Interesting. I have read a lot about those 200 Super Police loads and people either loved them or hated them. Askins talks about shooting a Nazi with one to good effect, but as I recall correctly it didn't kill the guy. I always remember reading that test in old Gun Digest Law Enforcement annual with they shot the 200 grn Super Police load at a car and it wouldn't penetrate a car window and just dented the fender.
I have never shot anything living with 200 grn .38 spl loads, but have played around with them a lot doing some handloading experiments with a friend of mine. My model 14 loved that old lyman 200 grain bullet at about 650fps and shot it more accurately than anything else that I have tried in it yet. You can get a lot of soft tissue penetration (in theory) out of a 200 grn LSW at around 700 fps from a .38. Always wanted to try them on a hog but the opportunity has not presented itself. Glynn Fryxell wrote an article about them and their use in a slaughterhouse (very specialized use). There is also a thread discussing shooting jack rabbits with the 200grn LRN over on castboolits forum, and the gist seemed to be they worked great if they stayed slow enough to be unstable, but if pushed too fast they just drilled right through like you describe.
Thanks for that! I am going to order some to play with. I bought a bunch of 9mm 124 and 147 HST from Rocky Mountain Reloading a while back. I have been sorely tempted to pull down some old 38 +p+ 147 Hydra Shock ammo and reload it with 147 HSTs just to see what happens. Seems like it should work ...
I just picked up a box of Bayou Bullets 135 grain button nose wadcutters to play around with making practice ammo.