38 S&W cartridges are larger than 38 Specials and not interchangeable. Loaded blanks in a nice vintage box would probably fetch a dollar or more per round if you found the right buyer. I’ve seen them sell at gun shows.Had two boxes of 50 each, .38 cal. blanks from the 40's or even before; they were Win., marked .38 S&W but wouldn't actually fit in a .38 revolver; too fat! Maybe for a specific blank gun. Anyway, I popped the cardboard wadding out of each one, and harvested just over 2 oz. of nice 4F black-powder! For flint priming. Saved the neat looking old-school boxes as collectibles. The powder looks like it was milled yesterday!
Interesting! I don't see me getting $50/box though, for 'em. If it won't fit, no one that I ever see at a show would want them. Great to know, thanks!!
38 S&W is larger because it is a different cartridge than 38 Special. It dates back to the 1870's (38 Special was developed in the late 1890's) and guns were still being made for it into the 1970's. There are a lot of guns out there chambered for it. S&W, H&R and Iver Johnson revolvers are common finds in that caliber and many other brands are out there as well. Cartridge collectors buy the old boxes and there are always people looking for regular ball ammo ti shoot as well.
There used to be device called a "tornado gun" used to drive fasteners into brick and concrete, it took cartridge cases which looked like blanks and were stamped 38 S&W , as far as I know they were filled with very fast burning smokeless powder, too fast to reload with
