Hornady SWC

[4570Tom]

Hello,
I am getting back into reloading after being away from it for awhile. In the past I reloaded 357 Mag, 44 Mag, 44 Special, and a few rifle calibers. It seems in the past decade I have acquired a few 38 Special revolvers, so I am interested in exploring that. I have dies, brass, primers, and took the recommendation from others to try Unique as a powder. I also have a variety of bullets, jacketed and lead.

I have a supply of Oregon Trail Laser Cast 158g SWCs, as well as some Hornady Frontier Lead 158g SWC (#10408). When looking at the two, the Hornady bullets seem different from the Oregon Trail bullets, and are different from other cast bullets I've used in other calibers. I am wondering if folks have had experience with these Hornady bullets and how they perform. Please pardon my photography skills. Thank you.

 

[forty_caliber]

I've gone through many boxes of the Hornady Frontier lead in .45. It's easily my favorite, consistent and accurate. On the downside the dry lube tends to build up on seating / crimping dies so there a little maintenance involved. On the upside I've never had a leading problem using these.

.40

 

[twistytorn]

The Hornady lead SWC is a soft swaged bullet with a knurled body. It's soft, but at .38 special velocities (<900 fps or so) they do work just fine. I prefer the more traditional SWC like the top one in your picture as I load more .357 magnum.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yup, The Hornadys are very soft swaged bullets. Worked OK in some guns, leaded in others no matter the speed.
I resorted to using Lee liquid alox as a second lube, no leading then.

 

[fxvr5]

If you decide to go with cast bullets, consider the coated versions. They cut down on leading and smoke.

https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/3/7/coated-bullets-the-future-of-lead-bullets-for-handloaders/

 

[Eddietruett]

Please listen to @fxvr5. Go the coated lead route and you will never go back. There are a lot of great distributors who sell coated lead. Its cleaner and you can load soft or as hot as a jacketed bullet it you want. I'll suggest Missouri Bullets, SNS Casting and Brazos Bullets. I have had great success with al of these and some others as well.

 

[Reeferman]

I shoot lots of the Hornady and Speer lead Bullets. A bit expensive but work well in 38/357 and 44 magnum. I get no leading in any of my S&W revolvers and once I got the throats and forcing cone done in my 44 SBH there is just a couple of slivers of lead after a 100 or so rounds.
My loads are usually in the 600 to 800 FPS range.

 

[4570Tom]

Thanks to all for your input and recommendations. I'll check out the coated bullets.