✅ SOLVED Need help finding when this gun cartridge was made

[Johncoho]

I don't have any photos, but just need to know where to find info on when a WRA Co 38 long gun cartridge was manufactured and when it went obsolete. If anyone has a site I can go to for info on this I would be very appreciative. I found this cartridge metal detecting on Saturday in what was an old Army Camp for WW2. Thanks in advance and HH.

 

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[rochwitt]

38 Long Colt ammunition has a bit of a complicated history. The round was developed by Colt as a more powerful variant of the 38 Short Colt. 38 Long Colt was adopted by the U.S. Army with Colt’s New Army M1892 revolver as a black powder cartridge. It was not an immediate the 45 Colt cartridge. The 38 Long Colt fired a 148 grain round at a 800 feet per second.

The 38 Long Colt proved to be a weak loading, and the results of the Philippine-American war of 1899 - 1902 were a testament to it’s poor performance. The cartridge performed extremely poor against the Moro warriors. In fact the military units that could scrapped the revolver and re adopted the more powerful Colt Single Action Army in 45 Colt.
Winchester repeating arms company. 38 long colt.


38 Long Colt is known to be exceptionally accurate, and found some favor with civilian shooters, and even a few police agencies adopted it. The round virtually disappeared when Smith and Wesson invented the more effective 38 Special. The round can be fired in 38 Special revolvers, but the 38 Special should never be fired in a 38 Long Colt. The 38 Long Colt is still being produced for military arms enthusiasts, and modern production ammo is ballistically the same as the original loads

 

[NOLA_Ken]

.38 Long Colt was introduced as a black powder cartridge in 1875, and saw use by the military from 1892 to 1909 when the .45 ACP was adopted. It all but disappeared around that time since the .38 Special by Smith and Wesson became a lot more popular. So unless there was WW1 or Spanish War activity in that same place yours is not likely to have been a military round.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

If the case says "WRA CO. 38 W.C.F. it is a .38-40 Winchester. Hard to say when ANY cartridge goes "obsolete". Most center-fire cartridges ever made are still available to some extent and used. Though in this case 1874 to 1937 would be the "heyday". But still available.

 

[Johncoho]

The bottom of the case says WRA 38 long.

If the case says "WRA CO. 38 W.C.F. it is a .38-40 Winchester. Hard to say when ANY cartridge goes "obsolete". Most center-fire cartridges ever made are still available to some extent and used. Though in this case 1874 to 1937 would be the "heyday". But still available.

 

[Johncoho]

Thanks for the info. I think I can assume the original round was phased out when the 45acp was introduced. 1909 would be the time according to all the info given here. Thanks again for everything.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Ah. Then the earlier .38 Long Colt definitions were correct. It probably says "W.R.A. Co .38 LONG"

Capitalization and punctuation is important when identifying headstamps.

 

[Johncoho]

That is exactly what my head stamp is. Thank you.

Ah. Then the earlier .38 Long Colt definitions were correct. It probably says "W.R.A. Co .38 LONG"

Capitalization and punctuation is important when identifying headstamps.