38 special wadcutter load

[ryan28]

I loaded up some 158 gr Speer swaged lead bullets with 4.0 gr of Win 231, they were very accurate, no leading to speak of, perfect.
Then, the same powder charge with a Speer hollow base wadcutter, poor accuracy, lot's of leading, and lot's of smoke. What's causing the smoke? Am I pushing the wadcutter too fast?

[EMC45]

Probably too fast and too soft. That skirt is soft and kind of thin.

[texassako]

Speer #14 says 3-3.3gr of W231 for their wadcutter. I am using 2.8gr of BE under some HBWCs that I found in a box of lead.

[Larry Gibson]

Am I pushing the wadcutter too fast?

Yes.........

Try 2.7 - 3 gr of W231 with that HBWC.

Larry Gibson

[ReloaderFred]

If you push that wadcutter too hard, you'll blow a hole through it. I've got one on my bench that I found at our range. It's basically the skirt, with the nose blown out of it. I have no idea what the powder charge was, since it was laying on the berm when I found it.

When I was shooting PPC matches on a regular basis back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, there was only one load that worked in our PPC revolvers, 2.7 grains of Bullseye. That was the only load that would keep them in the 10 ring at 50 yards.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[km101]

My go-to loads were 2.7 grains of BE, or 2.5 grains of 700X, depending on which pistol I was shooting in PPC competition. Make sure that the wadcutter is seated flush and has a good crimp.

If it is smoking and leading, you are pushing it too fast.

[ryan28]

Thank you Gentlemen, I'll load them down and try again.

[dancingbear41]

I used to shoot a lot of swaged hollow based wadcutters back in the days when we had pistols. If driven too fast you would get base separations. I also got base separations when using taper crimped .38 special loads. I switched to a very healthy crimp and that cured the problem and also made loading with a speedloader more reliable too.

Simon.

[EMC45]

When I shoot the Speer swaged HB WCs I too load 2.7gr. Bullseye. More accurate than I am able to shoot them.

[cajun shooter]

Many master class scores were shot in PPC matches with the Speer 148 HBWC and 2.7 grains of Bullseye. I was a range officer in the 80's and 90's and saw a perfect 1500 PPC score at one of our monthly matches with this very load. Later David