In looking for a .38 special hand load for a lightweight S&W bodyguard revolver, to be used for self defense loads with arthritic hands, I run across
a favorite defensive load by the late Sceeter Skelton that used a hollow based lead Speer .38 wadecutter bullet seated base up in the cartridge over 5 grins of Unique.It seems like I have some of every other kind of bullet in my supplies, but not that one. Would any of you reloaders have about 12 of those bullets that you would sell to me, so that I could load a couple of cylinders full of these bullets? Or maybe work up a trade?
Chubbo



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Your location says Ohio.

This is not a great load for the days of winter when folks are in heavy fabric or leather jackets. It is fine in the summer when the clothing is T-shirts.

If your life is on the line and you need to bring your personal defense firearm into action, you should have ammunition that will get the job done.

Trading off saving your life for a bit of arthritic discomfort should be a no-brainer. Besides which you will be so pumped full of adrenalin you will probably never feel it.

Now I have several full cases of the Remington HBWCs on hand and will gladly send you some to play with. However I would advise against this as a year round defensive solution in cold weather climates

+1. You would be better to load the wadcutter the normal way and forget about any expansion in favor of penetration.

That is not a light load. There will be a bit of recoil.

The lightest I would go with is the Buffalo Bore 150 gr wadcutter load. Or the MagSafe standard pressure load.

There are some light wadcutter bullets you can get to load for practice. Check Matt"s Bullets and Penn bullets.

I have arth. in my trigger finger and at the base of my thumb. I use a S&W 442 38 spc. My wife also the same.
In my case, the recoil is not a problem. I switched to Hogue grips and that made a big difference. My wife is a little more sensitive and can only get off 1 or 2 rounds before pain sets in. So, for her she uses Hornady Lite, 90 gr. HP.
In either case, no matter the load, if a SD situation arises, I don't think either of us will notice the pain 'til it's over.
She also practices with a Rugar LCR 22 to stay sharp with the grip and trigger pull which are very much the same .
Depending on your situation, a different grip might be the answer.

As mentioned there is the light 90 and standard 110gr Hornady bullet loading from the factory............

One post on the net tested 38 snub loads in " Dynamite" and
one load was a 148 HBwc loaded backwards but it was a failure.

If you reload a 148gr HBwc seated in the normal fashion should
get around the following fps and energy.

Trail Boss 3.1grs .......cci .....680 @ 152 ME
Bullseye 3.1grs .... f100 .... 693 @ 158
Red Dot 2.8grs ......cci .......694 @ 158
Red Dot 3.3grs ......cci .......775fps @ 197 ft/lbs Heavy recoil in a 16oz J frame.

Nothing wrong with using the BBwc style bullet either.

Hope you find a load that works for you.

My experiences with reverse HBWC has not been good. Also I read an article in the mid-'80s about this load. Often, the huge cavity would just clog with fabric when shot in denim covered gel. On some bullets the cavity would collapse, and few would "mushroom". Accuracy was bad beyond 12'-15'. My own experiences were much the same; shooting into wet phone books the bullet would often come apart, clog and collapse. None of the ones I shot would mushroom. For me and my 2" .38 Special I normally get 2" groups at 10 yards with "normal" nosed bullets, the HBWC backwards would at best go 6" and mebbe 12"...