Speer 158 LSWC anyone

[Phatforrest]

Someone gave me a few thousand of them back about a year ago.



They were promptly thrown into the lead pot and remelted into decent bullets. After whatever kind of funky lube they use burned off, they made very nice shiny boolits.



I know people have shot millions of them over the years, and call me a snob, but they just look nasty from the get go. If I'm showing off my reloads to other shooters, I don't want my work to look like floor sweepings and rejects.

 

[venomballistics]

I've slung several of the type from a variety of cartridges and platforms. I've always found them just a bit frustrating.
just as the terminal performance was getting interesting, some adverse aspect of soft swaged lead would rear its ugly head.
Not to say there weren't a few exceptions.
Hornady seems to be abandoning much of their line of swaged lead. coated cast is a tough act to beat.

 

[YouveHadYour6]

I've used a few of the Speer LWSWC, but more of the Hornady swaged, both 158 grn.

Of all my attempts the most consistent from revolver to revolver (owning between 12-30 .357/38 chambered revolvers at any given time), have actually came from 3.6 grains of Accurate No. 2 - surprisingly, I've found this powder also works very well with Oregon Trail cast 158 grn. LRN, but at right about 3.8 grains of A-2 in those.

I too was surprised, as someone above, at how poorly my attempts with W231 went as well, however in the soft lead bullets the disparity was much more noticeable.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

One of my 3 favorite .38 Special loads is made with a 158gr LSWC bullet.
I charge 4.0gr W231 under that bullet.

 

[pbcaster45]

I was using the Speer 158 gr. RNL (similar) in my Clark PPC Revolver last weekend. I've been pretty religious about using various 148 gr. HBWCs but these surprised me! Here's a 7 shot group offhand at 25 yards (gun is not sighted for this load). Seven shots because I forgot to shoot one from a previous cylinder! The barrel was so clean afterwards I didn't need to clean it.

Bullet: Speer 158 gr. RNL
Powder: Winchester 231 3.6 grs.
Primer: Federal 100 Small Pistol
Case: R-P
OAL: 1.510

 

[Nick B]

One of my 3 favorite .38 Special loads is made with a 158gr LSWC bullet.
I charge 4.0gr W231 under that bullet.

Have you ever shot that over a chronograph ?

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Have you ever shot that over a chronograph ?

Unfortunately for some reason my notes don't have the velocity numbers for the 158gr LSWC load. I know I did send them over the chrono. I do have the numbers for the 148gr WC loads all shot on the same day.

148gr DEWC over 3.5gr W231, AV 741.6 fps
148gr HBWC over 3.2gr W231, AV 683.1 fps

I will look for the other load velocity numbers, sorry... (I really don't know why it's not on the spreadsheet I use for the data)

 

[BE Mike]

anyone have a rough idea of how much impact velocity would be needed to compress the speer 158 swc by 30%

or the impact velocity needed to compress the speer 148 HBWC so that the solid portion,,, was now compressed into the skirt?

Wouldn't it depend upon the material that was impacted?