Just looking for a good HBWC in 38 special. Who has the deals on them?

The options are rather limited these days lots of solid base available. Right now I'm using Hornady or Speer. Remington's are great if you can find them. The other option would be to cast your own, MP mold offers a HBWC for around 120 bucks if you shoot a lot and have access to lead it's a money saving way to go.

I have not used these bullets but have heard good things about their 38 HBWC's.

https://www.precisiondelta.com/

I have used about 10,000 of the Precision Delta 38 HBWS with the "match lube" and found them to be a very good product. Reasonable price and very fast shipping. It is a swaged bullet.

Mostly I have used Hornady for lead, or Berry's for plated.

Zero 148 gn lead HBWC. Canpro (Canadian) 148 gn played HBWC.

4.2 gn Tightgroup in .38 Special (fired out of my 686 AFS) and 2.4 gn Mulwex AP50N out of my Victory .38 S&W.

I like the ones from Precision Delta.

My LGS usually has the Speer 500 round box, but they were out of them yesterday. Had to make do with LSWC and LSWCHP's.

I've been loading Hornadys, I think they load up easier, at least in my Rock Chucker.

Both of these are excellent bullets. I like the 'dry lube' (??) that they have, I've shot tons of them and never had a lead problem if I didn't push velocity. They also make good SWCs that are soft swaged, so they fit the barrel easy. I'd shot a few thousand out of my old model 10 and when I sold it the deal thought that though the bluing was worn, it hadn't been shot much.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I shot a bunch of the Hornady swaged HBWC years ago. I would buy them at the LGS, back in the pre-interweb days. I just recently fired the last of them, the box was dated 1992.

These days I cast my own with an old Ideal 358495 mold. Not a hollow base, but works just fine for the shooting I do now.

Bear Creek offers a LHBWC that is moly-coated if you're into that sort of thing.
Most believe that they are out of business, but they are not. Shut down the website due to too much business.
Located in northern California near Truckee.

When I did load HBWC's I used Zero and the ones that Dillon sold at the time. I stopped using them about 25 years ago because I was heavily into PPC shooting and switched to 158 grain RNL for ease of speed loading into the Cylinder in a hurry. I also got a lot less leading from the RNL and I use RNL to this day. I was not interested in loading both bullets at the time since time was precious.

I do still have about 1,000 rounds or so of HBWC's loaded up but only shoot them from one specific Revolver (a pre M15) in which they are super accurate and for some reason don't lead up that particular gun.

Another vote for Precision Delta.

Ed

Thanks for your input folks.. I have used hornady bullets but have found them to be a little messy. So I just ordered some precision delta HBWC w/ match lube. I'm sure they will do the job!

148gn swaged hollow base wadcutters:
Remington
Zero
Magnus
Precision Delta
where Remington has been my first choice since the stone age.

Speer and Hornady are worthless in my S&W M52s.

I cast my own.



Don

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NRA Cert. Reloading Instructor

USSR --=--
Man, those bullets are beautiful! What mold is that please?

MP 358495. Brass mould made in Slovenia.

Don

__________________
NRA Cert. Reloading Instructor

Hornady and Speer 148gr HBWC. I used them interchangeably and bought either depending on best price and availability.

With these 148 gr HBWC, I used 2.7 grs Bullseye - Mid Range classic - this was my target round. I used 3.5 grs Bullseye under 158 gr LRN as my "Police Service" equivalent.

38 Special is "Apple Pie" American!

USSR --=--
Thank you for the rapid reply and information! Nice site with lots of cool molds.

I think this will be my next step. I can get nice lead from my gun club very cheap.

Then keep your eye out for some solder so you can add some tin to your gun club lead.

Don

__________________
NRA Cert. Reloading Instructor

Mihec makes excellent molds. I cast hbwc's with his molds also. A picture of:
32cal hbwc's
35cal hbwc's
44cal hbwc's
45cal hbwc's


What's missing in the picture is the 41cal hbwc's, don't cast them very often. Another good hb bullet for the 35cal's is the lyman 358431 "keith" bullet.


That hollow based swc bullet shoots lights out in everything I've tried it in.

Another interesting hb bullet is the rounf flat nosed hollow based lyman 35870 bullet. It was designed and 1st sold in 1900 for the 38lc. It's also extremely accurate and can be used in any 35cal. A pictureof a 10-shot group @50yds using the 35870 in a 9mm.


Don't limit yourself to hbwc's. The hb swc's and rn/rfn's are just as accurate.