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The .38 Super pistol cartridge is the child of the famous firearms company Colt. It fires the same .355 inch diameter bullet as the 9 mm Luger. It was introduced in the late 1920s, though its essentially a hotter version of .38 ACP introduced in 1900.
.38 ACP
.38 ACP is a firearm cartridge. It stands for the caliber and 'Automatic Colt Pistol'. It was introduced at the turn of century on the Colt M1900 manufactured by Colt, engineered by John Browning. It had first been used on his Model 1897 prototype, which Colt did not produce. The metric designation for the round is 9 x 23 mm SR (SR - Semi Rimmed).
The least successful of Browning's semi-rimmed cartridges, pistols in caliber .38 ACP would only be made for a few years. It was too powerful for a blowback pistol and not powerful enough to be considered for the United States Military. Europe would slowy come to use 9 mm Parabellum that was developed in the 1902-1906 from 7.65 Parabellum. The Luger was the ballistic twin on this cartridge in a smaller package. Browning himself was not done with 35 caliber cartridges and would soon introduce the 9 mm Browning Long in 1903 and the .380 ACP in 1908. Today, the .38 ACP is obsolete.
.38 ACP pistols
.38 Super
Design
The .38 Super is identical dimensionally to the older .38 ACP but is loaded to higher pressures. It was intended that the cartridge would headspace on the semi-rim, however all new .38 Super pistols headspace on the case mouth as with other cartridges in this class. Because semi-rimmed case can cause some feeding trouble in magazine, rimless variants of .38 Super like .38 Supercomp or .38 Super Lapua have been developed.The cartridge was designed for use in a modified 1911 pistol, and was capable of penetrating the bulletproof vests and automobile bodies of the time.
Performance
The .38 Super offers higher bullet velocities than the 9 mm Luger, and it is better suited for hot-rodding as it has a longer casing which allows for larger powder charges. The .38 Super has made a huge comeback in IPSC sports shooting, particularly when equipped with a compensator, because it meets the minimum power level to be considered as a Major charge, while having more manageable recoil than .45 ACP.Muzzle velocity
- 7.5 g (115 Gr) Full Metal Jacket: 425 m/s : 1395 ft/s
- 8.0 g (124 Gr) Full Metal Jacket: 410 m/s : 1346 ft/s
Synonyms
- .38 Super Auto
- .38 Super ACP
Notes
Due to Mexican laws which have restricted the civilian use or possession of ammunition classified as "military caliber," such as 9 mm, this is a popular round in Mexico.
Even though .38 ACP and .38 Super are the same size, it can potentially be dangerous to use .38 Super in a firearm intended for .38 ACP. There are over a dozen autoloading pistol cartridges, both semi-rimmed and rimless, in this caliber. Often times, foreign or ambiguous headstamps make identification impossible. When in doubt, it is best not to fire suspicious cartridges in any weapon.
References
".38 Super"