WC Seating Depths & Crimp

[Racingsnake]

Why are 148gr wad cutters seated do deeply into the case?

Can WC used in a .38 snub be used un-sized and un-lubed?

With thanks,

Racingsnake

[DLCTEX]

WC boolits have to be seated deeply to chamber due to the lack of an ogive. The straight sides prevent the boolit entering into the neck portion of the chamber. Unsized depends on what your particular mould drops and what your particular chambers will accept. Make chamber cast and measure, or just load some dummy rounds and see if they fit. Unlubed usually will result in leading. Try tumble lubing in Alox or Johnson's paste wax. If you don't understand tumble lubing, use the search feature at the top of the page.

[Recluse]

Can WC used in a .38 snub be used un-sized and un-lubed?

With thanks,

Racingsnake

Of all the boolits I cast, load and shoot, the .358WC is the ONE BOOLIT I would never, ever even remotely consider trying to load unsized.

Unlubed, you're just going to get major-big-dawg leading.

But trying to load the boolits unsized is going to be a Russian Roulette exercise in frustration because the boolits are seated basically full length. Too big and your case is going to bulge like a fat man's belly at a free buffet--which will make chambering in your cylinder hard, if not impossible.

It's been my practice to size every boolit I cast, but even if I were to ever waver from that, the wadcutters would be THE ONE boolit I'd never even think about loading without having sized and lubed first.

:coffee:

[35remington]

If the bullet, as cast, is not of overlarge dimensions, and they often are not, then there is no problem whatsoever with loading and shooting them without sizing. I do so with all of my wadcutter moulds all of the time save for a M10 Smith that has a tighter cylinder and throat dimensons....for this one I size the bullets.

If your mould does not throw an overlarge bullet, and your gun accepts them as cast and accuracy is good, there is no benefit to sizing WC's.

If the bullets fit the chamber throats, there is no reason why they cannot be seated out a bit, but so doing lowers velocity. An increase in the powder charge may be necessary to restore velocity to the same level as that of the shorter length. The downside to seating a bullet with a long bearing surface out of the case mouth is that if the fit is close the fouling in the chamber throats, if it builds up to any degree, makes chambering rounds increasingly more difficult. A good load should allow a pretty fair amount of shooting before this happens, but it may vary depending upon that fit and the amount of leading, if any.

Since wadcutters are shot at usually low velocities, not much lube is needed, and in fact too much lube will open up groups in my experience. A modest amount of lube in the bottom groove only, or a tumble lube with a light coating of LLA work best IME.

I wouldn't go with no lube. There will be some leading if none is used in most revolvers, even if the load is light.

[mooman76]

I load mine just above flush. I shoot them as cast also with LLA(Lee liquid alox).

[MT Gianni]

If you do not yet have a lube-sizer you can do a serviceable job with the Lee sizer on a standard press. AIRC they are around $15.

[Racingsnake]

Thanks for the information so far, but what got me thinking was a 160gr WC I saw on the S&W forum suggested fo SD.

Can the 148gr be used for self defense if loaded to slightly higher velocity?

[35remington]

Yes. They are probably superior to any other nonexpanding cast bullet for that use in the 38, but then a good SWCHP +P factory load would be even better.

You cannot obtain +P velocities with a cast wadcutter in many instances without seating it out, however.

The wadcutter takes up case space, which allows low velocity deviations with light loads, but the same occupancy of case volume means you cannot get as high of velocities with it at similar pressures as a similar weight SWC that seats further out of the case.

I may have your 160 grain WC design. Lyman called theirs the 358432. It seated somewhat further out of the case and got essentially the same velocities with the same charges as a 158 grain SWC.

[Racingsnake]

The 160gr WC that I saw on the S7W forum has sharp edges and the obviously good meplat.

Can custom mould be ordered according to one's requirements?

[jdgabbard]

Yep, from Mountain Molds. (www.mountainmolds.com)

[EDK]

The 160gr WC that I saw on the S7W forum has sharp edges and the obviously good meplat.

Can custom mould be ordered according to one's requirements?

Keep an eye out for LYMAN 358432 moulds....discontinued awhile back...comes in 148 and 160 grain weights. It also feeds nicely in my 357 MARLIN Cowboy rifles! I'd buy a 4 cavity OEM or a good 4-to-6 clone in 160 (or 180!) in a heartbeat.

:cbpour::redneck::Fire: