Elmer Keith on the Chief's Special

Many people don't know who Elmer Keith was. Well, it's been about 25 years since he died, so many of the younger crew can sorta be excused, due to their youthfulness. It's also true that many people have never read Elmer's book "Sixguns" and as a result, they have continuing questions about the strength of the steel J frame S&W. Here are some Chief's Special excerpts from "Sixguns", with the chapter and page number for the location in the original edition.

History of the Sixgun (original page # 45)
In addition to these fine arms, the Company has also brought out two new and very interesting undercover arms for detectives and plain clothesmen and also to be carried as secondary hidden arms by peace officers and the F.B.I. One is the little Chief’s Special with 2 inch barrel and five shots in caliber .38 Special having a weight in the steel frame of only 19 ounces, and in the aluminum alloy frame of only 10 ¾ ounces. The other is the Smith & Wesson Centennial model. This is a hammerless two inch barrel job, weighing 19 ounces in steel, and much lighter in the aluminum alloy frame but slightly heavier than the 10 ¾ ounce Chiefs Special. The little Chiefs Special has the new short action and the Centennial has an entirely new coil spring action, entirely double action. The Chiefs Special can be cocked and fired single action and is very accurate for its extremely light weight. Both arms are five-shot and both chambered for the .38 Special cartridge and while S. & W. do not advertise the fact, both guns will perfectly handle the .38/44 and other high speed ammunition in .38 Special. We recently made a test run of 500 rounds of this high speed ammunition through each of these guns with no ill effects we could detect either visually or by careful measurement of cylinders and rear ends of the barrels.

Selecting the Handgun (original page # 64)
In true pocket guns for defense use, the best we know of today are the Smith & Wesson Centennial and the Chief’s Special and the Colt Cobra. The Smith & Wesson 2 inch barrel, round butt Military and Police model may be added to this list. These are true pocket guns – all capable of handling the various high speed and super police loads in .38 Special. The smallest and lightest of the lot is, of course, the Chief’s Special with light alloy metal frame. Next come the Smith & Wesson Centennial and the Colt Cobra and lastly the detective specials in Smith & Wesson and Colt. For a true pocket gun the 2 inch barrel is about right. The safest of all pocket guns is the Centennial Smith &Wesson, but Colt also makes a hammer shroud covering the hammer of the Cobra, if desired.

Selecting the Handgun (original page # 65)
This five-shot feature of these little guns enables them to handle heavy loads because the bolt-cuts do not come over the center of a chamber as is true of all six-shot weapons. Rather, the bolt-cut, or indent, is between the charge-holes on these five-shot weapons. This feature allows full thickness of chamber metal over the cartridge case and the little guns will handle High Speed .38 Special ammunition perfectly in spite of their very light weight. Recoil, of course, is very severe from these loads in such extremely light weight guns, but the guns will take it and any man would rather have a sore hand than a slug through his middle. Another feature that adds greatly to the strength of the two little Smith & Wessons is the fact that their cylinders extend forward almost to the frame and leave very little of the rear end of the barrel projecting out of the frame unsupported. The springs are coil an almost unbreakable. They are very reliable little guns. The Chief’s Special is very accurate for aimed single action fire, while the Centennial can only be used double action. On the other hand the Chief’s Special has a hammer that can catch on the corner of a pocket or on the clothes while the Centennial is as clean as a hounds tooth.

Revolver vs Auto Pistol (original page # 194)
The revolver will function reliably in temperatures that will jam any automatic. It will also handle more mud, snow, dust or sand and keep on shooting than will any auto pistol. In either double action or single action, for men trained in its use, it is faster to get into action for the first shot than an auto. The cylinder gun is usually a bit more bulky to carry than the auto pistol, but in small guns it is nearly as compact and handy. The little Chief's Special or Centennial Smith & Wessons are lighter and more compact guns to carry in the pocket than is any comparably powerful auto pistol. These little guns will both handle .38 Special or .38/44 ammunition, and only the Super .38 compares with them in power. The clean high sights on target revolvers are much better for long range work than the low sights on nearly all automatics.

The .38/44 or Hi-Speed .38 Special load produced 1090 fps with a 158 gr lead semi-wadcutter (LSWC), according to the 1973 Gun Digest, page 307. That's considerably more than +P ammunition that's produced today. The round was developed and marketed around 1930, 5 years before the .357 Magnum was introduced.