.38 Special Colt 1911
by
Nicholas C
Published: June 13th, 2014
Yes, you read that right. A Colt 1911 chambered in .38 Special. Not .38 Super, but .38 Special. A customer brought this gun into my local gun shop and was looking for ammo to feed it. Luckily he brought some of his old ammo with him. The Colt 1911 belonged to his father and said it is 80 years old. The customer was in his late 70s.
The magazine is wild looking.
Upon looking at the ammo he brought in and seeing how they fit into the magazine, it was clear regular .38 Special would not work. He had a box of Western 38 Special Mid Range and a box of Federal. As you can see, Western is an old name for Winchester’s ammo division.
Sadly the store didn’t have anything for him to feed this awesome pistol.
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I guess you could call it a blow back design. The inside of the chamber is ribbed, it holds the case long enough for the pressure to drop and the recoil to be mild.
When you reload for them, you'll need to have a good amount of roll crimp. 3.4gr Win231 and 148gr flat base WC works good for me.
!!!!***Hello Nicholas C I am asking this question directly to you....Is your gun store anywhere in the northern Indiana Southern Michigan area ...and if so was that ammo hand loaded & have red markings in the pattern of crosshairs around the primer or have the initials DLR anywhere on the box??? If any of these is true then I would reallly like to speak with you in a more private forum ,any info would be a great help. !!!!!!!!!!
P.S. I will monitor this thread in hopes of a yay or nay.