H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619

I love how Danny Glover makes it a point to talk about his Henry rifle in Silverado, but when you look at it, it's clearly a 66 with the forestock removed.

Well, it arrived today. And I have to say that I like it. My initial reaction to it was that it seems to be a bit heavier than a comparable standard SAA. (5.5" in the same caliber is not as heavy.) As far as it fitting my hand and being a good pointer goes, I found that if I try to grip it with all 4 fingers of the shooting hand, it seems awkward, but if I curl my pinky under the grip, like on an SAA, it fits the hand very well and points very naturally. I think that I'm gonna go shooting tomorrow. I gotta check ammo on hand, but if I've got enough .32-20 in hand, I'll be using this gun.

Okay, based on all of the above, it's NOT a .38 Short Colt, it's a .38 S&W, which back in the day, Colt called ".38 Colt New Police." Here's a good .38 S&W Load for you.... 1.1 Grains of Trailboss, behind a .360" 158 Grain Round Nose bullet. This is a light load, which I more or less developed to be safe in everything I own in the caliber that's not restricted to black powder only. .38 S&W can be loaded to higher performance, in certain guns. Best to research that for your own satisfaction.

Ah! A Colt Police Positive! Great gun! I have a couple. I notice the barrel says .38. Based on the 1917 date on the side, I am assuming that the .38 stands for .38 Special Why bother to trim down to the shorter round in the first place? OR Do .38 Specials not fit? Do they seem to go in about the length of a Short Colt? If that's the case, I'd almost be willing to bet that the gun is chambered for .38 S&W not .38 Short Colt.

My load for the .38 Short Colt is as follows... I use .38 Short Colt Brass. Most of it is recycled from Remington factory ammo, but some is also from brass I've found at gun shows. 1.2 grains of Trailboss, .358" 150 grain Round Nose Hollow Base bullet. The bullets I get from Buffalo Arms. They are kinda pricey, but I don't reload a lot for this cartridge. It is also the same bullet I use in .38 Long Colt. It works well with "newer" guns with the .357 bore, as well as older guns with .375 tubes. Depending on what you are reloading for, you might not need to do this. If you're just using at as a "sub" round in a modern .38, ordinary bullets for the .38 Special would be fine. If a cartridge conversion of a cap and ball, you'll prolly need the hollow base so it'll expand to engage the rifling. But, yeah, a 170 grain bullet does seem kinda excessive for this cartridge.

I am 99-44/100% comfortable believing that fellow cowboy shooters know what they're doing with reloads. But it's that remaining 1-56th of a percent that would make me want to give them ammo along with the gun. And most of that is not fear over an incompetent load. More it's along the lines, of what if the other shooter normally uses Rugers, and likes to use heavy loads, and since the Ruger is stronger than the Colt, he has loads that might not be safe in my revolver made in 1904? I may not have any Rugers, but I do have a mix of relatively new Colts/Clones as well as some non antiques that that are over 100 years old. I prefer to know that my mild loads are being used, just in case. That might even be more important for someone who shoots a 92 who suddenly has to borrow my 73 or my vintage Lightning. All of that being said, there are a handful of shooters whom I would let them use their ammo, just because I know them and know that they are reloading similar to the way I do. But for a stranger, or even someone I know but am not familiar with their reloading practices, I'll give 'em the cartridges to go with the guns.

Long story short, I will soon own one. I've only ever held one once, and I admit that it felt awkward to me somehow. As to how "suited" it is to our game, I don't know. I'm a bottom of the pack shooter anyway, so I'm not too worried about it slowing me down. I know they were created for competitive target shooting, not the kind of game we play, but that's not important to me. I feel that I should have one in my collection, and now I do. But for those of you who have one, what is your opinion of it? What is your experience of shooting it, either informally or in a CAS context. FYI, mine was made in 1904, is a .32-20, 4-3/4" barrel. Here pics of it... Happy birthday to me! (Sunday)

1.1 grains of Trailboss behind a .360" 158 grain bullet. Very light, very accurate.

Trailboss. Unless it's an antique. Then black.

Why trim .38 Special? .38 Short Colt is already the proper length. That being said, no, I would not do it. Short Colt's will fit in a .38 S&W, but they are undersized. Also, the S&W round uses a .360" bullet while the Short/Long/Special/Magnum family uses a .358" bullet. (Unless you use hollow base bullets. But those are pricey.) .38 S&W is a great little round. You can have a lot of fun with it and it is a very additive round to play with. You may start out with pocket pistols, but you'll soon have a lot more things in the caliber. Colt Detective Special, S&W Victory Model, Mark IV Webley, and yes, there are guns that you can use as main match revolvers in this caliber. No rifles though.

It doesn't use a Mauser bayonet. I've tried several. The lug is too fat.

I have rather a rare rifle. A Colt Lightning that was issued to the Costa Rican military way back when. As near as I can tell, a grand total of 250 of them were made. How many of them eventually made it back to this country, I do not know. Now, mine is missing something, its bayonet. If there were only 250 of the things made, then the number of bayonets that survived is probably quite a bit lower, and I've all but given up on finding one. With that in mind, does anyone know of a custom knife maker that would be able create a reasonable replica of this bayonet and not charge an arm and leg for it?

If you ever see another one, let me know!

Did they come with the bayonets? Wish I'd known you wanted to get rid of 'em. Now that's a cool looking rifle!

So so far, we seen Marlin 1888, Evans and Volcanic. I had not thought of the Volcanic. I usually think of it as a pistol, but yeah, the rifle was kinda neat as well. That would be a good one. Everything else mentioned has already been reproduced, just not in specific configurations. That doesn't count!