powder still, worked at much higher pressures, and offered even more power. Originally it used the same cartridge but the chance for mistakes was there so the cartridge was stretched a little. it was called the .38/44 as Smith and Wesson used the heavier frame of there .44 caliber revolver to tame the powerful round. Later medium and heavy medium frames would grow from the round that was eventually named the .357 Magnum. You see the new gangsters were using bullet proof vests and armored cars and it took a bullet traveling at least 1000 ft/sec to penetrate them. The .357 Magnum launched a 158 grain bullet at around 1200 ft/sec. In 1984 Remington stretched the .357 Magnum case out to create the .357 Maximum. It was designed as a silhouette cartridge for the Ruger Blackhawk revolver. It was a little too hot and wore out topstraps, so it has been limited to mostly single shot pistols for silhouette and handgun hunters.

Interestingly enough in 1900 Colt introduced the .38 ACP in the 1900 model. Designed by John Browning, this cartidge and pistol launched a 130 grain .355 diameter bullet at about 1050 ft/sec. It never caught on. Browning would later introduce a 9mm Long and 9mm Short (.380 ACP) as well. The shorter but more potent 9mm Parabellum did in the .38 ACP and 9MM Browning Long. In the 1920's the .38 ACP would be loaded to higher pressures and chambered for the 1911. Pushing the 130 grain bullet at 1280 ft/sec this round could penetrate the armor used by the thugs of the time.

In the 1980's the 9mm Parabellum took over law enforcement when everone went hi capacity crazy. The 9mm was developed in 1902, so it was the same age as the .38 Special, however it was designed for smokeless powder and made more efficient use of it's cartridge capacity. Oddly enough in Europe, the 9mm is seen strictly as a military cartridges and the .32 and .380 are widely used by police. There have been several attempts to make a shorter 9mm for police use. In 1934 the Germans experimented with a round we call the 9mm Ultra. The 9mm Parabellum is a 9 x 19 mm, the .380 is a 9 x 17mm. The Ultra was a 9 x 18mm round and still capable of being fired in a direct blowback weapon. This is the cartridge that the Russian Makarov round was based on. In 1974 Walther attempted to bring the Ultra back as the 9 x 18mm Police. It was chambered for the PP Super. I believe Sig Sauer made a couple of pistols for this round also. It never caught on. Odd since performance had to similar to the 9mm Makarov which sends a 95 grain bullet out at around 927 ft/sec. Of course, part of the charm of the Makarov is its price. You aren't going to pick up a Sig or Browning for what a Mak or FEG will go for. Anyway, next time out we will take a look at the cartridges that follow the .357/.38.