Old lessons relearned or brain fade again!

[Vulcan Bob]

Hi all, recently ran out of .38 cal LSWC's. Found some Speer LSWCHP's. Foolishly loaded up some mild .357 Mags at around 1000 fps. Out at the range today was doing some fifteen yard double action work with em. On the very first cylinder full I dident see my usuall group and thought boy I must be putting them in one hole! Well there they were about six inchs above the target perfectly keyholed all! Then the light came on, oh yeah, Speer and Hornady swaged lead bullets, to be run no faster than 850 fps or so! Found this one out many years ago and with brain fade and a range reminder, hopefully I will remember! In my defence I have been running Moyer hard casts for quite some time and just dident stop and think.

 

[epj]

I still have part of a box of Speer swaged .45 bullets that I bought in the '80's. I am saving them for real hard times. If I absolutely can get nothing else to shoot, period, then I'll load them.

 

[brucev]

In my youthful ignorance, I bought and used the Speer swagged .38 bullets in my (at the time) one and only revolver, a M-28-2. Over a very light charge of Unique, accuracy was good even if power was marginal. I rapidly learned the value of hard cast lead bullets. I can see using the swagged bullets, if that is all one could find, but they really are very limited in utility. JMHO. Sincerely. brucev.

 

[Willyboy]

38 swaged bullets

Thanks for the post. I am a relatively new .38 Spcl reloader and have loaded up the Speer 158 SWC and just bought the Hornady 158 SWC. The Speer shot fine in my 38 with target loads, but now I may be loading up some 357's for my buddy. I bought some jackeded bullets for the 357, but I will sure stay away from any swaged bullets for the 357 per your comments.