This evening I am picking up two former Buenos Aires Police revolvers. They are chambered in .38 Largo. I did some searching, and there is much conflicting information on that chambering. I have seen opinions ranging from .38 Colt to .38 S&W Long to .38 Special. As I speak some Spanish, I obviously know the literal translation is .38 Long. In Chile, I read that means .38 Colt. Argentina may have a completely different chambering.
The revolvers seem to be the ones copied after the S&W Model 1905 and were made by Orbea y Cia, Eibar.
Plug the cylinder at the mouth with duct-tape and fill with candle wax. You should be able to get the length of the cartridge.
.38 Colt Long is the most likely caliber.
I have encountered some cheep er.... guns ...
cylinders were bore straight through to save money and extra cutting steps letting longer more powerful specials fit....
a cast my lead to wrong out comes......food for thought...."light loads"
DK, it's doesn't have to be cheeper guns, that's how Colt originally designed the .38 short and long Colt .Cylinder was bored straight because the bullet was a "heel base" design, the bullet diameter was the same as the cartridge case. Think something like a scaled up .22 lr. The bore on the original .38 Colt was also .375, not .357 as in modern guns. I think later they changed that, so it would be a good idea to slug the barrel on these revolvers to see just what they need to shoot well. If it's got the larger bore, it may shoot ok with Hollow Base wadcutters.
I have some wax and will slug the barrels and bores tomorrow. Actually I ended up buying all three that the collector had. Price was right, markings were interesting, and they all have six inch barrels and pretty much match each other. I may just shoot them with blackpowder loaded into .38 Spl cases. Thay fit.
I also got a 4 inch AE "Coliat" at the same place. Looks like a copy of a Colt DA. The top of the barrel has "East American Cartridges Are/Those That Fit Best In The AE Revolver." And then ".38 Special US Service Ctg." Cool misleading gutta percha grips on it.
The Spaniards were shameless copiers and marketers, lol.
To bring back a thread from the dead, has anyone ever actually shot .38 Long Colt out of a .38 Largo revolver?
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