The half jacket in 146 and 160 were good bullets. I was working in a gun shop in the early 70’s and got a deal on a Lyman All American turret pistol press, one of those red ones. I loved that thing and kept it for years.
The Speer #8 manual was the book for me, l learned years later that many of the .38 Special loads (especially those using SR4756) were way too high pressure wise.
I loaded a bunch of those SR4756 loads for myself and other officers back in the 70's when we were unhappy with the round nose 158 grain service ammo we were issued. The maximum listed load with a 125 grain JHP would result in stuck cases that required a hammer blow on the ejector rod to clear the empties, so I reduced it a grain and called it good. I was able to rent a chronograph and they clocked 1,250 fps out of a 4-inch Model 15. There was a very impressive fireball and an ear-splitting report.
Eventually my service revolver started malfunctioning. I had trouble opening and closing the cylinder and the trigger pull was all screwed up. The department sent it back to S&W for servicing and they ended up junking the gun because the frame was "warped". But it never actually blew up, so that proves the loads were safe....
I still have that Speer loading manual, and every now and then I take a look at the .38 Special data and have a good chuckle.
