wadcutter in snubbie

[Wayne Dobbs]

I finally dug out the box of cast wadcutters I bought a while back to load, and lo and behold, they don't match the form factor of anything in my manuals. They're double-ended, but have a pair of crimping grooves that seem designed to leave about 1/16th of an inch of lead exposed past the end of the case.



Is there a good source of load data for these?

You can simply use the Lyman data for their solid base wadcutter and be on your way. Two full power (but not +P) loads that I use with the bullet you've shown are 3.5 grains of Bullseye or 4.0 grains of 231/HP38. That gives about 775-800 in a 4" barrel .38 Special and works beautifully on critters and targets without being abusive to guns and shooters. When you seat the bullet, seat them with the casting sprue mark forward so you use the best end of the bullet for the base.

[Wayne Dobbs]

Here are a couple of articles from C. E. "Ed" Harris that are very good regarding wadcutters. In fact this whole site is great reading if you're a reloader or shooter. Harris is one of the great writers and a solid source of information.

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris...FBI%20Load.htm

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris...adcutterQA.htm

[LSP972]

The second link Wayne posted is a treasure trove of reloading information.

One should pay particular attention to Mr. Harris' point regarding brass;, i.e., loading a full wadcutter, especially a solid (double-ended) one, in brass that originally housed jacketed bullets, to near-maximum pressures, is flirting with trouble. Accuracy will most definitely suffer; we had a bunch of stuff sent to us, loaded in +P brass, that was totally useless at the long line. No presuure issues, because of the medium target velocities it was loaded to, but we had to limit it to short line practice; no way it was match-capable.

But jack up the velocity in an attempt to make a toe-tagger/rhino-roller/etc., and you'll start seeing severely flattened primers, split mouths and case walls, and other signs of bad juju.

All of this is caused by excessive case-to-bullet tension, i.e. thicker brass the entire length of the case. In some cases, you can discern a definite bulge.

I hope I'm not preaching to the choir here, but with the number of people who seem to be trying their hand at reloading these days, it needs to be said.

Personally, I usually avoid lead bullets in revolvers, because they make for a messy, PITA clean up and I'm lazy. But I did buy a box of 135gr RNL BayouBullets the other day to try. Donnie's coating pretty much eliminates leading (at moderate veloctities), and I'm getting to the end of the cheap JHPs I bought a shit-load of some years back.

Truth be told, between myself, my wife, and my two grandsons, my Dillon stays humming cranking out .45, .40, and Euro-Pellet. I'd just as soon not mess with loading .38s, as I don't shoot that many of them, relatively speaking. But the last time I checked the price of a box of plain-vanilla 130gr .38 ball, I almost had a stroke. Holy cow...

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[LHS]

Thanks for the info, guys! That's really helpful. I mostly load .38sp simply due to the cost, and until now I've stuck with some 125gr Berry's plated bullets that I got for dirt cheap. But I wanted some wadcutters, and bought some. I figure I'll burn through this 500 projos, and then look into coated/plated version of same.

[Jeep]

I'd just as soon not mess with loading .38s, as I don't shoot that many of them, relatively speaking. But the last time I checked the price of a box of plain-vanilla 130gr .38 ball, I almost had a stroke. Holy cow...

.

Remember back in the day when .38 special was routinely cheaper than Euro-pellet? It's the decline of an American institution.

[Chuck Haggard]

I remember when you couldn't walk into a gun shop and not find .38 WC and SWCs, now those are typically you gotta hunt for them special on the internets type ammo.

[LHS]

I remember when you couldn't walk into a gun shop and not find .38 WC and SWCs, now those are typically you gotta hunt for them special on the internets type ammo.

Yep, somehow the 130gr FMJ became the defacto standard fodder.

[LSP972]

Remember back in the day when .38 special was routinely cheaper than Euro-pellet? It's the decline of an American institution.

I remember very well. Then it became all about high-capacity 9mms; its all about itty-bitty .380s and mini-9mms now.

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[LSP972]

Yep, somehow the 130gr FMJ became the defacto standard fodder.

And one wonders how much that has to do with the fact that it duplicates the standard military loading for that caliber? Also, I suspect that FMJ bullets are cheaper to produce, in volume, than swaged wadcutter or semi-wadcutters.

Neither of which, of course, make any difference whatsoever on the outcome… but it IS a bit curious why the 130 ball load seems to have superseded the old standbys.

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[LHS]

And one wonders how much that has to do with the fact that it duplicates the standard military loading for that caliber? Also, I suspect that FMJ bullets are cheaper to produce, in volume, than swaged wadcutter or semi-wadcutters.

Neither of which, of course, make any difference whatsoever on the outcome… but it IS a bit curious why the 130 ball load seems to have superseded the old standbys.

.

Maybe people don't like to clean lead out of their barrels, or are worried about lead contamination from handling and shooting it.