Let's assume for a moment that I, for whatever reason, wanted to try some of those Armscor .357 158 grain FMJ bullets that have appeared on the market for loading .38 Special. Interestingly, these bullets have no cannelure, yet they are apparently intended for revolver! No dice for roll crimp. Taper crimp or just give up the idea? What do you guys think?

Without a crimping grove the bullets are best with light target loads.
If used in light weight revolvers, recoil can be greater and more
of a chance for bullet travel in or out of the case, if there is not
enough case friction on the bullet.

I have yet to try any bullet w/o a can. since I might want to try
a medium heavy load with any of my bullets and do not want to
be limited in my loads.

Good luck.

I have used them and in fact I am reloading some .357 loads with those exact bullets tonight. I have no problem with them pulling out under recoil in either .38 Special or .357 loadings. They are darn hard to remove using an inertia bullet puller. Takes about 10 whacks.

I load Berry's 158 gr plated with no cantor with 9.5 gr of 2400.
But only shoot them out of my 1931 S&W HD or a N frame 357.
Good solid tapered crimp.

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I use a light roll crimp with my Lee Factory Crimp die (1/2 turn) and have no problems.
I have tried a heavy roll crimp (1 turn plus), and pulled the bullet.
There was a nice grove about 1 mm deep, but the plating was not broken. I did not shoot any, I just wanted to test the limits for crimping damage.

Best,
Rick

For a revolver, you can crimp slightly over the ogive, where the nose starts to round. Might have to adjust the load down a little due to less powder space.

Thanks, Guys. DWalt, may I ask what crimp you are using, if any?

Just the plain standard RCBS seating die adjusted to give a little resistance at the top of the stroke.

A Lee Factory Crimp die can be used for bullet that don't have a crimp groove supplied by the manufacture and it works well IMO.
https://fsreloading.com/lee-precisio...num-90861.html

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Basic revolver reloading 101; bullets with a cannalure or crimp groove use a roll crimp. Bullets with no groove or cannalure use a taper crimp. That's the way they were designed. But just like everything else in life there are exceptions, which will come up under different conditions (don't have the proper die, light target loads, seating bullet outside of cannalure/groove, etc.). Roll crimping into the side of smooth bullets can be done, but it can also cut through plating, coating, and even some jackets, resulting in barrel leading and loss of accuracy. In your case, taper crimp the smooth sided bullets...

Good info Rick, I was wondering how much turn on the FCD you could get away with when using plated bullets.. (im assuming that's what you were loading)
thanks for experimenting and posting results

From my experience using these Armscor 158gr bullets with their slightly concave bases, having no cannelure, being round nosed and very smooth, they are the most accurate bullet I've used to date in my custom 13" Contender barrel loaded full house out of 357 Maximum brass at 100yds. They are the best buy out there in my opinion if you're in the market for a jacketed bullet if accuracy is your only goal and not expansion.
These are the first brass jacketed bullets I've ever used. I know brass is harder than copper and maybe these wear the barrel more than using copper jacketed, who knows? I bet it would take using tens of k's to tell the difference however.

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Where we go one, we go all

I have been shooting alot of LeHigh Defense's 110gr .308 that are CNC machined brass alloy bullets. They are hands down, without a doubt the most accurate bullets I've ever shot.... however.. I do wonder the price my barrel is paying for all that accuracy