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38 Special Lead Hollow Point

terry2425

terry2425

.270 WIN
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I've been experimenting with a 158 grain lead hollow point in 38 Special that is sub-sonic. I have a single cavity hollow point mold and finally came up with an alloy in soft lead that expands very nicely. It's 98 percent pure lead, 1 percent antimony and 1 percent tin. The cartridge is loaded with 3.1 grains of W 231 and has a velocity of 715 FPS from a 4 inch barrel.

Great round for a 2 inch 38 Special for concealed carry with very little recoil.
 
To the best of my knowledge, virtually all 38 special is subsonic. Even +P and especially 158's.

I really like the expansion of that lead pill.
 
Hi Terry.

Steven A. Camp wrote a lot of reports on the lead 158-gr SWHP .38-Special load. Have you ever visited hipowersandhandguns.com?

He was a really great guy and is missed by so many of us.

I like your results on the cast loads you are making. Great job!
 
terry2425 said:
I have .... finally come up with an alloy in soft lead that expands very nicely. It's 98 percent pure lead, 1 percent antimony and 1 percent tin. The cartridge .... has a velocity of 715 FPS from a 4 inch barrel.

Great round for a 2 inch 38 Special for concealed carry with very little recoil.
Click to expand...

I see the pic is two years old. The bullets look like they were fired into wet pack or something similar, am I right?

Terry, that load would definitely recoil very softly from even a 2" J-Frame. Those probably hum out the barrel of a 2" revolver at around 650~680 or so depending on the individual gun.

So the velocity window you mention would wreck any hopes of mine that these slow 158-gr HP bullets of yours would ever expand with any consistency. My 2" J-frame revolvers when loaded with hand loaded ammo use 148-gr cast DEWCs going as fast as I feel safe to push them (850-ish fps), as I have no delusions that any hollow point bullet from a 2" .38-Special will expand. The Remington Express "FBI" round R38S12 also was a very soft lead alloy and had a HUGE hollow cavity but they were clocking a lot faster than <700-fps thru 2" guns. Remington loaded them to +P in order to get some semblance of expansion.

I look forward to more discussion with you about this ammo. Are you selling it thru your business? I'd love to shoot your 715-gr load thru four-inch revolvers all day long!!!

Again, thanks for a very good thread in the Ammunition section. It is much appreciated!
 
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Nitesite, the bullets were shot into what I call "poor man's gel". Old computer paper soaked in water for several days. The bullet is shot through a jug of water into the soaked paper. Works pretty well. When I have a little time, I'm going to change the alloy and do some more testing for velocity and expansion. I would be happy to send you some sample rounds of the finished cartridge.
 
There is no leading, the bullet is traveling to slow. The bullet has 3 lube rings and I use a high quality bullet lube. After the bullet is sized and lubed in the Star lubricator/sizer, the bullet is dipped in a mixture of alox, Johnson's paste wax and mineral spirits and allowed to dry. So the bullet actually has two bullet lubes on it. Works very well.
 
Terry, I love the miracle of 45:45:10 JPW:LLA:MS mix. It works great!! I have boiled down several cans of JPW and then added the LLA and then at the very end some MS> Dries fast on the bullet and leaves practically no residue in the bore. Until I found out about powder coating this was my favorite way to tumble lube boolits!!

What you describe as a bullet trap medium is what I have always called "wet pack". It seems to give pretty consistent results.

Sample rounds? That would be most appreciated. I'm getting a new range built at my house and it would be fun to do a review of a few of them.
 
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