Making Wadcutter Brass ?

[Petrol & Powder]

OK, this is probably not worth the effort and a total waste of time, but....

Would it be possible (and even remotely worthwhile) to ream a standard 38 Special case mouth to remove the slight taper and convert it to the straight walled interior profile of 38 wadcutter brass?

[sagamore-one]

I wondered the same thing, so I got a 35 cal reamer for my Forster trimmer and went to work.
It is MUCH easier to just shop around and purchase factory wadcutter brass.

[Ben]

I'd think it could be done.
You'd need a special reamer.
Elect. power would be the order of the day.
Some ream rifle necks by hand, but I don't think you'd want to tackle 500 of these without the aid of elect. power.

I wonder if RCBS has or would consider making you one ?

Ben

[Petrol & Powder]

..................
It is MUCH easier to just shop around and purchase factory wadcutter brass.

Pretty much my thoughts as well. Just tossed it out there to see if I was alone.

[Outpost75]

You can also outside turn .38 Specials to provide a uniform 0.010 wall thickness to a level just below the base of your flush seated wadcutter bullet. You can set this up in a lathe with a collet stop and do several hundred rather easily. Cases should be either new or once-fired, and be lightly lubricated so that they are a tight slip-fit over the mandrel.


Size brass, then inside-expand to 0.0005" less than the supporting mandrel diameter and use a cutting tool with a radiused edge. While you are at it, uniform the primer pockets and flash holes! Then sort cases to within +/- 1 grain within a lot and re-anneal. With Remington factory HBWC bullets and 3 grains of Bullseye, flush seated and taper crimped to .377", fired in a 14" twist heavy Douglas test barrel in return to battery rest they will do ten-shot 1-1/2" groups at 50 yards indoors if you have a culvert with no wind.

[williamwaco]

I wouldn't fool with it, but if you decide to try it please let us know how it turns out.

[Petrol & Powder]

I wouldn't fool with it, but if you decide to try it please let us know how it turns out.

I'm leaning towards....not fooling with it :-D.

It seems like an inside reamer with a stop on it would be the ticket but I don't think such an animal exists.

[sagamore-one]

You can set up the Forster to inside ream like that as it has a depth stop already on the cutter shaft.

[sagamore-one]

And.......... if you take off the "screw on" crank handle you can power it with an electric drill.

[country gent]

Neck reaming unsopported brass dosnt always come out accurate. the case expands or swells around the reamer. A sizing die and reamer under sized for fit works much better. A full length size die with the end bushed to reamer dia works great. Run case into die and run reamer to depth desired. a stop collar can be set to control this. A decilil reamer can be ran with a hand drill if desired. A standard cucking decimil reamer around .355-.357 should be good. Another plus to reaming like this is there is very littl for the expander to open back up saving working the brass. You still will want to bell it lightly though. I ran into this neck reaming some reworked rifle brass, necks expanded around reamer and didnt maintain accuracy when unsupported. Supported in a die they were very good.

[mart]

I'm in the not fooling with it category. It's too easy to find buckets of 38 Special brass cheap. I'd just buy a bunch and sort through them for the double cannelure cases that indicate wadcutter brass.

[williamwaco]

And.......... if you take off the "screw on" crank handle you can power it with an electric drill.

yes! - What Sagamore said. I used to wse mine exactly like that except for trimming instead of reaming.

[Safeshot]

I just use the standard .38 Special brass and seat the wadcutter bullet to the same depth as semi wad cutter or round nose bullets. (Let the wad cutter bullet "stick out" of the case and crimp in a grease groove.) I Also like the lead hollow base wad cutters loaded backwards (hollow base forward - as in a large "hollow point") seated to the same depth as a semi wad cutter and crimp in a grease groove.

[skeettx]

I have a 20mm can of the old Winchester Super Match 38 Special brass and use it as the need arises
for use in my Mid-Range Match Colt 38 Special
Mike

[gunauthor]

I shot a lot of Federal factory wadcutters but found the brass to be kind of weak as they would frequently split after a couple of reloads (I used cast double end wadcutters sized to .358. Maybe you'll have better luck with another brand.....

[corbinace]

Hmmm, I did not previously know there was a difference in wall thickness. Years ago I tried reloading some wadcutters and they shot so poorly from my revolver that I gave up on the idea. Now, I can imagine that they were swaged under size by the thick case and likely not filling bore.

Only now getting back to the hobby and seeing that I was missing a wealth of information doing it before the WWW was in full swing. I have been taking a break since about '97.

Tim

[Maven]

"Would it be possible (and even remotely worthwhile) to ream a standard 38 Special case mouth to remove the slight taper and convert it to the straight walled interior profile of 38 wadcutter brass?" ...Petrol & Powder


P & P, I do that, when I have .357Mag. brass that's too short or split at the [case ] mouth. I use a Forster case trimmer + reamer to convert them to .38Spl. but it is tedious. Btw, I've noticed that different brands of brass are more easily trimmed & reamed than others. E.g., Starline .357Mag. is easier to work than Remington. Lastly, the "new" brass works rather well and is good for at least 6 more firings with milder loads, e.g. 4.4gr. Unique. Is it worth it? Maybe, but I have more of the .357Mag. brass than .38Spl., so my opinion is based on that.

[Budzilla 19]

I just sort through and put double cannelure brass aside as I don't cast button nose yet! But maybe later, you never know. In my opinion only, this would be a tedious process! Agree with mart, too easy to find 38 brass cheap, sort it, keep wad cutter brass, turn the rest over in the s&s section. Just my .02 cents. Good luck to you.