My buddies father died earlier this year and left him a Colt Army 1901 .38

The gun is in perfect condition, we are just not sure if 38spl will fire through this gun.

The cartridge will fit into the cylinder.

Any help?

The 1901 is in a grouping of Colts that are pretty hard to identify correctly.  I'd say the first step is to actually insure exactly what model Colt it really is.  

The reason I say this is that there is no Army 1901.  There is a New Army 1901, but there are several other "New Army" models as well, and several other models that have "Army" in there name.  

The best thing to do is figure out what exactly it is first.  Can you post any pics?  Can you describe any markings?  What else can you tell us?  Do you have a Serial Number (leave the last two digits as an XX for security)?  From that we can tell you what it is and when it was made.  The good thing is that the S/N series was continuous throughout the various sub-models, so serial number will tell us a bunch.

Ross