Anybody remember the old Smith & Wesson .38s sold as surplus in the 'Fifties and 'Sixties? These were British surplus sold to England under Lend-Lease during WW II. England could not produce enough Enfield revolvers, so approached S&W to manufacture revolvers for them. S&W countered that to tool up for the Enfield would take too long and be too expensive, so produced their Military and Police Model in .380 Revolver for them. This is the .38-200 or .38 S&W, also known as the .38 Colt New Police.

Some distributors got this gun and ran a .38 Special chambering reamer through the chambers, thus making a .38 Special out of the gun. In effect, this was a dual-caliber gun, firing both the .38 S&W and the .38 Special. Only trouble was, the chamber was oversized at the head area, resulting in bulged cases when .38 Special ammo was used. Extraction was stiff, to say the least, and cases didn't last too long if reloaded, due to excessive resizing required. But, they sold revolvers!

Bob Wright