Robert,I started this to reply to Pds03003's great Colt Archives posting but decided kind of out of place & too long winded --
I've wondered why the .38 Super in the first place, considering hazard when used in the many thousands of 1900s, 1902s & 1903Hs out in public hands.
Need to perforate car bodies might have been met by a bottle-neck .45ACP to .38 or .40ACP-B.
Colt was very adept at hybrid gun design in configuring the 1905 .45ACP with minimal change to the above .38 cal series -- so why not just a barrel & mag design change to get more velocity it needed in the hundred Ks of 1911 WW1 survivors out there.
My suspicion is that Colt Marketing deliberately obsoleted the .38 auto by its same cartridge on steroids, the now dangerous .38 Super without affecting physical intrchangeability. Same Marketing suspicion Colt avoided a simple change of cartridge, barrel & mag, a simple conversion of the 1000s of WWI bring-backs that would stymie the sale of 1911s renamed .38 Super. All this in the 1930s mindset of very few people interested in or equipped for DIY as exists today.
I recall a 1930s gunsmith's thrill finally getting a lathe -- even though it was a foot powered one from the 1860s that only turned, no threading ----->
Who are you addressing? I see nothing in your post that is relevant to the topic being discussed. No one said anything about handloading or even "safety" for that matter. Are you asserting that older pistols are safe with ANY modern load?The .38 Super exists because there is market demand for it.
If, based on your fallacious premise of "safety", cartridges existed or failed to exist based on claims of product safety, no one would be able to buy any firearm in any caliber because the government would consider them all inherently unsafe. The Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC] has previously tried to control firearms and ammunition in that very manner.
Do you advocate for the elimination of handloading ammunition? That activity has caused far more injuries and damaged firearms than loading .38 Super cartridges in .38 ACP caliber pistols.
Seems you're reading more into my post that I wrote. I don't/didn't mention product safety, erroneous or other wise. It is a fact seen almost daily about the hazard shooting Super ammo in the early .38 autos. Your apparent concern for procuct safety would be more appropriate else where.The .38 Super exists because there is market demand for it. ---If, based on your fallacious premise of "safety", cartridges existed or failed to exist based on claims of product safety, no one would be able to buy any firearm in any caliber because the government would consider them all inherently unsafe. The Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC] has previously tried to control firearms and ammunition in that very manner. Do you advocate for the elimination of handloading ammunition? That activity has caused far more injuries and damaged firearms than loading .38 Super cartridges in .38 ACP caliber pistols.
That poses an interesting question. Given the "acp", I always assumed (you know about assume) that Colt was involved in the development of the .38 and .45 acp cartridges.I am not clear on what exactly you're asking. Colt was in no way trying to create anything other than a more modern platform for an existing cartridge. They promoted it for hunting, not law enforcement. Their early ads are quite instructive on all this. By using the existing Model 0 frame and slide they only had to change 16 parts to adapt the gun to fire the existing .38 ACP. That allowed them to create a "new" gun with no capital expense while retiring old tooling for the pre-1911 pistols that were no longer popular. The ammo manufacturers are the ones that created the .38 Super cartridge. Was Colt ever in the new cartridge development business?
There are companies that facilitate the sale of U.S. firearms to people in other countries. I sold a Colt M1892 Navy revolver to a collector in France via Gunbroker. Didn't know you could do that at the time, and it's not inexpensive.How do you sell a gun to someone outside the US?
%%%%%%%%I am not clear on what exactly you're asking. Colt was in no way trying to create anything other than a more modern platform for an existing cartridge. They promoted it for hunting, not law enforcement. Their early ads are quite instructive on all this. By using the existing Model 0 frame and slide they only had to change 16 parts to adapt the gun to fire the existing .38 ACP. That allowed them to create a "new" gun with no capital expense while retiring old tooling for the pre-1911 pistols that were no longer popular. The ammo manufacturers are the ones that created the .38 Super cartridge. Was Colt ever in the new cartridge development business?
Ah...no.Mexico and some other countries south of the border make possession of military and law enforcement calibers illegal so it de facto makes other calibers popular. The .38 Super is reasonably powerful but still legal which keeps its popularity high.
Ask Eric HolderHow do you sell a gun to someone outside the US?
