Car Door Penetration Test with .38 Special Snubby

Small concealed-carry guns tend to lack penetration ability, as well as energy. The most popular loads for .38 snub-nose revolvers use lightweight bullets from 110 to 135 grains at 800-900 fps from a 2-inch barrel. Incredibly, the ammunition manufacturers call those loads "+P." No thanks. I have seen the old 158 grain SWCHP +P load, known as the "FBI load" or the "Chicago load", manage the same 800-900 fps from the same 2" barrel. That is what I usually carry in my Taurus M85 snubby, and I have chronographed a handload consisting of the Hornady 158 SWCHP over a published +P load of Titegroup for 850 fps average from my 2" barreled Taurus.
Lately though, I have been experimenting with the Lyman #358430 cast bullet. This is a duplicate of the old Winchester Super Police 200 grain load from the 1920s and '30s. In spite of the "358" designation, this bullet actually drops from my mould at about .361-inch diameter. The reason it does so is the bullet was originally designed for the .38 S&W, not the .38 Special. Winchester called it the "Super Police" in .38 S&W in the early 1920s, then Britain adopted it as their service revolver cartridge, renaming it ".38/200." Britain was very pleased with the load, and used it from circa 1922 to 1963; although they did switch to a slightly lighter, full metal jacketed bullet during WWII to abide by Hague Convention rules. India and some African countries still use the round.
The .38 Special Super Police load used the same 200 grain lead bullet in the longer .38 Special case, but the velocity remained approximately the same. All of these loads delivered less than 700 fps from a 4-inch barrel. Nevertheless, they have a good reputation for ceasing hostilities. What they lack is the ability to defeat any kind of hard barricade.
I decided to see what I could do with this bullet, since I already had a mould and besides, I tend to lean towards the Elmer Keith school of thought of using a heavy bullet. Based on my experience in growing up on a farm and shooting a variety of varmints, predators and other animals with a variety of guns and loads, I like a load that surpasses at least 800 fps. Unfortunately, very few loads are to be found for such a heavy bullet in .38 Special; and most such loads consist of a few grains of fast powder to duplicate the old factory load. I did finally find a load in a very old manual that used 9.5 grains of 2400 powder for 900 fps from a 4-inch revolver barrel. *Note: this is not a recommendation. If you duplicate any of these loads, you do so at your own risk. I tried that load and got the listed 900 fps from my 4-inch S&W model 15. But I have an 8-lb jug of Alcan AL-8 that I wanted to try with this bullet. AL-8 is slightly faster than 2400, so I started at 6.5 grains and increased it incrementally to 8.0 grains. I chronographed the 8.0 grain load at 825 fps average from the 2-inch barrel of my Taurus model 85. I call that good enough. The bullet weighs about 195 grains of my lead alloy, and I use liquid Alox bullet lube and size them to .358".
I consider a .38 snubby to be a fairly good woodsbum gun, if you practice until you can hit what you aim at. I can hit a soup can at 50 yards with this one, and that is good enough. I have absolutely no doubt that this load could kill a deer, but at the same time it wouldn't destroy too much meat if I shot a rabbit with it. It also makes a pretty good defensive load, as the video demonstrates.