38 wadcutter alloy?

[mainiac]

Am wondering what you guys feel is the best alloy for 38 wadcutters.Target work(light loads)?

I know the factory hollow base boolits are nearly pure lead,and do people try to imatate this alloy with a solid base boolit, or just run 50/50 or straight ww??

I made up some 75/25 (pure to ww),and shot this today.Seemed to shoot well,,zero leading.Didnt test the bh,but i doubt this is over 9-10...........

[Shiloh]

Sounds like you have it. I would probably start there. What are these boolits running at?? 700 fps??

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

probably more like 7 on the bhn.
try it without any ww's.
700-750 fps is nothing.

[mainiac]

probably more like 7 on the bhn.
try it without any ww's.
700-750 fps is nothing.

gonna try the pure sometime soon. Im hesatant to try though,cause this mold gives me fits,,dont know if it would let me run pure lead,,it is one poison mold......

[williamwaco]

My favorite alloy is reclaimed bullet cores.
It is about 8 BNH.

That said, if they are sized correctly, straight clip on wheel weights work fine. About 13 BNH.

[Dale53]

I have a "standard" bullet alloy (WW's+2% tin). I use it for everything except hot, magnum, loads (go a bit harder for those). It simplifies my life and that is GOOD! It works extremely well with excellent accuracy and no leading.

I shoot the .38 Special target loads quite a bit. My moulds are original four and six cavity H&G moulds for the #251 dbl ended wadcutter and the #50BB wadcutter. Either one works well. I lube with Lars White Label Carnauba Red.

FWIW
Dale53

[MT Gianni]

Pure for a hb wadcutter, 50-50 lead/ww for over 750fps, straight ww for over 900 if you want to push them that fast. IMO, it takes an exceptional shot to out do what you can do with straight ww and a 38 wc.

[NoZombies]

I like my WC's soft, but haven't had a problem with using air cooled WW's either. If casting HB, I cast as soft as possible, but otherwise, it tends to be whatever is in the pot.

[jdgabbard]

I haven't had any problems with any alloy I've used... They all shoot amazingly accurate. I will say that my load is ACWWs over 3gr of BE. Do you know how long a pound of that lasts with this load??? BE is used solely in my target loads and the .380acp. So you can imagine, it goes a very long ways. I bought 3lbs of it five years ago. I just recently bought two more pounds to stick on the shelf.

[runfiverun]

mold issues are generally related to.
temperature of the mold.
venting.
or burrs.
all are fixable.
look at what the problem is, and think about it for a second.
it could be as simple as needing more heat in the mold or scribing a vent line or just loosening the sprue plate or just casting faster.
sometimes this means changing your routine slightly.

[mainiac]

mold issues are generally related to.
temperature of the mold.
venting.
or burrs.
all are fixable.
look at what the problem is, and think about it for a second.
it could be as simple as needing more heat in the mold or scribing a vent line or just loosening the sprue plate or just casting faster.
sometimes this means changing your routine slightly.

Yah,,i know i need to work on the mold,but id rather be lazy and miserable with it!!!! After 3000 200 swc,s from an accurate mold,that you open and just shake the boolits out,,ive become spoiled from it.....

[MGySgt]

one problem with pure is fill out and size - more heat might help the fill out, but they will probably be undersize.

[country gent]

Some of the most accurate wadcutters I ever cast were lyman double end in a 6 cavity mold with some alloy I was using for round balls was like 40-1 lead/tin. Just enough tin to help the lead flow good. Was lead from electrical splices ( a friend worked for edison at the time). The round balls were very accurate even more so after I swaged the sprues out to round in a mold with an arbor press. Looked like silver marbles when I was done. The wadcutters were totally amazing over 2.7 grns bullseye in federal cases no crimp just ironed out the light bell. I shot some of the best scores that night with my 1911 wadcutter gun. I was in a hurry needed to load the ammo before that saturday evening and the pot was full of this so I used it. I think for light target loads softer is better.