What's the story with Winchester's 150 gr. LRN loading for the .38 Special?

Winchester has always offered (and still does) the "traditional" 158 gr. LRN, so why the 150 gr.?

Its kind of interesting that this bullet appears to be the same as the one used for the
old .38 Long Colt. The recent thread(s) showcasing old .38/44 and .38 Special loads and load tables shows a few pictures and listings for the Super-X 150 gr. loading (some with Lubaloy coating, unlike today's WWB flavor).

Just curious.

Thanks,

Hunter

What's the story with Winchester's 150 gr. LRN loading for the .38 Special?

Winchester has always offered (and still does) the "traditional" 158 gr. LRN, so why the 150 gr.?

Its kind of interesting that this bullet appears to be the same as the one used for the
old .38 Long Colt. The recent thread(s) showcasing old .38/44 and .38 Special loads and load tables shows a few pictures and listings for the Super-X 150 gr. loading (some with Lubaloy coating, unlike today's WWB flavor).

Just curious.

Thanks,

Hunter

I would think it's a way of keeping the prices down. If you notice, that 150gr LRN load (Q4196) is in their USA ammo which is their lease expensive line. They have a 158gr LRN bullet in their Cowboy load (USA38CB) and their Super-X LRN load.(X38S1P)

__________________
Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437

Does anyone know what the big three ammo companies do to cut costs on the low end ammo[w-w white,Rem-Umc,and American Eagle]? Is it lower quality componants?

A few things I know about include:

- use of cheaper, non-flash suppressed powder
- cheaper bullets, such as the thinly electroplated FMJs used in Blazer Brass or Federal Champion
- less polishing of brass cases, sometimes seen on WWB

Don't know factory specs but years ago 150gr was a higher velocity round.

Jacketed with more velocity but don't know its intended purpose.

maybe they are the intended 158gr LRN bullets (for their Super-X & Cowboy loads) that get banged up during factory processing and lose a few grains of lead, hence the 150gr weight in the white box loads...

I once had a nice conversation with a long time Federal Ammunition employee who shall remain anonymous, and here is what he told me when I asked him what the difference was between American Eagle and Federal's Premium line of .45 ACP 230 grain FMJ ...........

The Packaging!

So I said yes I can see that, but what about the bullets themselves? He told me they come off the same assembly line and he also explained it was cheaper to use the same quality bullets and just change the packaging, than to actually have two different assembly lines for the same round. This way they can sell their American Eagle brand for less money (without "cheapening" their "premium line"), but in exchange for a smaller profit they are gaining market share since most bullets are fired at paper and not people. Those people who use the American Eagle ammo for practice usually buy into the "premium" line for Self Defense so it's a win - win for them.

I do not know if ALL ammo makers follow suit with ALL calibers and configurations, but his explanation of the 230 FMJ 45 acp's made sense to me.

Please note: this is not an opinion, this is just what was told to me by one of their employees about 8 or 9 years ago when I asked the question.


Chief38

I just chronographed some of the white box 150gr LRN:
844fps (average) in 6" security six; 700fps in an M36 and 696 in an M60. Both of the latter were 1 7/8" barrels.

For comparison, Magtech 158 LRN averaged 806, 655 and 661 in the same revolvers, respectively.

By the way, Armscor 158 FMJ (not +P) averaged 925 in the security six.

-Mark

Winchester USA, Remington REM-UMC and Federal American Eagle brand ammo are all considered economy target/plinking ammo. There's really no need to make their ammo with full weight bullets in some calibers in order to conserve lead. Thus we see a lot of 150LRN and 130FMJ in 38Spl, 165FMJ in 40S&W and 185FMJ in 45ACP (especially with Winchester).

Sounds like it is a RN 148 wc........................
with that 700 fps out of a snub nose.

Never know, it might be a shooter !!