What's Your Least Favorite Wadcutter?

[Doc1]

Not mold-specific, but type specific: Years ago I bought 25,000 .357" HBWCs from an estate sale. I traded and sold most of them, but kept enough to use for the rest of my life (because I don't shoot that type very often)! There's nothing wrong with the bullets for their intended use - bullseye shooting - but the design is somewhat limiting, as you can't safely load them very hot. As I'm sure most of you know, hot loads risk skirt separation of the hollow base.

The solid DEWCs suffer no such restriction and can be loaded as hot as any other cast bullet, if you so desire. As far as accuracy goes, the HBWCs supposedly have the advantage of the hollow base expanding to better conform to the rifling. This may well be true, but my own offhand shooting experiments show no difference between DEWCs and HBWCs. My apologies to the bullseye shooters who use HBWCs as this probably illustrates my own limitations as a marksman, rather than any limitations of the HBWC bullets.

I've been using the HBWCs - appropriately loaded - in my Cowboy Action Shooting matches and they've performed well; I have no complaints. I will simply offer that if I'm going to use a true wadcutter, I prefer the solid DEWCs as they offer a lot more flexibility in loading. As a side note, I'll offer that IMHO, a hotly-loaded DEWC is nothing to sneeze at as a defensive load.

Best
Doc

[tazman]

I can understand the search for ultimate accuracy. I have searched for it for years and continue that search. The most accurate load for a handgun will shoot to your capabilities no matter what those might be. A poor load will most likely not.
The thing becomes, how much aggravation are you willing to put up with to achieve that absolute best accuracy?
I need practice with a load that shoots well to improve my skills. Shooting the absolute most accurate load will not help that significantly. My skill level isn't high enough to tell.
I will give up a bit of accuracy that I can't notice anyway, for a less expensive but good load that I can shoot often and so increase my skills.
That is why I use boolits I cast myself for nearly all my shooting. I get really good accuracy. Much better than what I can shoot without a rest(this has been proven many times). It is almost certainly not the best accuracy I can get from any given handgun with a tailored load. It is, however, more accurate than what I can shoot without a rest and is a good indicator of what I am doing, good or bad, on a given day.

[quack1]

I'm with walks and gwpercle, Lyman 35863. The mold cast beautiful bullets, but no matter what I tried, they shot terribly.

[Walks]

Funny thing, when I think of W/C's I only think of .38cal bullets.
I've had a Lee #429-208-WC 2cav for 30+yrs. In fact last year I bought a 6cav that was an earlier group buy here, from another member. Great Bullets. I used them in .44Spl for Cowboy Shooting, and putting clean holes in paper.

And the Saeco #453, a 225gr W/C for the .45 Auto Rim. It was a great mold, I really miss it.

Think about another.45Cal Wadcutter, N.O.E. makes some nice one too.