A good 38 defense load non +P in an LCR?

[GRIZ22]

Another thing to think about with SWCs:


Quote:
I'd estimate the velocity of the factory target .38 wadcutter to be between 650 and 700 ft/sec from the average snub-nose thirty-eight. Most are of soft, swaged lead, which means that "sharp" edges really aren't and they can round off as they pass through tissue.

From: http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Feedingthe38Snub.htm

I'll keep the SWCs for paper, like they were designed for.

BSW

Velocities of a non-plus p 148-158 hollowpoint aren't much faster than a wadcutter.

What your quote defines as rounding off is the beginning of expansion just as a hollowpoint does when it starts to open up. Lead is a soft metal but it is harder than any muscle or organ tissue so just how does the tissue manage to "round off" the shoulder of the bullet.

Your link lists several failures of a 38 and 357 with WC and SWC bullets. This proves nothing as you can also find failures to stop with slugs and rifle rounds. Stopping an assailant is more shot placement than magic bullet. You seem to think that .05" of expansion will make all the difference.

Jim Cirillo did a lot of reserach in his quest for a magic bullet. The designs that worked all were basically a wadcutter (some with a cup point).

 

[NG VI]

Cirillo's alternatives were also RNL and sometimes Super-Vel proto-JHP bullets.

He was trying to stop low-velocity, relatively low-mass bullets from skidding off of skulls on imperfect hits, not find the bullets that worked most reliably at damaging tissue on torso hits.

 

[GRIZ22]

Cirillo's alternatives were also RNL and sometimes Super-Vel proto-JHP bullets.

He was trying to stop low-velocity, relatively low-mass bullets from skidding off of skulls on imperfect hits, not find the bullets that worked most reliably at damaging tissue on torso hits.


Cirillo continued his experimentation into the 90s (that I have knowledge of) well after the market for JHPs was established.

ADD TO:

I don't know where you get the idea that SWCs were designed for paper punching. Many of the best SWC designs were done by Elmer Keith way before hollowpints were in common usage. Elmer just wasn't about paper punching.