New to wadcutters.

[USSR]

I am buying the following off a guy on the site: Lyman 35891 mold 4 cavity with handles very little use. $80 shipped.
Seems like a good price. While I have been casting and reloading for a great many years, I have never cast and reloaded wadcutters. I have a few questions I would like to run by you. I am thinking I should cast them soft, maybe 5# pure, 3# COWW, and 0.125# 60/40 solder (98/1/1 and ~9.9 BHN). Powders on hand are 700X and Solo 1000. I am thinking 2.5 - 2.7gr of either. Since I believe these bullets have a crimp groove, I am wondering just how much of a crimp I will have to do? Also, any particular .38 Special brass recommended? Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.

Don

[Dave C.]

Don't load them in military brass, it's too thick.

[SSGOldfart]

WW Brass if you can find it always worked best for me ,look for wadcutter brass with double cannlures
Don have a look at Texasflyboys post 75000 wadcutters in a model27.all you need to know about wad cutters and target loads is covered.

[pjames32]

I used to load 3.0-3.2 Bullseye. Lately due to powder supply I've been loading 3.2-3.4 gr AA #2. I do a mild roll crimp in the crimping groove. I'll use any available brass. some has 30-50 loadings. YMMV
PJ

[shooting on a shoestring]

358091 is not a flush seating wadcutter, so you don't have to use staight walled wadcutter brass, at least I don't. Also there is a lot of boolit contact with the case, more so than a semi wadcutter, so the wadcutter doesn't need much if any crimp.

I have used 358091 for SD boolits in 38 and full throttle 357s. Its a great boolit at 750 fps and is real impressive at over 1400.

I have used straight WWs, 50/50 WW/pure lead with a touch of tin, but mostly use 25/75 WW/pure lead and a bit of tin. All air cooled.

Good boolit. I predict you'll like it.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Wadcutters' main purpose seem to always have been cutting clean holes in targets for ease in scoring for bullseye work. They essentially are fired at lower velocities and most of their use appears to be in 38 special although they can be used in 44 and 45 with good succcess. From the viewpoint of design they have the worst aerodynamic shape possible and this can be seen by taking two short boards; one with a pointy shape and the other with a flat end and pushing them in/on the surface of water...watch how the flat ended board behaves. Wadcutters can be loaded to excellent accuracy, but they do not do well in a cross wind...they tend to skid all over the place. They can be crimped in a groove if they have one or loaded flush with the case mouth if needed for the Model 52 S&W. When loaded as such the charge of powder should be reduced slightly. Lube in one groove is all that is recommended. Several different powders can be successfully used; 2.7 grains of Bullseye has long been a standard loading; I have had good results using 2.6 grains of 700X...many other loadings work well. Military brass in 38 special is thicker than commercial brass and wadcutter designs will cause some bulging in the finished round using mil-spec brass. Many designs of wadcutters are produced by different moldmakers and while some are traditional favorites, it would be hard to prove that one design is superior to another. As for sizing diameter, that appears to be related to what the particular gun likes, so you will have to experiment there...and to some extent the same would go for a particular weight and alloy. LLS

[USSR]

Thanks guys. Especially liked that link to Texasflyboys post "75000 wadcutters in a model27". Never would have thought there was a difference between wadcutter and non-wadcutter brass. I happened to have a large coffee can full of old once-fired .38 Special brass, and after sorting thru it, came up with about 40% being wadcutter brass (mostly Remington and Winchester).

Don

[USSR]

Found some Federal brass that only has a single cannelure located between where the 2 cannelures are on the Winchester and Remington brass. Anybody know if this Federal brass is WC brass?

Don

[paul h]

I wouldn't get hung up on the brass at this point. Stick with one type of brass for consistency, and dial in a load for your gun. I've been able to get excellent wadcutter accuracy with std 38 sp brass by trying various powder charge weights to see what works best in my gun.

[Good Cheer]

There's no reason you just absolutely have to load the boolit fully within the brass whether for rabbit popper .38's or full house .357's.
Military .38 brass (still got some around from the seventies) will make you full length resize AFTER loading.
It's a great design to tinker with. Mine was actually a Lyman factory reject mold because the cherry was extended too far into the blocks. made it have a bevel base on one end that will hold a crimp on gas check.