Design
The .38 Super retains the original dimensions of the .38 ACP case . The cartridge was originally designed to headspace on the semi-rim, which worked in the Colt M1900 due to the design of the feed ramp. When the .38 Auto became the .38 Super, in the 1911A1, the feed ramp could no longer be used as rim support. As a result of this, observed accuracy of the .38 Super suffered, post-WWII, until Irv Stone of Bar-Sto barrels re-designed the chamber to allow headspacing on the case mouth. Since then, all new .38 Super pistols headspace on the case mouth, as with other cartridges in this class. Because the semi-rimmed case can cause some feeding trouble in magazines, especially double stack magazines, rimless variants of .38 Super like .38 Supercomp, .38 Super Lapua and .38 TJ (.38 Todd Jarrett) have been developed.
In 1974 the industry added the +P headstamp to the .38 Super to further distinguish it from the lower-pressure .38 ACP. Most current ammunition manufacturers label ammunition for the Super as .38 Super +P.
The cartridge was designed for use in the M1911 pistol and was capable of penetrating the body armor and automobile bodies of the time. When the .357 Magnum was introduced in 1934, this advantage of the .38 Super was no-longer enough to lure police departments and officers from the traditional revolver.
Since the .38 Super is dimensionally the same as the .38 ACP (not to be confused with the .380 Auto cartridge), an unsafe condition can be caused by loading .38 Super cartridges in a firearm designed for the much lower pressure .38 ACP. The weakness, in the Colt M1900, M1902 and others derived from that design, comes from the assembly wedge at the front of the slide. If the wedge comes out, or the slide cracks at the wedge, the slide can come off the rear of the frame when fired. The 1911 and 1911A1, having a slide that is solid on front, cannot come off the frame that way.
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