Elder Son and I have loaded thousands of .38 S&W rounds using standard .38 Special bullets. If you buy 'em SOFT, (as opposed to our normal desire for hard bullets) they slug out nicely. Most .357 LEAD bullets are actually that diameter, and .38 S&W varies somewhat, usually .359 to .360. At most, the barrel is only some .003 oversize, and, let's face it, we're not talking bench rest rifle bullets here.
If you want really nice accuracy, mild charges of Bullseye powder with swaged lead 148-gr. hollow base wadcutters are excellent. The dead-soft lead upsets and fills the bore. A quality revolver, like the S&W Hand Ejector "Victory Model," or the fine little Webley police service pieces, can be outstandingly accurate, once you work out your exact hold.
The same bullet, loaded inverted with a
slightly increased powder charge, is probably the best of all possible loads for the .38 S&W in a home defense or carry role. Resist the temptation to soup up this load. Accuracy goes right away, and the HBWC skirt tears away. Remember, you are loading for novelty with this old cartridge. There are many better rounds for full time anti-personnel use.
Difficult to find, but occasionally available at gun shows, are the Winchester/Western factory-swaged 200 gr. LRN bullets. W-W used to load these in their .38 Spl and .38 S&W "Super Police" cartridges. This bullet has a hollow base and a very good, blunt shape. I have bought a couple of boxes of bullets alone, years back. Lyman used to sell a mould which cast this same pattern bullet at 195 gr., with a solid base. In pure lead, it would probably slug out well enough, but not shoot as accurately as the HB version. If you find some of either of these, please reduce powder charges, in deference to the break-top revolvers.
As to .45 ACP for the Webley--I think the factory .455 load was something like 700 fps with a 265 gr. bullet. Again, at gun shows you can probably find some old yellow-boxed W-W factory bullets marked .45 Colt. These are 250 or 255 gr. lead RN FP with hollow bases. The heavy bullets at moderate velocities will shoot much closer to the factory Webley sights than most typical .45 ACP loads.
I have an old Lyman cast bullet manual which gives (old) loads for both .455 and .38 S&W. Let me know if you need it and I'll give you their suggested loads for each.
I think you'll really enjoy handloading.
Johnny Guest