meplate for hunting.

[Catsmith]

i read alot about a largeflat front on cast boolets for taking game. i am trying lay on some wad cutters to try in my 357 . don' tget any larger and flatter than that. looking for opinions on why this ia a good or bad idea for hunting applications.

[white eagle]

my understanding is while good for close range
wadcutters loose velocity fast and along with it
it looses accuracy and range

[waksupi]

You want a semi wadcutter. Gives you more range.

[Catsmith]

ok so if i were to try and push the 158 swc plain base boolit in a 357 that i run in my 38, how fast can i build upto without having to switch to a gas check boolet?

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Catsmith,

A good read for you on the subject would be Veral Smith's book, "Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets." Veral is the man behind Lead Bullet Technology (LBT).

The full wadcutter is highly effective, but as stated in the posts above, very limited in range. Not a good hunting choice for a number of reasons.

Veral also indicates that the semi-wadcutter does not cut a full dia. hole as some think, because of the tissue which flows back from the flat nose flows back with such force that the sharp semi-wadcutter shoulder is kept from coming in contact with tissue as it passes through the critter.

You would be better served with what is known as a Wide Flat Nose (WFN) style of bullet.

One of the things I have noted while using the WFN bullets is the entry point through the hide of the animals I have taken, is MUCH larger then the typical pencil sized entry point with "J" bullets. The point being that the WFN profile is at work from the instant it contacts the critter, having no need to expand because of the large meplat.

Also, the WFN boolit profile is much more stable over longer distances then the full wadcutter.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[runfiverun]

the 358091 button nosed wad cutter has loads in the lyman book moving it right along in the 1200 fps range.
i use it in my 357 mag and a similar boolit in my 41 for a lot of stuff under 50-60 yds i keep them more in the 950 fps range.

[reloader28]

Going along with Crusty,
A friend of mine shot a doe this year with a 357 rifle with Lee 358 158 RF from straight WW that I made. I did cut the bevel base from the mold and use a PB gas check on it.

Worked awesome on the deer. Quartering away and the boolit went in in back of the ribs and exited right in front of the opposite front shoulder. Unfortunately the shoulder was so bloodshot it was unusable, but it put a real smackdown on the deer.

[waksupi]

I doubt you push that fast enough in a revolver to need gas checks. Keep your boolits fairly hard, to avoid the excess destruction mentioned in a previous post. And avoid hollow points!

[44man]

I doubt you push that fast enough in a revolver to need gas checks. Keep your boolits fairly hard, to avoid the excess destruction mentioned in a previous post. And avoid hollow points!
I go with this too.
I am not a big fan of the .357 because of bullet/boolit choices, not that it does not work. A good WFN with some weight would be my choice. Don't look for quick expansion, just enough so you do not lose penetration. I take penetration over expansion.

[huntrick64]

Since we are all casting our own, use something (SWC, WFN, LFN, etc) with a large meplat that has a decent trajectory, but shoots accurately. Drive it as fast as you can without leading or loss of accuracy, then play with your alloy to get the expansion you want for the animal you are going to kill. I tend to shoot SWCs and WFN out of my 45 colts. For deer with my 7 1/2 bisley I usually go with 50/50 lead/ww (something around BHN=8-9), but for deer our of my model 92 with a 24" barrel, I have to go up to pure WW (BHN=13-14) because 50/50 is too soft for that speed and over expand, even on deer. I once shot a doe with a .452 pure lead 260 gr. RNFP out of my muzzleloader. The bullet was probably doing around 1,700 fps. The bullet instantly became the size of a quarter dollar, never made it to the far lung, and made a 2-3" entrance hole. Slammed her to the ground and killed her instantly, but was way too soft! Had I hit her in the shoulder, it could have been an ugly wound, a three-legged run off, and coyote grub.

For hogs, its straight WW out of the bisley and WC/WW out of the Model 92. I think we can develop our own opinions on WFN vs SWC, etc., but we all agree that a large meplat, proper alloy, and accuracy is a deadly combination. So many times we keep switching bullet profiles without adjusting our alloy.

A 180 gr. WFN in a 357 mag is an awesome bullet!