The .38/44 Heavy Duty

The 1920s were a time of unprecedented economic growth in the United States, which came to a screeching halt with the advance of the Great Depression in 1929. We emerged from WWI as the reigning superpower, and the modern era had begun. It would be a decade of automobiles for the blue-collar worker, the rise of radio and the beginning of talking movies. Old traditional social morays were discarded and the decade became known as The Roaring Twenties — it was also a time of unprecedented crime. In January of 1920 the Volstead Act became the law of the land, basically stopping the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. It stopped the production and sale of legal liquor, however illegal alcohol flowed as underground breweries and private clubs known as speakeasies emerged everywhere. Men like Al Capone made millions during prohibition. Alcohol was legalized once again in 1933, however with hard economic times a new breed of criminal had arisen specializing in robbing banks.

Not only had criminals discovered fast-moving automobiles they did not hesitate to arm themselves with a gun that became known as “The Chicago Chopper” and also “The Gun That Made The Twenties Roar” — Col. John Thompson’s .45 fully automatic Thompson. Police were armed with standard .38 Special revolvers using 158-gr. roundnosed bullets with a muzzle velocity under 800 fps. They simply bounced off car bodies. The call went out to Colt and Smith & Wesson to provide better handguns for peace officers. Colt was the first to respond. They took an existing cartridge, the .38 Colt, increased the powder charge, and chambered it in the 1911 Government Model. The new .38 Super used a full metal jacketed 130-gr. bullet at 1,300 fps.

Heavy Loading

Elmer Keith really pushed the envelope with the .38 Special in the .38/44 Heavy Duty. He said he used what powders were available at the time, which weren’t very many, and settled on #80, which has been out of production for 70-plus years now. He used 10 grs. and shot hundreds of loads, then moved up to 11 grs., and while he said it worked well in both the .38/44 and the Colt SAA .38 Special, he decided to have it pressure tested. Sending them off to Peters Cartridge Company he found they were operating at 42,000 pounds pressure! Is that scary or what? The later .357 and .44 Magnums operate at much lower pressures than this!