Ideal #358439 hollow point

[Bad Karma]

In my mould collection I have a Ideal #358439 hollow point. I haven't played with this one for a long long time. It was my Dad's and now that I got the Lee 4-20 funace I have the clearance to cast them. Here are two images of the final product. Anyone else have oldies but goodies?:Fire:

[GLL]

Yes ! :)

Jerry

Two 358439HPs flanking a 358429
http://www.fototime.com/FEE5D7B5C7C372A/standard.jpg

[Bad Karma]

What load do you use? I cast mine out of pure lead as to allow decent expansion. I was thinking of Unique and running them around 1200 f/s. I was also goung to try them in my .38 Special at around 900 f/s.

[HeavyMetal]

Haven't cast any yet but have 358429 converted to hollow point.

When I get some made I will be loading over WW 296 for my 10" Contender!

[Bret4207]

Bad Karma and Jerry's pics show the difference between "round" and "square" lube grooves in an excellent manner!

That HP at 850-900 fps in WW alloy should work fine. I sure wouldn't want to get in front of one!

[Glen]

One of my all-time favorite bullets!

With WW alloy, the 358439 will mushroom in a controlled manner at 1000 fps, and expand violently at 1400 fps. You get down to 900 fps and below and it doesn't do much when cast of WW alloy (at least with my WW alloy). But if you cast it to a BHN of about 8 (e.g. with 1:1 WW/lead, or 30:1 lead/tin) then it will still expand nicely at 900 fps.

My favorite load for that bullet in .38 +P form is 8.5 grains of HS-7 for about 1050 fps and excellent accuracy. But HS-7 has been dropped from production, so eventually I'm going to have to work up another favorite (fortunately I still have several pounds left).

For .357 Magnum, I have shot this bullet over 14.0 grains of 2400 for years (1350-1400 fps) with complete satisfaction. For the .357, I cast them to a BHN of about 12 (WW work just fine).

Pushing pure lead at 1200 might not give the best accuracy, but they should shoot OK at .38 Special speeds.