WB
I'll try to find it for you as I liked the article
Monday, August 01, 2022, 06:53

Lots of good loading info and the early fame of Bar-Sto barrels. I think it was Bob Milek in a 1980 annual magazine "Magnum Handguns". The creased cover still bearing my sweat stained little finger marks from when I bought it, at my first full time job at a grocery store. I've never loaded for the Super but It's now basically now a bigger 9mm. Does 9X21 or Super Comp brass run through common .38 Supers designed for the semi-rimmed?

I've always argued that originally it was a .357" bore gun, not a .355" as it IS of late. Why would Americans in the 1930's go to a foreign 9mm bore barrel when they were well entrenched in the Apple Pie .38 and .357 tubed wheelguns. I seriously doubt they conjured up some European 9mm tubes for the new Colt's. Even when I was a kid in the 1970's the ONLY domestic 9mm's around were the S&W 39/59 and some rare Colt Series 70's. I still lament missing a satin nickel Commander 9mm in around 1978. I could not materialize the $365, no matter what I tried to trade. That was N-frame and Colt Python territory anyway. Of late (mid-1970's) I do not doubt at all that the .38 Super was "morphed" silently into a .355" from basic necessity with availability of projectiles and common barrel material. From long ago many complained of the accuracy of their .38 Supers. Mostly it was attributed to headspace off the teeny semi-rim rather than the case mouth as the .45 ACP. I always wondered if it was more from shooting undersize .355 9mm slugs rather than .357 bullets. Early catalogs listed the 130 gr. FMJ bullets as .357" diameter for the Super. Common .357 jacketed projectiles lack the proper semi-auto ojive profile for proper feeding anyway. But the cast shooter had abundant options. Just my rant.


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