If your bullet is going down into the case as you described, I think that your bullets may be intended for 9mm reloading. If so, these have a nominal diameter of .355 or .356. Bullets for .38 Spl reloading will have nominal diameter of .357 or .358. The vendor could have got them mixed up. That's my opinion on your issue.
The bullets could be undersized, but I doubt they are intended for 9mm. Not much demand for 9mm wadcutters I would think.Originally Posted by willie
You are correct. I missed that part about wadcutters or forgot it. I saw this problem in 1971 when reloading 45 Auto ammo. Brass was thin commercial as opposed to thicker military. Bullet was .450. I've not ever encountered the same since.
You can try painting a case up with a Sharpie, measuring before/after with calipers, applying a light crimp to a case and dropping it into a chamber checker...
...although really, it's simpler than that. When you get a bullet that drops in, try putting it in a different case. If that solves it, the cases are the problem. If it does not, grab a different bullet and try it with the first case. If that solves it, the bullets are the problem.
I strongly suspect, given what you're describing, that the bullets are undersized.
Drop a bullet into a chamber. If it’s undersized, it won’t stop in the throat.
I doubt that. 38 cases get used a LOT more before they're junked than say, 9x19mm. On cases with a few loads through them, I had no issues. When I bought a bunch of cases for cheap, that's when the issues cropped up, usually RP brass. Bullets were the same, only variable was the brass.
U die from EGW and immediately the problems went away.
Sorry for the thread drift.
So I'm wondering if the U die is better then the FCD to correctly size the case. I have read here and there that the FCD can resize the bullet.
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I'd look at the FCD more like a crimping die with a QC built in, not for sizing the case.
So I have acquired a copy of the Lee Modern Reloading manual, to accompany my kindle version of the Lyman manual. So looking at the loads for wadcutters with bullseye, the Lee states a minimum grains of 2.7 to max 3.1. The Lyman, 3 to 3.5 grains.
Based on the Lyman manual, and recommendations in this thread I had loaded roughly 100 rounds at the 3.5 grains bullseye, and fired around 50 at the range through both my Security Six and 442. The recoil was brisker than I had remembered with the Precision Delta reman I had been shooting last time I had taken them to the range, but I put that off to not being accustomed to it after not shooting it for several months.
Now I see that those loads exceeded the max load in one manual, and in addition I noted something I had missed previously, that the Lyman manual specifically warns against using any of their listed .38 special loads in an aluminum framed revolver. Since that is the primary purpose for which I am reloading in the first place, this is concerning.
Which data should i trust? Or is all of it suspect? Or am I overthinking it?
https://youtu.be/qTa4ySTzC6s
If you can go 3.7 gr BE with a 158gr LSWC or RNL, then as far as safe loads are concerned, 3.5 with a 148gr lead WC would logically be fine as far as pressure is concerned, but might not deliver as good accuracy as the standard 2.7gr load for the lead WC. Multiple books list different loads and maxes. You should probably start ten percent below what you want to load, and ladder up to that. IOW, don’t start with the max load in the book. If that’s 3.5, then load 2.7 and work up by tenths of a grain. With lead WC, stop when you find the most accurate and shootable load. The most powerful load you can possibly make with that bullet is pretty irrelevant for most uses.
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