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I came across some 38 caliber lead pistol bullets cleaning out my father in laws basement. He was a handgun shooter and reloader. The bullet containers were not labeled and bullets weren't in boxes. Guessing 158 gr. About 350 have gas checks and were lubed at one time but it's dried up and some is falling off. I assume they're still usable but are they worth anything?

That’s the Lyman Thompson 358156. It’s around 155gr lubed and checked out of my mold. Has two crimp grooves for back when 357 brass was hard to come by one could seat them out and crimp in the lower groove giving more case capacity for hot loads in 38 special brass.

A very good bullet design that was very popular. Skeeter Skelton wrote much on it’s use, he was a big fan.

TheKid is correct. I have a mould for that bullet except mine is made to produce hollows points. Really accurate in my 357s with 2400. If you handload keep the ones with gas checks for sure and re-lube them if they need it. You can use Lee Liquid Alox if you don’t have a lubrisizer.

Put gas checks on and lube the other ones that aren’t lubed and shoot them too.

Can’t tell you what they’re worth but they look like they’re well made. The outer bullets in that group look really well filled out. I’m guessing the other two are ones with some lube on them.

They look like factory bullets. I don’t see any sprue marks on the bases. Yes, the two middle ones were lubed. I have 750 of the new non lubed bullets. I was thinking $60 for those

Here are a couple others he had.

The first one in a 44 caliber, .429 dia as I measure it and 215 grains



The last one is 45 caliber, .452 and 215 grains. Some were lubed and a couple have 2 grooves but look the same other than that

Looks like he was a fan of the Lyman catalog. The 44 is the Thompson design 429215. The 45s are Lyman 452488 for the single groove bullet and probably Lyman 452460 for the 2 groove model though RCBS, Lachmiller, H&G, and probably others made very similar designs that are hard to tell apart.

I’ve used or use all of them and they are all good designs that work very well.

Thanks!

I found a youtube video yesterday that shows how to remove dried lube by boiling in water or with mineral spirits if anybody runs into this issue.

Not long ago I stumbled onto a coffee can full of .38 bullets I had cast and lubed way back when Christ was a Corporal. The lube was dried/flaky and the lead had started to acquire a film of oxide. Hmmmm, I say's, can I resurrect these things? Sure I could, but just dumped them into the lead pot and rejuvenated them that way instead.

That works as long as you have the pot and dies..

Or, you could just use Lee Tumble lube, it's messier, but works well enough. No harm would come from that.