38 cal hollow based wad-cutter question

[azrednek]

Does anybody have any experience casting these?? I'm curious about the mix. Should these be cast with pure lead or will wheel weights work ok?? Has anybody tried tumble lubing any hollow based wad-cutter?? I had great luck and good results casting and shooting Lee's tumble lube style 148 gr, double end wadcutter. I'm curious if I can tighten the group going the hollow based route.

The store bought HBWC I tried were swedged with pure lead and the results were remarkable but the extra $$ it just isn't worth the expense. I use 2.7grs of Bullseye in 38sp cases and bump the load up to about 3.5-4 in a 357 case. The mild load in the 38's group better than the 357's.

I'm down to less than 20lbs of pure lead and want to save it for muzzle loaders. I don't know about the rest of the regulars here but I haven't come across pure lead in quite some time for a reasonable price. Any advise on these HBWC's will certainly be appreciated, thx in advance.

[StarMetal]

A hollow base mould would have to be a single cavity I believe, like the Lee 50 cal Minie for example. It would be a very slow process to cast a bunch for target shooting and you would need a bunch because target shooting is fun. I use to buy the factory Hornady and Speer 148 gr HBWC's back with they were about $15 for 500. To tell you the truth I don't think it would be worth casting them when you figure your lead, time, and lube. Now the solid 148 gr DEWC's would be a different story as that mould can be obtained in more then just one cavity.

Anyways I think the tumble lube would be just fine for the low velocity that they are.

Joe

[drinks]

Az;
A local metal recycling dealer sells very soft, BHN6 or less for .10c a lb., look for plumber's roof jacks, they are about as pure as you can find.
Don

[beagle]

The hollow based wad cutter bullets cast quite well. I have three different 358395 Lyman hollow based moulds and they all cast a slightly different weight and I mean as much as 10 grains.

Wheel weights work quite well as the alloy. The base cavity is slightly rounded with fairly sharp corners which leaves a distinctive ring inside the cavity. Recovered, fired bullets have this ring ironed out so the pressure is expanding them as it should.

I've fired these in .38/44 loads in a .357 Magnum in excess of 1,000 FPS from .38 Special cases with good accuracy.

This design and this bullet worked very well in recent wad cutter tests that one of the board members made despite the fact that light Bullseye midrange loads were used.

The mould is an obsolete design but you should be able to pick one up off E-Bay as I see them quite frequently.

They are all single cavity as the hollow base pin requires that the mould be a nose pour design.

The trick to casting good HB bullets is to cast them fast and maintain the temperature of the HB pin./beagle

[crazy mark]

I have a DC Cramer and I use straight WW. I also have the Lyman 358395. They shoot fine in my 38S&W's and my 38 specials from 600-800 fps. Mark

[Buckshot]

..............Azredneck, look down the thread listings to: "What's your favorite 38 wadcutter", for some info I listed on home swaged hollow based wadcutters. These were cast of pure lead and then hollow based in a swage die. They sure made my little M&P Smith in 38 S&W sit up and bark .

If I were going to be shooting a whole bunch of these I'd sure look into buying them commercially as swaged.


The one nice thing about being able to swage them at home is that you can swage a hollow base on any plain based 38 cal boolit . In the above photo these 3 boolits were all solid plain bases. A is a Ly 35863 WC at 158grs, B is the Lee 358-158RF, and C is the Ly 358430, a 200gr RN.

Unless all the lube grooves are filled, they'll collapse (as in C) under the pressure of the swaging process. I need to try those 200gr FNHB's in my Ruger BH 357 :P . A neat thing is that if I put some washers under the ejector base, the rod sticks up into the die and also forms a hollowpoint.

I did one of the 200gr slugs with a HB and a deep HP and it makes for one loooooooong boolit!

..................Buckshot

[azrednek]

A big thanks to all that responded. Buckshot, thanks for the info and photos. Who makes the swaging set up?? I would love to try it on large calibers as well as the 38's. A friend of mine uses .450 hollow base conical mold meant for the 44 caliber black powder revolvers in his 45 Auto rim and claims to shoot some tight groups.

[beagle]

I've shot that same bullet in a .45 ACP. Tell your friend to tinker with it a bit and he may be able to shim the hollow base plug and get a heavier bullet.

Some you can and some not. I managed to get one to 250 grains which gave me a 250 grain HB not unlike the old factory load for the .45 Colt.

It shot well for me in the .45 Colt./beagle

[StarMetal]

Beagle

I've done that with my 45 mould, the hollow based one I shoot in my BP gun. It does make the the bottom base ring longer, which is no problem in the my BP gun, but not sure if it would lead some in smokeless centerfires. Probably not at low velocities.

I've done just about everything with that bullet including shooting it loaded backwards for a giant hollowpoint.

Joe

[Buckshot]

A big thanks to all that responded. Buckshot, thanks for the info and photos. Who makes the swaging set up?? I would love to try it on large calibers as well as the 38's. A friend of mine uses .450 hollow base conical mold meant for the 44 caliber black powder revolvers in his 45 Auto rim and claims to shoot some tight groups.

............I made the dies my little ole oneself. Richard Corbin made the press! I don't know if you need a swaging press to just hollow base lead slugs. I know that swaging jackets on a regular press can cause the shellholder slot to collapse. I need to see about doing that in a Rockchucker to see what kind of effort is required.

.................Buckshot