Remember the Speer 3/4-jacket bullets?

[leemar28]

Really liked the 200 gr Hp in my .41 mag. Have one box of the 220 sp left. the 200 hp's could relly be heard when the struck flesh !

 

[SuperMan]

LOVED that line of bullets...still have a few boxes left..

Was an interesting design...basically a jacketed Keith bullet. The nose would "melt" off and the little ashcan that was left would just keep on cutting a full caliber wadd-cutter hole...

In 2003 I was on a western motorcycle trip and stopped to see old friend Alan Jones who I knew when he was with the MEs office in Dallas in the 1970s and 80s... He was then the editor of the Speer reloading manual. He showed me the machine that made that line of bullets and told me it was on its last legs...and when if could no longer be repaired the line would be dropped...and only a few years later it came to pass...

I spoke with Corbin and asked about making up a die to make those bullets and they said all they needed was a sample bullet and it could be done...

...sad...

Bob

 

[rockquarry]

Home bullet swaging had a short-lived popularity in the 1960s that quickly faded to the point where it remains today. I tried it twice, in 1971 and again about thirty years later. Much work and expense, but with adequate experimentation, one can make accurate half- or three-quarter jacket bullets with good expansion characteristics.

C-H pioneered the least expensive setup for making swaged/ jacketed bullets. Their dies may not have been the precison products that a company like Corbin makes, but they were affordable and a good quality bullet could be made with the C-H dies.

Perhaps Jim Harvey of Lakeville Arms made the first (or one of the first) commercially available swaged/ jacketed bullets, in .38 caliber. This was in the '50s. Lots more to the story...

Despite the touted advantages of the half-jacketed bullets, the very same can be said for a "naked" cast bullet if you get everything just right.

 

[biku324]

Have 100 of each of the 41 200 HJHP and 220 HJSP loaded for my Henry Big Boy. I hope to push one through a deer this fall. And that will be the end of those.

 

[Alk8944]

They had the warning in my old Speer manual. I forget which edition it is and I’m too comfy to go and look lol

That is where I believe I saw the warning too! Regardless it is a real concern. I believe they were referred to as 1/2 jacket, not 3/4. A 3/4 jacket would extend part way onto the ogive!

I shot a bunch of these in 160 gr. .357 in my first Highway Patrolman back in the 1960s. I am sure the reason Speer discontinued this style was the liability issues with a stuck jacket in the bore.

Hornady sold some 1/2 jacket bullets too. The only caliber I am sure of was a 300 gr. bullet for .45-70. I shot a few hundred of those too! There may have been some for revolver calibers too, but I don't recall these for certain.

 

[Wyo]

I remember them well. Killed a big mule deer buck with one. It was a lightly loaded .44 Mag., velocity probably around1100 fps, in a 4" M29 Smith. Took him through the ribs behind the left shoulder while he quartered away. Range was about 60 yds. Bullet ranged forward, took out lungs and broke his off shoulder. It ended up under the hide on the off side. He took one step and fell over dead. The bullet was opened up perfectly and held together completely. Heck, it would have made a good picture for a magazine ad. I loved those bullets!

 

[Yendor357]

I had a box of 146 grain .357s laying around here for years. The old price tag said $8.99.

15+ years ago, I was a delivery driver for UPS. One of my daily stops was a little old hardware store that also sold a few guns. The owner would go to estate auctions for the gun transfers. When there was a box of odds and ends that wouldn’t sell, he’d buy it. Then he’d sell that box of odds and ends gun stuff to me for dirt cheap. Those Speer half jacke bullets was procured that way. Oh, the good old days before the internet, you could get some smokin deals on stuff. Not any more….

 

[Walter Rego]

The 146 grain versions with a stout load of WW 296 powder were among the top 5 accuracy loads in my old Dan Wesson .357 Model 15-2. I never tried them on game but in fresh mud on a stream bank they sure made pretty mushrooms. If still available I'd sure be a customer.

 

[AJ]

Got a couple of boxes of them. A friend and I buy from a gun shop that buys estates. We buy all the reloading equipment we can.

 

[GypsmJim]

Pardon me if I'm hijacking this thread, but I had planned to post my own question.

I bought some of these Speer half jackets back in the 1970's and only shot half a box. Then I started casting my own lead boolits and never used them again.

I was doing an inventory today and opened up,the old Speer yellow plastic box. All of the lead tip portions of the bullets were heavily chalked / corroded (for lack of a better term) and the white powder would not easily polish off.

Any ideas what caused that and is there a fix?

 

[AJ]

Pardon me if I'm hijacking this thread, but I had planned to post my own question.

I bought some of these Speer half jackets back in the 1970's and only shot half a box. Then I started casting my own lead boolits and never used them again.

I was doing an inventory today and opened up,the old Speer yellow plastic box. All of the lead tip portions of the bullets were heavily chalked / corroded (for lack of a better term) and the white powder would not easily polish off.

Any ideas what caused that and is there a fix?

Oxidation if I am not mistaken. Probably can clean them up in a tumbler.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I've shot many boxes of those in all three calibers. Probably 15-20 years ago I was at the big gun shop and outdoor equipment store that was in Jasper, Alabama. At the time gunsmith John Gallagher was working out of that store, had his shop in the back. He was repairing an old model Ruger .41 for me which had separated itself from its ejector rod housing. While waiting for them to bring my repaired gun out, I browsed around the store and found several boxes of those Speer 3/4 jacket bullets in both .41 and .44 caliber. I bought them all at a very reasonable price. These were in the old paper boxes with metal reinforced corners, like the old Sierra bullet boxes. I knew that when I started reloading in the mid 70s, Speer was already using the plastic boxes, though the 3/4 jacket bullets were still available. Curious as to their age I decided to email Speer and ask. I told how/where I had found the bullets. I'll never forget the reply: "To the best of our knowledge those paper boxes were last used in the early 70s. I wouldn't buy any dairy products at that store." ��

 

[Greyman50]

Loaded and shot them back in late 70s and may have a box of the 146s somewhere. Killed a deer with 1 shot in the neck with one from my 6” Mdl 19 around 79? As posted above read about the “ issues” with them and would like to find some just to have. Never loaded them so hot.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Never knew of anyone having an issue with core separation with 3/4 jacket bullets but I am aware of any number of people who ruined barrels shooting the 1/2 jackets too slow. My dad quit swaging when the 3/4 jackets got to where you couldn't buy them any more. He was not a fan of 1/2 jackets. No reason I can think of to shoot jacketed bullets slow anyway, that's what cast bullets are for and they are cheaper.

I have shot a ton of those in .357 Magnums and still have a couple of boxes hid out somewhere. Never killed anything with them but they were a good shooting bullet for the money in their day. I would buy them again if they were available.