Been following your story here.

by Catoosa, Monday, September 26, 2016, 10:06 (2983 days ago) @ Hoot

Hoot, the .38 Super has a long and storied history. Colt made a mistake when they originally cut the chambers in the same way as they had on the older .38acp pistols, so that the round headspaced on a tiny portion of the rim. Many of the older Supers gave poor accuracy, and that hurt the round's popularity.

For several years the only cure for an inaccurate Super was a new barrel, usually from Bar-sto. It wasn't until the early 1980s that Colt began headspacing the barrels on the case mouth like the .45 and 9mm. They were losing market share to other manufacturers who figured out how to make .38 Super guns shoot VERY accurately.

One of the apocryphal stories about the .38 Super dealt with it's role in the demise of one Lester Gillis, aka "Baby Face Nelson" in November 1934. Nelson, his wife Helen, and John Chase were driving from Wisconsin to Chigago when they were spotted by two FBI agents. A running gun battle ensued, during which one of the agents put several .38 Super rounds through the engine compartment of Nelson's Ford, holing the radiator and smashing the water pump. Nelson's car overheated and eventually stalled, allowing two more agents to catch up with the fugitives. Nelson killed both agents in a raging gunfight in the middle of the highway, but was mortally wounded in the exchange and died a few hours later.