Back in the early '80s, I stumbled onto a Colt '70 Series Super at a great price. Naturally, I snagged it up, and went on to work it over in a devoted IPSC shooter's way, adjustable sights, beavertail, stippled frontstrap, and a Barsto barrel (because we all knew Colt Super barrels weren't very good, right?). I shot it quite a bit, but didn't bother with going for "Major Class" ammo, I stuck with factory equivalent stuff, though I usually substituted a good cast RN bullet of my own making. It was a joy to shoot, didn't kick much, and it was accurate with BOTH barrels, though I usually used the Colt barrel for my cast bullet loads.
Things happen, as we all know, and I had to sell it to fund another project (I'd gotten into prairie dogging by then).
Early this spring, a buddy showed up at the range with a new Colt Classic in .38 Super, and it got the old juices flowing again. It's a really, really nice pistol, pretty basic, compared to my old "built" gun, but nice as heck.
I got to looking for one, and there just were NONE to be had, anywhere. I did the next best thing, and picked up a Springfield Range Officer in 9mm. It's a very nice pistol, pretty much exactly like the old Colt I'd had before. That's a  nice, fun, soft-shooting pistol, but not quite a Super. Hmmmmmm.
So, I rounded up some Super magazines, have been rounding up factory Super ammo, and I'm now waiting on a new Barsto Super barrel to swap into the Springer. Most of you know that the 9mm and .38 Super share the same dimensions in the breechface (even the same shellplate for the Dillon 550). I've run some dummy Super cases into the 9mm chamber (no, they don't go in all the way) and they seem to function smoothly enough. There might be a little hiccup with extraction, but adjusting a 1911's extractor is not rocket science.
Barsto says I've got about a 12-14 week wait for the barrel, so it will be a good Christmas present for myself. I can hardly wait. It's gonna be good to be back into the Super, they're more fun than they ought to be.

Welcome back to the super.

I picked up a 38 super barrel years ago for my Witness Match with the intent to have it reamed to 9X25.  I never got around to having it reamed and I am glad of it.

That barrel now resides pretty much permanently in my Witness Stock III as a dedicated 38 super platform.  I run Starline 38 Super-comp brass and have no issues loading up to major when I want.  Great ballistics, low recoil and a nice overall package.

The 38 super certainly lives up to it's name.

38 Super is one cartridge I haven't got to document any commercial offerings.  It would be interesting to see what's under the hood of Underwood's, Double Tap's & other offerings...

The only factory ammo I shot in my first Super was a box of WW Silvertips (and I had to run them thru a 9mm taper crimp die to keep the bullets from set-back). Everything else was handloads, for many years.

This new "convertible" Super will get some PMC factory ammo to start off with, and I managed to dig into my old "stash" and found some more ammo I thought I'd given away when I sold the other Super, it is 125 LRN with 5.5gr. Unique, basically a decent 9mm load. My "real-deal" handloads pretty much matched Underwood's 115 and 125 loads, but I didn't use them much, as I'm pretty easy-going when it comes to handloads. I don't see much advantage to having a case-head separation in a worn-out case (though I did have a couple with some range pick-up brass). Those didn't scare me, but made me be cautious for the most part. I've had those with .45 ACP and 10mm, too, also with old worn-out cases that should have been scrapped.
I think it will be a fun gun to fool with, it's already fun with 9mm, but I think the Super will be "more funnerer" than a 9mm. I especially like that this new pistol has a ramped barrel (and so is the new Barsto), which will give me some extra safety if I do decide to rev things up a notch or two.

     Being an old time IPSC shooter, we too succumbed to the .38 Super years ago. Still have an old school Colt built by Bud Price back in the '80s; cool full house two tone gun complete with S&W K sights set down in the slide.  Gun was set aside after chasing major loads proved more trouble than it was worth. It is, however, a great field gun.

We recently re-kindled our interest in the Super with the acquisition of a .38 Super DW CCO 1911.  The link below tells the tale. 

 
http://www.thegunmag.com/classic-caliber-revisiting-the-38-super/

I too shot the super at IPSC and steel shoots in the early 80's, but I dumped it because back then case blowouts from the unsupported Colt barrels was an issue and I eventually dumped my two super chambered Colts.

I loaded the little 9mm after that for a while, but wound up with the 10 and .45 exclusively mostly because these had no issues knocking down poppers setup on a windy day where the 9mm often failed. Nowadays, stronger super brass and commonly available supported barrels made the super an attractive addition to my casting for the .357 Sig.

Fast forward to a few years ago, I got a Witness Limited Pro, one each a 5" Springfield and a Colt 1911, and a 6" RIA in Super. The super in a 6" (not comped) supported barrel is a hoot to shoot. Recoil (especially in the long slide) is laughably low, reloading is easy, and the super runs my 139 and 149 grain powder coated bullets with aplomb.   

So I guess I can also say I've also revisited the super... It's a good thing I still had dies and a setup for the 550 press :-)

I'm still patiently waiting on my Barsto, but they DID say it that they were running 12-14 weeks, and it's just now been 12 weeks. Who knows, it might be longer due to the holidays, Covid, shipping woes, etc.  I've accumulated about 400 rounds of new PMC ammo, some spare magazines, and enough springs to work out which ones will be needed to avoid beating the frame and slide up (not that it would be very bad in any case). I've still got some of my old handloads, too.

The Range Officer pistol I'm using as a basis is a very good pistol, and is just now starting to "come around" to shooting to it's abilities. It's a really fun gun to shoot and I'm looking forward to that.

The Range Officer is well done.

I just got word that my barrel should be done by the end of the week. I am really looking forward to getting it up and running.

I just got an email that my barrel is on it's way, if FedEx doesn't lose it somewhere in the process. I'm not a fan of FedEx, the local driver just dumps stuff on the doorstep instead of knocking on the door, which leaves the porch pirates an open field. Happily enough, I'm at home most of the time, so the pirates don't get much of a chance at my "stuff". According to the email, I should have it in a couple of days. We'll see.

Barsto must be pretty busy, the website quoted 12-14 weeks, and now it's on week 18................

I got my .38 Super barrel from Barsto today, it plugged right into the slide just fine, but the bushing was too tight and wouldn't fit the slide (and it was really tight to the barrel, too). No matter, really, as it's a good fit on the Springfield bushing, only a couple thousandths "loose" on the new barrel. It should shoot pretty good, when it warms up a bit, I'll find out!

I've been really looking forward to the swapover from 9mm to .38 Super. I'd stocked up on magazines and some factory PMC stuff that is loaded pretty mildly (1100fps, according to the box end), it should be okay to run it with the 12.5lb. spring I was already running in the 9mm. I DO have a variety of spring weights to change it over if it seems to beat up the slide, or sling brass into West Virginia. The extractor fit seems to work okay, working some ammo thru the action seemed to work smoothly and decisively. I don't think I'll have any problems with the "new" gun at all.

Since the barrel came in a couple of weeks ago, I've been shooting the "new" .38 Super a fair amount. At this point, with 250 rounds downrange, I've had zero malfunctions of any sort (wouldn't expect any with RN bullets), zero extraction issues, and danged if it doesn't shoot better than the 9mm barrel it came with originally. All things considered, it's just a wonderful pistol.

I am running a 12.5lb spring in it, and the brass just sorta rolls off my right shoulder and drops in a neat pile about 5 feet back at the 4 o'clock position (in 9mm, it does the same thing, only a foot closer to me). I have yet to lose a single piece of brass, either (all new PMC), and some old handloads I had from my Colt Super from the waybackwhens. It's just one heckuva nice pistol now (as it was as a 9mm), and seems to be flawless.

I think I've got a real winner here. Fun to shoot, almost recoil-free, and smooth as glass. And I can always swap it back to 9mm when .38 Super ammo is difficult to find.