Granny’s pistol

[HFS]

OP --
Are you SURE the frame is actually cracked?
That line by the screw looks like the edge of the revolver's side plate.
On older S&W K frames, they also had a screw just like that (was called the "four screw model" if I remember right), but with the S&W craftsmen of the day, the edge of the side plate was almost invisible, unless you knew what you were looking at.

 

[SoonerP226]

Will a .357mag chamber in a .38 special?

Not sure, but that was my first thought...

Not unless the chamber is bad or you have a BFH. .357Mag is 0.10" longer specifically to prevent it from being accidentally chambered in a .38.

I'm guessing that's a metallurgical/repeated stress failure; pressure failures in wheelguns tend to present in the cylinder.

ETA: Or it could just be the top of the side plate...

 

[HFS]

....
Edit was going off in different direction I think.

 

[undeg01]

OP --
Are you SURE the frame is actually cracked?
That line by the screw looks like the edge of the revolver's side plate.
On older S&W K frames, they also had a screw just like that (was called the "four screw model" if I remember right), but with the S&W craftsmen of the day, the edge of the side plate was almost invisible, unless you knew what you were looking at.

By golly, I think you are right! I got it under a bright light with a magnifying glass and it is indeed where the side plate meets up with the frame. It looks like a crack because the gap is so pronounced but when looking with a magnifying glass, you can see the line continue into the cylinder housing and makes two perfect right angles. Fractures typically do not occur at a right angle, much less two concurrently.

I’m glad I asked here. Thanks, all!

 

[HFS]

Also, as far as chambering .357 mag in a .38 Special, I have heard (but never seen) the following:
Some of the World War II S&W Victory Model K frames made for the British in the shorter, fatter old .38 S&W cartridge (known as .38/200 to the Brits) were imported back to the U.S. in the 50s and 60s.
A bunch of these guns had the chambers reamed out to take the longer, skinnier .38 Special (and would bulge or split the cases when fired).
Supposedly some of these guns were so sloppily re-chambered that they would take .357 mag ammo.
If you believe the Warren Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald used one of the Victory model revolvers to murder a Dallas police officer who stopped him for questioning after the Kennedy assassination in 1963.

 

[hunter966]

That’s a pretty cool grannie and the story she left.