Henry Rifle Forums

Our pest control guy gave me about 200 of these, they were his late fathers and doesn't know what caliber. They scaled at 126gr with a diameter of .357 and flat nose profile .. I've never loaded a 38/357 bullet without a cannelure.

USAC is the acronym for the United States Ammo Company of Tacoma, Washington, that made a brief appearance in a white plastic cased .38 Special cartridges . The pretty little red, white and blue 6 round sample boxes of these cartridges made their debut around 1983, after which not much else was heard from the company or their products.

There bullet weight for .38 was limited to only 148, 150 and 158 grain. Each box came with a hand reloading tool, the thought being that you could easily reload the plastic cases. They did come in a FMJ form at 158 grains, but nothing in 126 grains.

I don/t think these are the same bullets. If you look at the advertisement below, the bullets were cut down to slide into the cases. Your do not appear to be the same. I would cut one open to see if they are plated or jacketed.

Just load them like you would a .45 ACP round by using very light crimp to about .376 dia. at case mouth if case measures .377 O.D.
If you can find a similar style weight bullet in a reloading manual you could seat bullet to that COL.

This is one of my .38 Special loads using a plated Xtreme 125 gr. bullet . That is just a knurled area that gives you a idea of where to seat bullet and not a groove.

They're plated but I'm a bit Leary of bullet retention without a cannelure...does this mean I need a Henry 357 single shot ?

No problem loading them for 38 Spl loads. Just follow the standard load data for the powder you're using. Instead of trying to crimp the round, you want to just remove the flair put in the case by the expander die. If you try to roll crimp, like you do with a cannelure, you will bulge the case and the round won't chamber. Go with what Forty said and .377 OD at the case mouth.

Paul

Just like the others have said load them and crimp them just like you would if they had the crimp groove. They will work fine.

Oldbrass wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:32 pm

They're plated but I'm a bit Leary of bullet retention without a cannelure...does this mean I need a Henry 357 single shot ?

You need a Single Shot. Go ahead and buy one you will love it

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:42 pm

Oldbrass wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:32 pm

They're plated but I'm a bit Leary of bullet retention without a cannelure...does this mean I need a Henry 357 single shot ?

You need a Single Shot. Go ahead and buy one you will love it

This

RCBS does make taper crimp dies for revolver cartridges which would work great for that bullet but at $30 probably not a great investment unless you have more than in shown in the pic.

Well I thought and pondered and thought some more, I have a headache now. I've decided these will make great slingshot ammo..

A Lee factory crimp die would work well.

leverjc wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:01 pm

A Lee factory crimp die would work well.

I have one for each caliber I load. 9mm. 38 special. 45acp. 45 colt. 357 Magnum. 223/5.56. 7mm-08. 7X57 Mauser. 30-30. 308. 30-06

leverjc wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:01 pm

A Lee factory crimp die would work well.

Lee factory crimp dies in pistol calibers normally use the same crimp type as the regular dies. IE if it calls for a roll crimp, it's a roll crimp, if a taper is called for then it's a taper. The only real difference is the sizing ring.

Now, for necked rifle calibers, they use a collet style crimp. This is quite different than either the normal taper crimp, or roll crimp.