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A very stupid question
I've been loading 38 WCs since I was a kid. I always kept the 38WC brass separate
from standard 38 brass. It was always drilled into me they were different. Just in last
couple years I have become interested in 44sp & 45Colt in WC loadings. I have been
loading in standard cases, is this what everybody does or am I missing out on some
thing? I have never owned factory WCs other than 32s & 38s. I shoot so little factory
and have thousands of brass and don't recall any 44sp or 45Colt WC brass.
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Not really a stupid question. I'm not personally aware of any .45 LC wadcutter brass, but wouldn't be too surprised if some .44 Special wadcutter brass exists, although I've never encountered it. But I've always reloaded .38 Special brass with any loading I desired and never encountered any bad results, unless the brass was so old and had been reloaded so many times that it just gave up and split. And, I suspect that if you ever encounter any .44 or .45 wadcutter brass it will accept and perform with any reasonable load you wish to use.
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Been reading load manuals for 25 years or so, never saw a comment about separating brass for WC or special brass made for them.
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I have lots of 44 special wadcutter brass, many times fired WW brass that started life as factory 240 semi wad cutters. Seriously never heard of 44 or 45 wadcutter brass but my 180 grain 430 WC’s donwell in any Brass I’ve tried and are very effective raccoon cutters. And true story; I once shot a woodchuck that was standing in tall grass about 20 yards away; I didn’t see the second chuck directly behind it but hit them both, bang flop with one shot.
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.38 WC brass has a cannelure in line with the bullet base. I've never seen .45 Colt wc brass.
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I've always sorted my brass by headstamp...and now I do sort out the WC brass also.
BUT, at one time, I wasn't aware of the difference between 38 spl and 38 spl WC brass...So didn't sort them out when loading, and never seen a difference when shooting them with standard bullets or WC bullets (this was back before I cast my own). Now I do separate WC brass from standard brass...but still don't notice the difference at the target, LOL...But I feel better... #OCD
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I have 45 LC brass that is canular'd at about the upper 2/3 like one would expect for WC brass. Not sure why it is done, but it is a very strong ring.
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I know there is 357 brass that is WC. I found some in what I have.Beside 38spl. that have it also.
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I did have a few problems with my Smith 19-4 and w/c with regular brass. I had a bunch of the w/c brass and it loaded just fine.
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Interesting, I didn’t know there was such a thing. Learn something new every day.
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Interesting to hear about the cannelure. I knew it was on there but never heard it described as anything more than a datum for standard weight bullets.
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Were you a PPC shooter back in the 70's and 80"s, you would have been very aware of the difference between WC and "regular" 38 Special brass. My tests seemed to show that the WC brass would deliver about a 1/2 inch smaller group at 50 yards than the "Regular" brass did. Doesn't sound like much, but when you are shooting for "fortune and glory" you want every legal advantage you can get.
For what it is worth, I have never seen nor have I heard of 44 Special or 45 Colt wadcutter brass. I have seen and used factory 45 ACP " wadcutters", but I don't think the brass is different dimensionally from any other 45 ACP Brass.
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Confirms my own loading experiences. Have separated and loaded 38WC brass since a kid. I have
never owned 44sp or 45 Colt factory WCs. In fact I only loaded 32 & 38 WCs until recently. I have
loaded thousands of 41-44-45s, but not WCs. Not counting the 45 semi-WCs in 45acp. Now I don't
feel stupid.
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I have some 45 LC brass with the cannelure about 1/3 down the case. it was range pickup so don't have anything to compare it to.
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I do keep my 38 wc brass separate from the rest but only having less than 200 pieces they get reloaded soon after use.
I only have 2 for 45 and 3 for 44 spl. so standard brass is normally used.
The 44 is used most often.
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I have a couple of hundred .38 special wad cutter cases. They do load better (finish up nice and straight, no bulge) with Hornady or Remington hollow base wad cutters, then standard brass.
I wonder if the few examples of .44 and .45 canelured brass, were done by a reloader with a cannelure tool rather than factory???
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I've got 9MM's with 1 "ring", 38 spcl with 1 and 2 "rings", 357 mag and 44 mag with 1 "ring" never treated them any differently.
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I think there's a sticky in one of the forums here on WC brass, made for an interesting read.
Now to find it again...
Okay! Someone write it down that I actually FOUND something!! :) http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-in-a-Model-27
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WC brass is not just the under-base cannelure, but uniform case mouth wall thickness to a depth approximating location of the bullet base. Measure with a tubing micrometer to sort, or just buy Starline.
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The cannalure on factory .45COLT brass is to "lock" the swaged lead round nose bullet into the case. It has no crimping groove, so the cannalure is put around the case to keep the original style bullet from sliding down into the case under recoil.