First time poster First time revolver owner First time Ruger owner I recently purchased a Police Trade-In GP-100 4" marked as a .38Special under the barrel (ser# 175-51xxx). It's got fixed sights and shows absolutely no indications of having been altered in any way. My question is: Why does it chamber .357Mag rounds? I was showing a friend the difference between .38spl and .357Mag. I had just explained that .357Mag can't be shot in a .38spl because the cartridge is too long. I demonstrated by dropping in a .357Mag cartridge and it slid home flush. I tried all 6 cylinders and had the same result in each. WTH??? Can somebody please fill me in on what's going on with this pistol? Thanks Mike Gray
Welcome to the forum. That's a new one on me. I have seen some o fhe older Sevice Six, fixed sight guns chambered in .38 apl. for police use. Some departments only allowed .38 spl. back in the day. I was not aware of the GP-100 in .38 spl. Also unsure of why it would chamber .357 mags. The older Sevicee Sixes that I have seen only chambered the .38 spl. if they were so marked. Hoepe someone on here can answer your quuestion.
Theres 2 possibilities. Its had the cylinder replaced with a .357 cylinder, or the cylinder has been reamed for .357 Either is fine. The .38 Special GP100 is exactly the same as a .357 GP100 with the exception of the cylinder, and barrel markings.
Thanks for the responses folks. I don't see any indication of the cylinders being reamed. The bluing is pretty consistent all the way down. The gun has seen some hard use so I'm assuming that it got a little sloppy and they replaced the cylinder with a standard GP100 without taking into account that it was marked for .38Spl. Regardless, $200 for a GP100 is a great find in my book. The fact that I can pop off the occasional .357Mag is just icing on the cake. Thanks for making me feel welcome! I'm looking forward to learning more about wheel guns and my new Ruger GP100 in particular.
$200 sounds like one heck of a deal to me. Added + it can chamber 357. How does the barrel look? I wonder what added wear might be from shooting 357 through barrel stating 38 special. Perhaps none? Welcome to the forum.
I believe that Ruger marked the .357 as a .38 for some agencies for legal reasons. The agencies and /or city counsels did not want the officers armed with the "violent, deadly and politically incorrect" .357, but were OK with the .38s. It was easier to just mark a .357 as a .38.
With your GP100, you can pop off a steady diet of .357s without any harm to the frame whatsoever. So, not just the icing but you can have your cake and eat it too!
