What's the Difference? Lyman 358432 and 358495

[Charlie U.]

I'm looking at the 358495 and it looks almost the same as the 358432 that I have. The 495 looks to be a few grains lighter and has a sharper shoulder (the shoulder of the 432 looks to be slightly rounded) and I see a bit of a difference in the depth of the crimp groove, but other than that they look so similar.

What is the difference and is one better than the other in any way?

[rintinglen]

The 432 is on the left, the 495 is on the right, please excuse the crummy pic.
The 358-495 , in it's later configurations was a 141 grain button nose that was designed to be crimped so that the resulting cartridge was about 1.3" long, mine are 1.28, when crimped in the groove.. The 358-432 was available as either a 148 grain or 160 grain weight, and the crimping groove was farther back, so that the resulting round would be longer, mine run 1.38". The former was designed for pure target use with light loads of Bullseye or WW-231. The latter was designed as a flat-nosed service-substitute that could be used in iron sighted service revolvers and loaded to hit point of aim.

Back when the S&W M&P was a fixed-sight, round gun, not a bottom feeder, and departments offered monthly bonuses for marksmanship, a practice round that hit where the duty round did was a blessing. Cops didn't make as much money then and the extra 2-3 dollars meant something at the end of the month.
The 358-432 used to be touted as a "superior stopper." The big meplat would do more damage than the standard round nose 38 loads. Peters used to make a similar full-duty weight cartridge back in the 30's, but I've never seen any. I have used both extensively and can't see much difference. But my guns mostly have adjustable sights.

[Beagle333]

The 160gr 358432 also makes a wicked HP.

[tazman]

The 358432 is super accurate in my revolvers and also works great as a full power load. Because the boolit seats so far out of the case, you can use the same powder charges you would normally use for 158 grain semi-wadcutters quite safely.

[Charlie U.]

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies.

The 358432 is super accurate in my revolvers and also works great as a full power load. Because the boolit seats so far out of the case, you can use the same powder charges you would normally use for 158 grain semi-wadcutters quite safely.

Full power wadcutter loads using unique and W296 is what I have been making with the 358432 and with good results in my 3" sp101. Sounds like they are both pretty useful.

[Echo]

The -432 is one of my favorite boolits. Flexible, can be loaded down or up. SD loads easy...

[bhn22]

358432 also works well with speedloaders, at least for me. Not many wadcutter designs can say that.