Walter Fiberwads In 357 Magnum "Smokeless Powder Loads"

[detox]

Has anyone ever tried fiberwads in their 357 revolver with "smokeless powder". The wads i am talking about are .360 diameter and .030 thick. My thinking is they will protect the base of boolit and prevent leading on cylinder face of my S&W 686. I will do a accuracy comparison using my plain square base RCBS Cowboy boolit... no fiberwad vs. fiberwad. I also want to see if they will reduce leading on cylinder face using different 1000fps loads.http://www.midwayusa.com/product/132320/walters-wads-38-special-357-magnum-35-caliber-360-diameter-0030-thickness-bag-of-1000

[Outpost75]

IMHO this is a recipe to ring your chambers and is unnecessary, UNLESS you are shooting compressed charges of BLACKPOWDER.

[MT Gianni]

I would try to figure out why your getting leading on the cylinder face. BC gap? cylinder alignment? throat size? With over a dozen revolvers in the safe that has never been one of my problems.

[Hammerhead]

As long as the wad is at the base of the bullet there is no danger of harming your gun.
I use wads in most of my light .357 loads. They do a great job of keeping my revolvers clean and reduce position sensitivity which can be a problem with light (short) bullets and small charges of fast powder. Smoke is greatly reduced as well.

I use .360" X .060" vegetable fiber wads by seating them about 1/8" deep in the case mouth after charging. Then they seat with the bullet. I have some .360" X .125" wads on order from Track of the Wolf.

Never push a wad down on top of the powder.

[detox]

I wish i had ordered the .060 versions. The .030 seem too thin, but i can double them up to make .060 thickness. I have loaded a few loads to compair wad vs. no wad. Now it is up to me as a shooter to see if they help. I will try posting results in couple of days.

[gray wolf]

i would try to figure out why your getting leading on the cylinder face. Bc gap? Cylinder alignment? Throat size?
this ^^

[detox]

I would try to figure out why your getting leading on the cylinder face. BC gap? cylinder alignment? throat size? With over a dozen revolvers in the safe that has never been one of my problems.

This is very slight leading that i remove with a common lead removing cloth. The Black rings in front of cylinder that are difficult to remove. Also some slight leading inside cylinder charge holes caused from sharp square edge of boolit base being burned off...bevel base boolit helps prevent this. Lyman Cowboy boolit is a good example of a good bevel base. The fiber wads will help protect square base (square edge) of boolit better.

[jmort]

I am having success with inverted gas checks in straight wall high-end loads. Keeps everything clean with plain base boolits. The inverted gas check protects the base and seals as well.

[Hammerhead]

I make no effort to remove the stains on the front of the cylinder.

[detox]

Today i tried the .030 fiberwads with 357 magnum RCBS 150 Keith style boolit. There was no difference in accuracy Wad vs. No Wad, but gun has slightly less lead inside cylinder. I believe the .060 versions would work better at protecting boolit base and preventing lube migration into powder.

I tried three powders Bullseye, Unique, 2400 loaded to achieve 1000fps. 11 grs of 2400 produced the best accuracy (4" @ 50yards). My 158gr RCBS and Lyman Cowboy boolits shoot better than this 150gr Keith design.

[WARD O]

There are checks that can be applied to a plain base bullet - you will need a lubsizer to correctly apply the checks. Then you will have a gas check bullet which might help to solve your leading issue.

Look for an ad in the selling section by "n.h.schmidt" from Davenport Iowa. I have shot some on 45 cal bullets and they work fine. Helped me control leading in my Ruger 45 Colt. I believe he may have some for the 9mm/38/357. They are made from very thin aluminum as from beverage cans. I think they would be better than the card wads.

ward