The .35-Caliber Story Began

Year: 1898
Cartridge: .38 Special (aka .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 S&W Special, .38 Spl.)
Bullet Diameter: .357

You would think that the .35-caliber story would start with .38 Smith &Wesson (.38 S&W), but the parent case for .38 Special was the .38 Long Colt (.38 LC). Also, the .38 S&W and .38 LC are both .361-diameter-bullet rounds. This is splitting hairs, but the name of this blog dictates a cutoff.

A blog's got to know its limitations.

The .38 Special cartridge was a response to the failing of the .38 LC in the Philippines. The U.S. government contracted with Smith & Wesson to develop a new cartridge, so they took the .38 LC, lengthened the case by .124" thus increasing powder capacity, and they also slightly reduced the bullet diameter.

With the .38 Special, Smith & Wesson created a revolver coup, which made it the maker of the quniticential police sidearm for decades. The future Air Force took a liking to the cartridge, also - with many divergences that require an post all their own. But the rest of our military? Not so much. Between the Army and the Navy, only 3000 .38 Hand Ejector Military & Police S&W revolvers were purchased ("America's Military Revolvers" American Rifleman.org) before WWI. The 1911 was set to take over, and a shortage of 1911s led to the cartridge common 1917 revolver made by S&W and Colt.

The cartridge evolved, especially in the 1920s, when it was elevated to even more power with the development of a new standard load by Western Cartridge Company ("38 Special" Wikipedia.org). And eventually high-pressure (+P) versions of the cartridge were developed and had initial popularity with police departments as the "158-grain lead semi-wadcutter hollow point (LSWCHP)" ("Cartridge of the Century: The .38 Smith & Wesson Special" LuckyGunner.com).

In the mean time, a diversion of the .38 Special was developed specifically for the S&W N-frame .38/44 Heavy Duty. The .38/44 cartridge became the .38 Special power leader sending a 158-grain bullet at 1125 ft/s ("The .38/44 Heavy Duty" AmericanHandgunner.com), and through the efforts of Dan Wesson and Elmer Keith the .357 S&W Magnum was born (".38 Special Cartridge History & Review" Ammoland.com). It's history is, of course, another story.

And then the story of the .38 Special sort of stalled. The wondernines took over, and the cartridge had to wait for better ammo - and social changes. Police departments quickly switched to plastic fantastic, after delitances with double-action/single-action steel framed wonders. Of course, revolvers hung on among some police departments through grandfathering and backups. Gun writers sang the praise of high-capacity and bigger calibers, but they still pocketed snubnosed revolvers.

And then a renaissance of sorts. Concealed carry became vogue and governments got on the bandwagon. And finally, projectile advancement improved almost every caliber, but some more than others, but .38 Special definitely benefited. Also, theories of stopping power mellowed a bit. The thinking about short-barrel guns led to the development of loads with faster-burning propellants.

Though .38 Special is no longer king, it is the founding father of "modern" street power, and the .38 Smith & Wesson Special cartridge has a solid future.