TargetTalk

I have a Hammerli P240 38 SPL. WC.
I would like to buy 0.355 HBWC lead bullets for reloading. As you probably already know the standard HBWC is 0.358, a little too tight for the Hammerli Barrel.
I do not want to bulge the barrel.

Any help in finding out where to purchase these heads would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Maybe you could run them through a sizing die at home before loading?

Actually, having larger than bore size lead bullets is desirable. They will NOT bulge the barrel as they are very soft and squeeze down to give a perfect fit.

Also, do you actually KNOW the true bore diameter of your pistol? You need to slug and mike the barrel to be certain (not that it will matter).

Tests done by American gun writer Ken Waters had .360 diameter bullets giving top accuracy in his .355 bore Colt revolvers.

Rover is correct, Sig Hammerli P-240 and the S&W M52 both have bores that are about .002" under nominal. That was the accuracy sweet spot in autos. People keep trying to match undersize bullets in these bores, wrong thing to do. Shoot .357/.358 swadged bullets, thats what the manufactures intended. Gort

P240....Be VERY, VERY carefull the 240 barrel is a 9mm dia (.355) barrel. Many a P240 barrel has been bulged from using a .358 HBWC in them. They tend to seperate a skirt from the hollow base and leave it in the barrel, the next shot results in a bulged barrel.
The P240 runs very well on cast WC sized to .355.

That is caused by loading too hot, not because of the bullet diameter. It is well known by cast (lead) bullet shooters that "fat" bullets are desirable.

You are right in saying that the seperation of the skirt may cause a bulged barrel. The Speer loading manuals warn of this possibility and give suitable loads so it won't occur.

If you are casting bullets for a barrel, slug the barrel with a soft lead projectile and measure the maximum diameter.
Depending on your alloy mix (hardness) cast the bullets so they can be sized .001 (hard) to .0015 (medium) larger than the barrel diameter.
My old P240 had a .3545 barrel so I cast and sized .356 (.0015 larger).
A lot of P240's in australia bulged their barrels with HBWC .358 in ISSF centrefire loads (mild to 800fps).
So be warned....

Has the P240 barrel 'problem' been rather over-stated? I thought it was just one brand of factory HBWC ammo that suffered skirt separation, causing bulging. Is it worse than that, with several brands of projectiles giving problems? It is a ridiculously thin-walled barrel, isn't it?

Hello

Thank you all for your responses.

The barrel size for my Hammerli P240 is 0.355. Hammerli used the P210 (9mm) platform to build the P240 and continued to used the 9mm barrel. Neither the P240 22 LR cal., or the P240 S&W 32 long is a problem, it's only the barrel dimensions of the 38 SPL,WC that can be a problem with a barrel bulge.

I would like to use swaged HBWC bullets
sized 0.354 - 0.355.
Is there anyone who may know of a company that sells this bullet size.
I called Hornady and they do not make a HBWC bullet in these dimensions.
I would greatly appreciate any help in locating a company that makes a swaged 38 HBWC in 0.355 dimensions.

Thank You

I have NEVER heard of a commercial HBWC in .355 diameter.

What we are trying to tell you is that you don't NEED one.

Use the standard .358 from Hornady or Speer (and others) and you will be fine. There is a much greater variance with the .314 bullets and .308 barrels available in the .32 and we only hear of accuracy and stability problems, not bulged barrels.

If you are deeply concerned with this (nonexistent IMO) problem, use standard and not HBWCs.

I resize my 0.32 HBWC using a Lee sizer to 0.311, from ~0.314-0.315.
This gives exellent accuracy, and the sizers are very cheap.
Sizing 500 bullets in an hour is fairly realistic, and don't worry about relubricating them.

That would be my choice for a P240.

0.356 ought to be OK.
http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog ... 4232=90046

Or for an extra $10 they'll make you a custom sizer.

Rover said:

I have NEVER heard of a commercial HBWC in .355 diameter.

They are out there: http://www.hn-sport.de/produkte/geschos ... 38357.html and, I would imagine, of peerless quality. However, the miserable folk at H&N didn't want to supply less than a pallet-load to NZ, so I've no idea whether they might be realistically available outside Europe.

Thanks Kiwi,

Always happy to learn something new. I also noticed on the H&N site that 9mm (not .38) bullets were available in .357 diameter.

My point is that over bore sized bullets will NOT bulge a barrel and will most likely increase accuracy.

I have put thousands of rounds through a S&W 52 and a M1911 with a .38 kit. Both had .355 barrels. My accuracy load in both guns was a Speer .358 HBWC with 3.2 grains of 700X, hotter than Speer recommended for that bullet. I never had a problem.

Keep in mind that the highest pressure is immediately on firing, while the bullet is still in the case and is being swaged down to fit the bore. A bulge further into the barrel is caused by an obstruction, very likely seperation of the skirt and another round being fired on it.