I've done a little testing with wc's, hbwc's and hb swc's over the decades in the 38spl's, 357's, 44spl's, 44mags & 45acp's. Used to swage them & cast them along with using a forster hp tool to hp them. At the end of the day the 38spl/357 hbwc's/wc's need hp/velocity to be affective. If you're lucky enough to have a clean shot into soft targets your good to go. Anything gets in the way like wood/boards/doors/drywall/windows/etc you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Typical 148gr hbwc's loaded with the hb in the case (traditional loaded/target load) shot out of a 6" bbl'd ppc revolver with a 1 in 11 twist using a 800fps+ load. Playing around shooting bowling pins @ 50ft.
Anymore I cast my own hbwc's, what's not shown is the 41cal hbwc's that I cast. Needed to cast more at the time the picture was taken.
Those are 32ca/, 35cal, 44cal & 45cal cast hbwc's.
I did do testing with these cast hb/hbwc's in a snubnosed 38spl. I tested them as cast, the hbwc turned backward, all 3 with a forster hp put in the nose of them. All loads were hot, in the +/- 950fps range.
left: 158gr lyman 358431 the hb version of the keith 172gr swc
center: rafine 150gr fn hb bullet designed for the older 38s&w revolvers that used the .360" bullets
right: Mihec 148gr hbwc
The fbi used a 158gr hb swc hp in their "fbi 38spl sd loads".
At the end of the day after a bunch of testing with hbwc's, wc's, swc's, fn's, hb bullets, hb bullets with hp's put into them. These bullets outperformed everything else in the snubnosed 38spl. Anymore I keep the 158gr hp's around in 38spl cases with loads that do 950fps+ in that 2" bbl'd 38spl & a 1200fps+ load in a short bbl'd s&w l-comp with the 170gr bullets.
Ed harris did an article on the 38spl/wc load and it's been urban myth/folk lore ever since. The hbwc's turned backwards are even less lethal. There got to be at least 1 thread current (well maybe up to 2 weeks old) at all times on the 3 websites is frequent on hbwc's turned backward or wc's for sd loads.
All's I can say is get out and do a little real world testing. Sites like lucky gunner (another thing that seems to be quoted daily) are ok for giving someone an idea of the velocities to expect out of a load/ammo. Myself, the only reason a snubnosed 38spl is laying around is that's what the misses wants. The last thing I'd ever reach for is a hbwc/wc load to put in it.