Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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In 1936, Smith & Wesson began making a 2-inch barreled version of the Regulation Police called the Terrier. These guns proved to be very popular for concealed carry, and are still quite popular to this day in some circles.

Yet no matter how well liked these new guns were, the .38 S&W was still primarily found in the small break-open pocket revolvers. With new cartridges like the .357 Magnum being introduced in 1935 along with small semi-automatic pistols like those from Colt, the .38 S&W appeared to be on a short road to obsolescence. Then a savior came from the most unlikely of places, the British Empire.

For the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries the British supplied Her Majesty’s soldiers with large-caliber revolvers. After the end of WWI someone in charge of British Ordnance came to the conclusion that a 200-grain bullet in .38 caliber would be just as effective in combat as their tried-and-true 260-grain .455 Webley. So in 1922 the new Enfield No. 2 top break revolver was unveiled and chambered in the British version of the .38 S&W. The British round differed from the American .38 S &W with its heavier 200-grain lead round-nose bullet that was backed with 2.8 grains of “Neonite” powder for a muzzle velocity of 630 fps and a muzzle energy of 175 ft. lbs. The new round was dubbed the .380/200 Cartridge Revolver Mk I. Prior to World War II, however, the British feared that the 200-grain lead bullet of the .380/200 violated the Hague Convention of 1899’s ban on “exploding bullets,” so they replaced them with a 178-grain jacketed round-nose bullet. This new round was called the Cartridge Pistol .380 Mk IIz. The British continued to use the older .380/200 rounds for training purposes, but when World War II broke out both the 200- and 178-grain loads were issued to the troops as ammunition was in short supply.