Picked up a box of 38 special +P, and I see the end is exposed lead.
Am I right in assuming the S stands for soft, as in a soft lead tip?

Also, why would one choose this configuration over "standard" JHP?

Thanks in advance.

SJHP is a semi-jacketed hollow point. It was designed to give you the expansion of a normal hollow point with, supposedly, more penetration. This has always been my understanding.

Has it been proven to achieve that objective? I've not seen much discussion on that topic.

I think it's "scolloped", Remington made them.

They send off fragments, when expanding; a good thing, for stopping power.

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NRA Instructor

This one out of a 41 Magnum went through the spare tire, tail gate, front seat back, and into the dashboard radio of a 70's Ford Bronco.


I made a tie tack out of it. Told people I din't need no bullet proof vest. My tie was good enough.

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Eccentric old coot

Semi Jacketed. Note jacket will engage rifling, but you have softer lead exposed. Should work like a JHP and moderately expand at higher speeds which could cause fragmenting of a JHP. Used quite a bit for hunting so as to cause less meat damage.

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Certified Curmudgeon

I stock up on and carry .38 Special +P 125 Grain SJHP in both Remington Green Box and Winchester White Box. I can shoot both loads rapidly and accurately out of my snubs. I also like a carry load I can train and practice with, and still eat the next day. Both loads are more about excellent penetration with moderate expansion. Expansion will improve with barrel length, but I've never worshiped at the altar of expansion so I've no concerns there. If I do my job, it'll do it's job.

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Ad Astra Per Aspera

I would advise you to go talk with your city's Coroner and get his response.
I have attended many Coroner's examinations to evaluate the "cause of death".
After a few,, it became ho-hum for me. But I also knew many "seasoned" LEO's who always puked.
The worst were "hummers" who were found out in the canyons or forests which were full of blow flies and swollen up.
I had to teach these "rookies how to cut a branch, make a backward sharp point so when you had to release the pressure in a swelled up dead body, in order to get the zipper to close up completely",
I once had a young Deputy on the scene who just used his belt knife to release the belly pressure to get the zipper to close up.
The internal pressure inside the corpse just blew out all over this 6 foot 6 inch tall Deputy, and he fell over fainted!
Took 30 minutes to revive him,and he went home for the day after he regained consciousness!
Things like this ARE NOT taught at the ACADEMY !

Quote "This one out of a 41 Magnum went through the spare tire, tail gate, front seat back, and into the dashboard radio of a 70's Ford Bronco."

Iggy, I'll bet there's an interesting story to go with that.

Kid in a stolen Bronco tried to run me down.. I came up shooting.

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Eccentric old coot

Too bad he didn't do chrono info. I've seen 940 in 4" .38.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

A semi-jacketed hollowpoint is simply one way to build a jacketed hollowpoint, with the jacket covering the bearing surface of the bullet but not the nose. No big difference in performance between SJHP's and most other hollowpoints, and no particular advantage or disadvantage to them

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Pisgah

^^^ that. A Remington marketing strategy. A good round but nothing spectacular compared to other brand JHP.

Take a look at the SJHP performance at the Lucky Gunner site. I was actually fairly impressed. Excellent expansion with both the 125 sjhp and the 158 sjhp at moderate velocities. Based on the FBI standards they out performed most others when fired into gel. Did much better than some of the fancy "defense" ammo out there.

Semi-jacketed hollow point is the way I see it too.

The exposed lead makes it a bit easier for the bullet to start expanding at moderate velocities. Or at least it did way back in time when this bullet was designed. It works, works well, why mess with success? BTW, when the 125 gr is driven at magnum velocities the bullet nose tends to fragment, creating secondary wound tracks. The remaining base generally weighs <50 grs.

I've occasionally wondered when this bullet came out in .38. It appears to be a reduced scale version of the Remington SJHP .44 Magnum bullet. At the time that one was introduced it had the most extensive/expensive development process in the industry up to that time. I've still got the first one of those I used on a white tail. Most impressive. IIRC it's about 7/8" OD with no weight loss.

I have heard them referred to a short jacketed and semi jacketed. And yes some were/are scalloped supposedly to help them to start expanding. Always thought they were pretty good bullets. Was given a few boxes at Remington Farms back in the day when I worked there. Their Core Lokt soft points were the first real bonded bullets in rifle ammo and was usually accurate. I kinda had the impression they were an off shoot of the core lokt

Well the box says "semi jacketed hollow point" so there's that.
It's an old-school round that performs well even up against the latest whiz-bang, $1.50 per round hollow points.
I've been carrying the 125 grain .38 special +P load in my Model 65 (and several others) for near a decade.
I like that I can actually practice with my carry load and still make the house payment!

The S is for semi as in semi-jacketed, not scalloped, not short. No box of bullets or loaded rds was labeled short or scalloped. There was full metal jacket bullets, all lead bullets and then the bullet design between - semi jacketed. It was for semi as being partially jacketed, not all lead and not full metal jacket. SJHP rds were available well before there were any scalloped bullets. We were reloading semi jacketed bullets in the late 1950s. I used mostly Speer but others made the same style. Some factory loaded semi jacketed bullets you couldn't see the jacket as it was seated in the case and only the lead portion was exposed. As another mentioned the all lead bullets leaded barrels quickly when pushed too fast. To prevent this we either used lead bullets with a gas check or semi jacketed bullets.

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183rd FBINA

Groo here
The SJHP is an early design jacketed hp .
The work thus, the lead nose is soft and unsupported and deform
at low speed and/or very quickly.
The jacket stays intact [depending on the impact speed] taking the high pressure of firing [magnums].
Works nice in 38spec type rounds.
In magnums, the bullet deforms very fast on impact [no jacket to slow it down] making big hole and the base holds together to drive deeply.
"Sounds like a Partition bullet!"
The 125gr 357 mag from most of the "Big" suppliers are built this way,
and are one of the reasons the 357 has such a rep......