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I had a chance to recover these boolits fired from my 357 Blackhawk. 148 grain wadcutter and a 125grain Lee. I dug them from a wooden back stop. They averaged around 850 fps for the WC boolits. If I remember correctly the alloy was supposed to be around 14 bhn. My question, shouldn't they be mushrooming more? I'm not getting great accuracy either. I'm pretty new at this so what do you think? Maybe softer and slower?
You shouldn't need that hard of lead for what you are doing, and a properly fit softer boolit may shoot better, but wood is a poor test medium for mushrooming. The hole made by the boolit supports it and prevents expansion.
That does make a lot of sense now that I think about it. I guess that's why wet newspaper or gallon water jugs are usually used. I was just thinking that the wood should be harder thus better expansion. Next time I will use a different medium to stop the boolit. It did make it easier to recover and check how the powder coating held up. The next time I cast the WC I'm going to make them softer and slower. Thanks for the reply.
I use a scrap alloy that is close to 9 bhn for 38 spl WC.
14 is much too hard for my tastes.
Your BHN is pretty hard for wadcutters, IMO. I would suggest an alloy that doesn't run much more than 9-10 BHN and size them to the same diameter as the cylinder throats, and I don't think you need to slow them down. Some will advise "drop through", "push through" and "snug push through" as measurements but I prefer facts; I slugged and measured my cylinder throats (slugged, ball gauges, and pin/plug gauges). Also slug the barrel to make sure cylinder throat diameter is larger than groove diameter...
I have a bullet/load for my 38 Special "house gun" that consists of a "hard cast" DEWC, around 13-14 BHN, over a near max. load of W231. I don't expect any expansion just a quite deep 35 cal hole with a lot of tissue damage ...
I love that 125g Lee. I use it in light .38 Spl loads mostly, around 750-800 fps. I ended up getting a 6-cav mold, so production really moves along.
I wouldn't expect it to mushroom. The idea behind the RNFP is the big flat point - it's supposed to transfer the energy, all in a big smack. The ones I shoot have never mushroomed, and I'm shooting considerably softer alloy than what you are using.
Also, at the 14 Bhn you claim, I don't think there is anything that will mushroom at 850 fps. At least, nothing without a huge hollowpoint, and even then I'm dubious.
I'm pretty sure my fitment is good. I've slugged the barrel and after sizing the boolits are one and a half thousandth over sized and are a snug push through the cylinder. The WC is the only one that doesn't want to shoot accurately for me. That Lee 125 is fantastic and the 150 rcbs KT is really good for me. That cheap Lee mould just works really well.
I'm shooting the WC in 357 brass because I don't like cleaning the carbon ring from the cylinder when I use the 38 special brass. From all I've read I thought the wadcutter would be my most accurate boolit but it's not. I have more work to do on it before I give up on it. Thanks for the input.
Wadcutters are not necessarily the MOST accurate bullets but with classic bullseye loads they are generally quite accurate. Their main claim to fame is cutting clean holes in targets for scoring purposes, that's why they are used a lot in the Bullseye game. I would suggest using approx 3 grs. of Bullseye,or 3.4/231 lubing only 1 lube groove or just tumble lubing your WC's. I'm pretty sure you'll find accuracy there.
That said my Lee 125RF will out shoot wadcutters as will my H&G 158 RN and Lee 120TC. There is no accuracy magic in wadcutters.