148 Grain HBWC Defense Load

[LoboGunLeather]

Back in the 1970's we used remanufactured ammo (factory reloads) for range qualifications. 148-grain HBWC at modest velocities. Occasionally there would be a few rounds found with the hollow base loaded forward. No problems noted and accuracy was good at 50 feet (indoor range).

One of our plainclothes officers kept his Model 36 loaded with those rounds and was engaged in a shoot out with an armed bad guy at pointblank range. Medical examiner (very experienced with gunshot wounds) said it was the most devastating handgun wound he'd ever seen. Lower abdomen hit, massive internal damage, suspect dropped and died almost immediately.

I experimented with these loads in .38 Special quite a bit. Bullseye charges of about 2.8 grains seemed to work quite well. Very controllable, good accuracy at shorter ranges (never tried any longer ranges, as this was intended as a close range defensive load for short-barreled revolvers). Never attempted any magnum loads, or hotrod .38 Special loads, because these soft swaged lead bullets will cause serious leading when subjected to intense heat and pressure.

At one point I had my machinist nephew turn out a die for my lubri-sizer machine that would turn the hollow base into a semi-round nose, which made it much easier to load from speedstrips or speedloaders.

There are much better defensive loads available, more so now than 30 years ago. I still like the Federal .38 Spl. +P 158-grain SWC-HP (so-called "FBI load"). A good 125-grain to 140-grain JHP in .38 Spl. +P also looks like a good choice for close range personal defense. Speer Gold Dot ammo has impressed me in just about every caliber I've tried, with excellent accuracy and good "paper ballistics" (I haven't gotten into chronographs or ballistic gel testing).

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to carry some good hard cast SWC 150-160 grain loads. Probably won't expand much, if at all, but the bullets can be counted on to stay in one piece and penetrate well in just about anything. Since it looks like we will all have to get back into handloading seriously if we want to have ammo supplies, this is probably how I will proceed for .38 Specials.

 

[hotrod150]

....I would think that a SLOW lead 158 SWC standard or HP would at least give you deep penetration, where the 148gr might stop at the breast bone or minimal penetration if a rib is hit.....

Do you really think there's gonna be that much difference between the 158 & the 148? That's only about 7% lighter. I do think the lack of penetration might be an issue with the lighter faster 125 & 135 gr JHP ammo that's so popular now-- lighter weight plus maybe too violently expanding (and possible fragmenting) might result in a lack of penetration.
I like a heavier bullet, 148-158 gr seems about right. The soft 158 SWC-HP (FBI load) is a good one, but it seems like in spite of the sharp shoulder the pointy nose on the SWC might tend to slip in like a round-nose bullet instead of punch in like a flat-nose. I keep thinking that a soft solid full WC driven at about 850 would give good penetration AND maybe some moderate expansion too- the best of both worlds. Unfortunately Speer discontinued their BBWC so I'm about SOL, other than maybe a soft cast WC. I don't cast my own "boolits" (who came up with THAT? ) so I'm stuck with what is available commercially.
BTW I really like the waxy lube coating that Speer puts on their SWC-HP-- very clean to work with and it seems like it would be a lot more effective than just solid lube in a grease groove(s).

 

[hotrod150]

I recently loaded up some 158 gr Speer swaged SWC-HP's over 5.0 gr W231. I'm sure it's safe but I got to thinking that it might be a bit too much for my j-frames (esp my old airweight Chief), so I thought I'd try an experiment by cutting them down to full wadcutters. Couldn't set up my buddy's lathe to properly hold them due to the case rim, so using a clothespin clamped in a vise I hacksawed off the noses then squared them up with a file. Crude, I know, but they came out pretty good and I think the base is more critical than the nose as far as accuracy. I weighed one unloaded bullet I so modified and it came in at about 133 grains, so I figure these oughta go out of my snubbies at between 950 & 1000 fps. Lighter than I like but the non-HP design ought to give sufficient penetration, and between the velocity and the flat nose they ought to do some damage. They might even expand a bit! I haven't shot them yet. I might make up some wetpack & see how they look after shooting.

 

[Forrest r]

Hands down the most versatile hbwc is a bonded core jacketed hbwc. They are extremely easy to make, can weigh anything from 75gr to 200gr & are flat out mid-evil on whatever they get a hold of.

They are just as accurate as their swagged or cast lead counterparts but can easily do warp speed. Some 148gr jacketed hbwc's for the 38spl/357.




Some 38spl & 44spl jacketed hbwc's that were turned around to make huge hp's & shot out of 2" bbl'd snub nosed revolvers (3 38spl's on left & 4 44spl's on right).

 

[hotrod150]

Nevada Ed asked me to post a photo of my 133 gr sawed-off wadcutters. Here's one of (left to right) a modified bullet, a loaded "hacksaw" round, and another round loaded with a hardcast 148 gr DEWC for comparison. I would have included an unloaded DEWC for comparison too but I don't have any unloaded ones left.

 

[troutman]

Forrest r: How did you make those?

 

[Nevada Ed]

Very nice job.............
almost look like factory bullets.

Those turned out a lot better than I pictured in my mind.