Hey guys, I'm getting ready to start casting some of my own lead bullets, and I ran across this site that does HP conversions for molds. Is it worth while to spend the extra money and get some HP molds, or should I stick with casting LRN and SWC ammo for both calibers?

How effective is a lead HP in a survival situation?

158gr SWC in .357mag is a good all around thumper.

Short answer: you should probably stick with LRN and SWC.

Long answer: Making a purely lead bullet that reliably expands would be quite the undertaking.  You would have to control the hardness of the lead, the velocity, the barrel length and the medium it was expected to expand in.  Not to mention finding the best shape for the lead hollow point.  i.e. If the lead was too soft the bullet might not expand but splatter and come apart when it hit heavy clothing or bone, if too hard of lead you might get no expansion at all.  If you drove the speed of the bullet too slow, you might get expansion but not adequate penetration; too fast and you might get expansion but also serious barrel leading.  If the round you made was optimized for a pistol, it might not work in a rifle length barrel.  Also, if you planned on expansion in light skinned animals it likely would lack penetration if you had to shoot a heavy skinned/boned animal.  

Thanks, that was very helpful. I think I'll pass on the lead HP bullets.

Lyman made a mold for lead HP bullets.  Googly "Lyman Devastator".

They tend to work surprisingly well, though I'd not expect them to meet the FBI heavy clothing criterion.

A  158gr SWC HP would be nice for the 38/357mag

Ive mostly shoot RN lead in 9mm

Sames goes for me, I love the  Lee TL 124 Gr LRN mold when shooting my Glock19 with a Lone Wolf bbl.

Yeah I got some tight groups with LR 124

I was thinking about getting the 356-125-2R since I don't think I'm going to use Lee's lube. That should work just as well as the TL 124 right?

When I started with the SO. we carried 357 lead hp rounds for duty ammo in S&W 681's. I think they were Winchester?