A gas check is a small copper cup at the base of a lead bullet. It was often used in olden times by bullet casters to cut down on leading from lead bullets in high velocity loads. The more modern jacketed bullets did away for the need. The bullet needed to be cast with a small lip at the bottom for the gas check to fit on. I noticed it because it is old technology, but probably is a good idea in Buffalo Bore's case.Originally Posted by MD7305
Geco once made a 116gr. "Fangschuss" load with a full plated wc bullet that looked like Jim Cirillos early experiments. It was sold as a low recoil load, but the bullet may have had potential.
I see, thanks for the explanation.
I like this thread. I decided some years back to carry wad cutters in my j frames, and so this thread provides nice confirmation bias for a decision that I continue to wonder about. In the meantime I've tried Underwood Ammo's hard-cast +P wad cutters (my recommendation is don't, at least in a light weight snub) as well as S&B's extremely gentle ones (which are nice on the wrist but I doubt they will penetrate enough.
What I continue to search for is what Chuck mentions--a wad cutter with a sharp edge around the circumference and a cup in the middle--probably hard cast and probably going around 700 fps. If anyone knows whether such a creature is manufactured, I'd be grateful for the information. In the meantime I use some federals I picked up that seem to be ok.
The only commercial WC that I currently know of that fits that recipe is the Double Tap, but I am leery of the QC on most small ammo makers
Midway has Federal Gold Medal Match wadcutters in stock.
Sent from my SCH-S738C using Tapatalk
I recently came across a couple of boxes of the new Winchester 38 special 130 grain "Defend" jacketed hollowpoint ammunition. This is a standard pressure load, so I was interested in how it might perform in my aluminum frame Colt Cobra backup gun. The Cobra has a very lightweight frame and one should not use +P ammunition in it.
The ammunition comes in 20 round boxes and has nickel plated cases. I really prefer nickel cases for defensive ammunition both for corrosion protection and for easier extraction. The corrosion protection is especially important for a BUG worn on the ankle and not fired as often as the service pistol. The bullets are a jacketed hollow point design with a fairly large opening .
Fired from a 4 inch barrel revolver the velocity was 844 ft./s . Fired into a Fackler Box, which contains numerous Ziploc bags full of water the bullets expanded to .565" diameter. Using the standard formula to convert penetration in the water box to that of 10% gelatin the penetration was 13.1 inches. This is excellent performance for a standard pressure load. I was more interested, however, in how it would do in the little 2 inch barrel snubby.
From the 2 inch barrel velocity was 736 ft./s. The bullets expanded to .58" and the computed penetration was 12.7 inches . Recoil and blast were mild, as one would expect from a standard pressure load. Accuracy was good and the load hit very close the sights at 5 yards, and a couple of inches high at 10 yards. It was dead on laterally. This load was more accurate than the Magtech 148 grain wadcutter load and the Winchester 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter ammo tried alongside it. Accuracy fairly well matched that of the Winchester Super-Match 148 grain wadcutter load used as a baseline.
Muzzle flash was not seen in the indoor range and there was no smoke. With its somewhat rounded nose profile this load should work well in speed loaders or speed strips for reloading. I will carry this load for a while and continue testing it.
I've also been trying that new Winchester loading. Recoil, blast, flash and POI all equal the WWB FMJFP from my 642s. LOw recoil, accurate, easy to shoot.
The bullet appears to be the exact same one used in the Bonded and PDX1 loads. In non +P through clothing I am pretty sure it won't mushroom since the +P version fails to expand regularly, however it still has the advantages noted by Tom. This style of bullet normally yaws in gel testing when it doesn't expand, so the penetration is rather controlled and wounding would be better than RN I think.
Got in my Black Hills 148gr. wadcutters yesterday.
Made it to the range and fired off 50 of them today.
I'd forgotten how nice wadcutters shoot, 5 shots into the A at 7 with .20 splits out of my 442.
Like shooting .22's compared to the +P JHP loads.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
Jody, I noticed the same thing. I managed to snag the last 5 boxes of Federal wadcutters from Midway, it seems. It's really tough to go back to +P's after shooting wadcutters for a while.
Reply With Quote