Hollow Base, Standard Pressure .38 Special

[Screwball]

Looking to see if anyone has a recommendation for commercial, standard pressure .38 Special with lead, hollow base bullets.

Just picked up a converted Victory revolver, so trying to find a load that will likely better work with the .38 S&W barrel (0.361”). Not a fan of wadcutters, which Magtech said is the only bullet with a hollow base they offer. Didn’t see any other options offering it, but also don’t see hollow bases advertised much.

Preferably, I’d like a lead hollow point. If not, round or flat nose wouldn’t be bad. Would consider a semi-wadcutter, as well.

Not setup for reloading (at least for another year out), and unsure if I’d want to reload for this revolver, as brass will likely swell. Only other .38 Special I own is my 642-1, but that is converted to 9mm via a second cylinder. .38 Special might be reloaded, as I’m considering picking up a C&R eligible J-frame in the future. Hopefully someone puts out a load that fits the bill.

Will try out the box of Winchester and UMC that I had left over from my J-frame to see what the revolver likes, but kind of thinking a hollow base would be the ticket.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ddixie884]

Premium brand target wadcutters should be HB. 148X700 to 750 is better than factory .38S&W at 146X685.

 

[Drm50]

What's the cylinder in this Victory? I don't know about 38S&W-38sp mods
but have seen 455s reamed out to 45Colt and they are poor shooters. The
same deal, chambers and bore oversized for intended ammo.

 

[Bosquebass]

The only hollow base bullet I know of is the full wadcutter style you don't want to shoot.
Why not just pick up a couple boxes of 38 S&W? Usually when the conversion is done on the Victory the throats are only set back some and chamber diameter is left standard. FYI, I have pulled down different brands of 38 S&W ammo some new and some of which was over 90 years old and none of it was sized larger than .359". I load regular plain base lead 38 special bullets sized at .358 into 38 S&W cases for my old un-modified BSR and they work fine. So don't think that just because the bullet isn't a perfect fit in the bore that the gun won't shoot well.

 

[Kiwi cop]

.358 158 gn bullets would tumble in my .38 S&W Victory about 2 in 6 rounds. Accuracy was awful due to the .361 bore.

148 gn HBWC fixed the problem. The hollow base enlarging to fill the bore.

HBWC also make pretty good defensive ammo. That wide flat nose with he little raised lip cuts through flesh just as well s it does paper.

The only downside is reloading them is a bit hard with speed loaders.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Other than hollow-base wadcutters I don't recall any hollow-base factory ammo in recent years.

There are some custom mold makers who can provide hollow-base bullet molds, but those are neither common nor inexpensive these days.

Since the OP is limited to factory ammunition I think the only viable option is going to be 148 HBWC.

 

[crazyphil]

Last I heard, which has been a while, ATOMIC AMMUNITION was offering
148-Gr. wadcutter backwards so the hollow base acts as a hollow point.
They reported 850 FPS and 237 ft. lbs. of ME. Just another option for
you.

 

[jimmyj]

consider reloading using .361 cast bullets (Missouri Bullet Company)

 

[TomkinsSP]

...The only downside is reloading them is a bit hard with speed loaders.

Try approaching the stationary cylinder (you want the first round to go into the bottom chamber) at about a 15 degree angle from flat, gently turning the speedloader against the direction of release, then once the second case mouth is in rotating the speedloader to flat. The other four cases should drop. Then turn the release.

With just a little practice it's faster and easier to do than type, but still not as fast as LRNs.

 

[jupiter1]

The Federal .38 Special +P 158 gr LHP load used a bullet that had a very large hollow base that looked similar to a typical .58 Minie bullet. It was so large that when exiting a 2" barrel, the base would flare out from the higher muzzle pressure of +P loads; recovered bullets looked bell shaped. I don't know if they use the same design in standard pressure lead loads they may produce. You would have to check with Federal for that information.

 

[DWalt]

My experience has been that .357-.358" lead bullets work fine in the Victory BSR as well as other revolvers in .38 S&W despite their slightly larger bore diameter.

 

[robertrwalsh]

I know there are cup based lead .38 bullets made, I load them for my own load for this caliber. I don't know if anybody who loads it commercially.