hittman said:
Didn't make it back to the gun store this afternoon. Boy am I ever confused about those 380 calibers ..... or are they 38 but ACP or was it Automatic but not Special? :lol:
Will this gun be roll marked 1903 or 1908?
Will the caliber be roll marked ACP or Automatic or something else?
I know it's not 32.
You guys think that Colt Serial Number lookup site is accurate?
The .380 Auto fires a bullet that has a nominal diameter of .355" as are the 9MM Parabellum/luger/9x19. Most of the barrels that I have checked for groove diameter have been .356", which seems to make little difference in a personal defense weapon where gilt-edged accuracy is not the main concern.
The .38 Special and the .357 Mg. shoot bullets that have a nominal diameter of .357" and most of the barrels I have checked, are also of that dimension.
As you can see, there is little difference between the two and neither are .38 caliber. The reason that they are called .38s is because older cartridges, produced in days of yore, used bullets that featured
outside lubricated bullets, such as the .22 LR still is, and in that configuration were .38 caliber or at least close enough to pass for it. But when the ammo companies went to
inside lubricated bullets, they used the Same case size and that made the bullet diameter significantly smaller. Then later on the gun manufacturers started producing barrels that matched the newer bullet diameters and calling then .38s, when in fact, they were really 35s or perhaps, 36s.
Add to that the confusion caused by referring to calibers based on their BORE DIAMETER rather than the actual groove/bullet diameter, and it just gets "confusinger" and "confusinger".....don't feel bad about being a little confused, so are a lot of other folks. 8)