A friend and I were talking about this the other day; one of those interesting discussions that comes up between enthusiasts.

Given the urgent need for handguns by the Britishicon in WWII, they were buying pretty much everything they could get their hands on, including .38 Special calibre handguns, despite the official Commonwealth service revolver cartridge beng .38/200 (well, .380" Revolver Mk IIz, but you know what I mean).

To the best of my knowledge, the S&W Victory revolvers ordered by the Commonwealth in .38/200 were identical to the .38 Special version used by the US military, to the point where S&W just stuck a .38/200 cylinder into the .38 Special frame revolver.

Given this obvious interchangeability, it does raise the question of whether or not it would have been possible to take .38/200 cartridges, load them into a .38 Special revolver, and fire them without any significant adverse effects.

A 1943 military small arms text notes you can fire .45 ACP from the .455 Webley Automatic Model 1911 pistols, although it's really not a good idea and should be kept for emergencies only.

Is the same true of firing .38/200 rounds from a .38 Special revolver? Or is there another reason it's not practical/advisable? (Beyond the usual caveats about not interchanging cartridges, of course...)
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