Rechambering .38 S&W

mooncoon

mooncoon

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I have a S&W victory model chambered in .38 S&W. I noticed the cylinder is dramatically longer than the shell and more than long enough for a .38 special. In theory the factory shell should be .008 larger than the various longer .38's but in practice the shells I have are more like .003 larger ---in other words the difference in diameter between current chambering and a longer .38 should not be a problem.
I am tempted to rechamber the gun to .38 special partly because it is easier to get shells and primarily because it would tremendously reduce the bullet jump in reaching the barrel. The cylinder walls look relatively thick and strong enough
Question then is; how foolish an idea is this.

cheers mooncoon
 
This was frequently done in the past to make Victory models easier to sell. Its not so much the diameter of the cartridges, its the diameter of the original .38S&W chamber, and the .38Special chamber. Fired cases will exhibit a slight bottle necked effect. Are S&W and Special bore diameters the same, or is the S&W slightly larger? The alteration will hurt collector value. The idea isn't foolish, but there are problems with it. I have a .38 S&W Victory, and a M&P .38 Special, and maintain two supplies of ammunition.
Incidentally, Lee Harvey Oswald shot the Police Officer with one of these converted revolvers which also had its barrel shortened to snubnosed length.
 
38 S&w

i have seen this done before (many times) and theres a lot case bulging so cases do not last long some split 1 st time out 38 acp mite be a better option. or find a model 10 s&w cyl. there should be lots of those around.
 
I think my idea was to neck size only plus start with annealed shells. As long as I am not working the brass, my biggest concern would be that someone in the future might stuff in a really hot shell that would split.
As far as collector value goes; this one was given to me with no grips (made my own) and I suspect the current value to be in the $100 - $150 range which is the going rate around here for victory models.

cheers mooncoon
 
.380 ACP won't work. It's a rimless case. Nor is an M-10 cylinder likely to go in without lots of fitting.
.38 S&W isn't that difficult to come by. It'd be easier to just order 500 or 1,000 cases and load your own though.
 
Get a 38 Special cylinder for a model 10. These will drop into the victory frame with very little fiddling. Make sure you get the cylinder, extractor and plunger as an assembly.
I've done this to a couple of Victories (keeping the old cylinder to reinstall if the gun is ever worth more as a 38 S&W Victory). They shoot fairly well.
Numrich might be able to sell you this if they will ship it across the border.
 
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