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Not all .38 Special cases are the same. Some, especially those factory-loaded with full wadcutter bullets, may be thinner in the case walls down near the web/case head. Those would not be as good for magnum pressure levels as the .38 Special +P cases. Other .38 Special cases that are not marked as +P MAY be as strong as +P cases, but it pays to look at your cases carefully and think this through.
As for loading bullets long in Special cases to achieve Magnum performance, that is not quite right.
For one thing, .38 Special cases loaded to .357 Magnum COLs WILL fit in .38 Special chambers UNLESS the gun has a short cylinder that leaves those cartriges sticking out the front so that it ties-up the rotation. SO, there is no safety in the longer COLs with respect to keeping them out of guns where they might be dangerous.
And, with respect to the Ray Thompson design bullets with the two crimp grooves, even loading to the bottom groove in a .38 Special case does not produce a COL or internal powder space that is quite as large as loading to the top groove in a .357 Magnum case. So, CHARGE WEIGHT ADJUSTMENT is needed to avoid exceeding SAAMI pressure limits when going for Magnum pressures in Special cases with those bullets; it is just a different adjustment factor than if both were loaded so that they crimped in the top groove.
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