Doing some reading and I'm kinda wishing this cartridge never went away. I get it, after .357 it was superfluous, but the factory loading went on for a couple decades after the .357 and it's kinda sad it went away. It's still much more potent than .38 Special +P, and not far off of .357.
.38 High Speed will tear the crap out of a Colt Police Positive, and to a lesser degree, the S&W M&P. But the post war M&P's can handle it just fine, and any of the medium to larger frame Colts could handle it quite well. For a pre-WWII LE carry gun, the Colt Official Police with High Speed loads was a pretty slick setup.
For the stouter .38 Specials like the SAA, Colt's New Service, and S&W's Heavy Duty, the .38 High Speed made for a decent load in the field, and could easily do anything a .357 magnum could do.
Looking at old 1930's ammunition catalogs, there were a surprising number of loads available for the High Spee. LSWCHP's, Semi-Wadcutter, Round nose, FMJ, Metal Piercing, and even some light bullet speed demons in the 110-125gr range. It was a legit cartridge at one point.
For handloaders, the High Speed is still an option. But it would be cool to see a return to the original 158gr loading at 1150fps from the factory as a defensive load. The only revolvers it's not safe in are crap revolvers to begin with and probably marginal for even +P.
wasn’t that a 38/44? I have a load in my K frames and Ruger SP101 (38 spl only) that duplicates that.
