.38 special mystery

There's 38 Special load data for those 146gr half-jacket HPs in older Speer Manuals (Speer Manual #8 for example), but those half-jacket 114.7gr SWCs, I don't know. It looks like someone put them in the wrong box.
I used to shoot a lot of those Speer half-jacket jobs in my 38 Specials and 357s, and I've even run a few through my 44s. You have to heed the warnings about going under minimum listed loads or you'll run the risk of leaving a jacket stuck in the bore of you gun. Regardless, I'd never seen one of those 114.7gr, half-jacketed SWCs before. Is it for sure 38 (.357"-.358") caliber?

Check the dia, See if it's .355". Those could be 115gr 9mm SWC bullets.
As far as the other Hp SWC goes, I don't think I've ever seen a jacketed SWC in 38 cal that didn't have a cannular.
No idea what that is.

I think we posted at close to the same time.

the SWC did measure .355, the SWC hp measured .357

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That sounds more like it for the 114.7 gr that you measured.

The longer SWC HPs will probably crimp between the jacket and the lead shoulder.

tightgroup tiger said:

The longer SWC HPs will probably crimp between the jacket and the lead shoulder.

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That's where I crimp them.

Do not stand too close when shooting steel---the jackets can come back at you---Be Careful .

Those don’t look like the bullets that are supposed to be in the boxes. They look similar to the ones my father in law used to make.

The 146gr Half Jacket HP Was a great bullet. I'm not sure when or why it was discontinued. Several of they guys I hunted deer with back in the early 80's swore by these in .357 Mag Lever Actions. You could jack these babies up around 1700-1800 fps with 296 Powder and they did a great job out to about 100 yards on Whitetails. They were hard to find back then. I preferred the JHC by Sierra, but these guys put a lot of meat on the table

Steel Hayes said:

Grabbed my mechanical calipers, the SWC did measure .355, the SWC hp measured .357
So much for trusting digitals.

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When it really matters, I never trust calipers to less that .003.

presspuller said:

When it really matters, I never trust calipers to less that .003.

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I agree here. Get a mic on it for any sort of accuracy under a couple thou.

When I first started loading for the .41, I went through boxes of those Speer 220grn half-jacketed SP bullets. They were discontinued some years ago, I think because of the liability from the jacket separating from the core. I always thought it was a good bullet... I called them Flying Sledgehammers.

That 9mm is an interesting bullet, I've never seen those before.

Could the 115 grain half jackets be intended for
.38 super?

I just paged through my Speer #13 (from late '90s) and that smaller half jacket bullet does not appear anywhere. I have a #11 out in my shop but I doubt if it will be there either. Data for the 146 gr HJ SWC is available and I have used the in my 357 quite a bit, and their 225 gr 44 cal HJ SWC in my 44 Magnums.

As gunny mentioned above, perhaps they were home made? Way back when, a lot of reloaders were swaging their own half jackets. I almost got into it but discovered casting. Fairly easy, buy half jackets, cut soft lead wire, swage in Corbin dies and trim slag...

I agree with Gunny, those bullets look like home swaged.

Obviously a wrong box on the left, as there is not wax lubed, beveled base wad cutter in any photo.