The original man stopper bullet
Turned into the MK IV thumper/man stopper.
I've cast & swaged my own lead and jacketed bullets for decades. A lot of the bullets I make have no data for them. Thankfully there is enough data out there for other bullet weights/lengths/styles that it's easy enough to find a starting point.
The starting point is ALWAYS the BASE of the bullet. Simple enough
Measure the length of your haley bullet and compare it to the length of other known bullets. Ask for help if you don't have a specific bullet. Simply load the oal of your "haley" bullets to the known depth of other bullets. You are looking at case capacity.
Was testing some 220gr hbwc's in a model 624. There isn't a lot of data for a hbwc in the 44cal's. So I looked at known data (44spl) and known bullets/load data (429421) and seated that 220gr hbwc bullet backwards and that hbwc's base to the depth of the 429421 bullet (same case capacity) and shot test loads over a chronograph along with the same load/429421 bullet. Then I turned the 220gr hbwc around and used them as they were intended with the same seating depth/load & shot them over a chronograph. This gave me a baseline for that 220gr hbwc that had no data. From there it was a simple matter of testing powders/oals. Test loads with the bullet seated flush, crimped in the 1st lube groove, crimped in the 2nd lube groove and the original turned around/test loads.
The rules are:
There are no rules. Some Mihec 158gr hp's loaded in 38spl cases and crimped in the bottom crimp groove. Next to some H&G#50 148gr bbwc's that are loaded in 38spl cases and crimped in the middle lube groove.
Not hand picked/cherry picked by any means. Those bullets/loads pictured above and the actual test targets used to test 6-shot groups @ 50ft in a 357.
A little hb 101:
Most reloaders have only played with bullets like the factory 148gr hbwc. Most of them are swaged out of too soft (pure lead) of an alloy to really be pushed hard. The other thing you should look at if you plan on using that bullet as a hb bullet is the wall thickness of that hb. A bullet that lyman 1st sold the mold for in 1900, the 35870. This is a hb version of that bullet. Lyman typically uses a round hb pin design. I prefer a cone design so I make my own hb pins. The 35870 hb bullet used in the 9mm of all things doing 10-shot groups @ 50yds.
A lyman 429422 hb swc with a re-designed hb pin.
Bullets cast from the mold pictured above and them a hollow point added using a forster hp tool.
A lot of reloaders don't know it but a hb bullet's base expands and the body grows in width. That same bullet pictured above/side view.
It's the thickness of the walls of the hb base that counts 1st and the alloy 2nd. You're not going to get a hb bullet designed with a thin skirt and pure lead to withstand the pressures of a p+ load. A pure lead bullet with a thick skirt, yes. A bullet with a thin skirt and a hard alloy, yes. I currently have 14 hb molds for the 32cal/35cal/44cal/45cal along with swaging my own hb bullets.
Anyway pick a bullet in the 140gr to 158gr weight range that you've used/reloaded before. Find the seating depth of the base of that bullet and then seat your haley bullets hollow base up (hp) so the base (nose) is at the same depth (think hbwc turned backwards). Start low with the powder charge and work your way up.
FWIW:
I've swaged/tested a hb hp wc in the snub nosed 38spl. I tested 125gr to 200gr hb hp wc's and they really didn't preform all that well. The old 45cal "man stopper" worked because of the mass of the bullet. The heavier 200gr hb hp wc's were a lot better than the 125gr to 160gr hb hp wc bullets. I've tested hb hp wc's fn's & swc's and the best performers with the lighter bullets were the hb hp swc design with a cupped shaped hp in any of the short bbl's firearms I tried/tested them in. Just started testing these 155gr hb swc's in a 2" bbl'd 38spl.
Adding a cupped hp takes the weight down to 150gr for a hb hp swc. In contrast the 3 lighter hb bullets for the 45cals do extremely well being used as they were intended, a hb bullet. The 230gr hbwc can either be used as it was cast/intended and mimics the webley MK IV bullet or using the forster hp tool. It becomes the webley MK III bullet.
Pick a know bullet, use that seating depth (case capacity/bullets base) load them up and have fun.
Picture are always welcome
