Looks like it is time for me to start casting .38 wadcutters

[Harry O]

Because of the number I (and my wife) use, I have been buying Hornady swaged hollow-base wadcutters for my .38 Special reloads for at least the last 10 years. They are accurate and used to be fairly cheap.

There has not been any of them on the shelf around here for several months. The local gunshop finally got some in. At double the price I paid the last time I bought a couple of thousand (about a year ago). They are just barely under 10 cents a bullet now. That tears it. Time to get a 6-banger from Lee and start casting my own.

[Shiloh]

They are still accurate, but no longer cheap.

When I started casting, components where cheap. I started casting to have control over my supply. Plus the advantage of tailoring boolits to fit the bore. While a lot of folks had reduced shooting sessions due to shortages, we casters weathered it better. My shotting was un-affected.

Shiloh

[jdgabbard]

I cast the 358495 and I've been very happy with it. I seat it over 3.0g of Bullseye. I wont buy any boolits off the shelf unless I just have to for one application or another...

[Leftoverdj]

You won't be sorry. I bought a six cavity Lee 358-148-TL DEWC as soon as they were introduced, maybe 20 years ago. It's still casting fine after many, many thousand bullets. If there is an accuracy difference from HBWC, it'll take a machine rest to show it.

[StarMetal]

You won't be sorry. I bought a six cavity Lee 358-148-TL DEWC as soon as they were introduced, maybe 20 years ago. It's still casting fine after many, many thousand bullets. If there is an accuracy difference from HBWC, it'll take a machine rest to show it.

Tell me the smallest group you have shot with your wadcutters at 50 off hand and I'll tell you what Hornady HBWC's do out of my 4 inch barreled Model 19 Smith at that same distance.

Graf's sells the Hornady at about .07 cents a bullet and Midway has the Remington's hollowbase at about .06 cents a bullet.

Those are dealer prices and it's not hard to own a C&R license.

Me, I think I'd buy them.

Joe

[rbwillnj]

Not trying to discourage your casting 38 Wadcutters, I'm going to take another look at it myself. However, the last time I ransom rest tested my cast 38 Wadcutters VS swagged hollow base wadcutters, there was no comparison. The hollow base wadcutters grouped much better.

I used to use Star HBWC, but when they went out of business I switched to Remington. I actually got better results. Under 2" at 50 yards from my Clark. Midway has them for $108 for 2000, and they now ship in flat rate boxes, so it cuts the shipping almost in half. So about 6 cents a bullet shipped.

Having said that, I'm planning to do some extensive testing this fall with a number of H&G molds I've accumulated.

[Leftoverdj]

Tell me the smallest group you have shot with your wadcutters at 50 off hand and I'll tell you what Hornady HBWC's do out of my 4 inch barreled Model 19 Smith at that same distance.

Graf's sells the Hornady at about .07 cents a bullet and Midway has the Remington's hollowbase at about .06 cents a bullet.

Those are dealer prices and it's not hard to own a C&R license.

Me, I think I'd buy them.

Joe

I routinely shoot my homecast into an inch at 50 yards, but I use a scoped Handi off a bench to do it. Almost anyone can shoot a pistol better than me. The question at hand is not how I can shoot, but how the bullets can shoot.

[Dale53]

I cast the H&G #251 dbl ended W/C and it shoots under an 1" at 25 yards from the Ransom Rest. However, I find that I have to use a heavier powder charge than I do with the HBWC's. I am now seating the bullet one band out (taper crimping on the trailing edge of the first band - remember, I am shooting these out of a revolver). I load 3.5 grs of Bullseye with the solid base bullets. Here is the mould (mine is a six cavity - this picture is courtesy of TexasFlyboy):

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/251.jpg

I have done extensive Ransom Rest tests with both HBWC and a couple of different designs of solid base WC's. I can load solid as accurate as hollow base. However, it takes a bit more powder and I could NEVER quite manage to equal the OLD Remington Match WC factory stuff. That was GOOD ammo. I have been told by a reliable source that the new factory wc's do NOT equal the old. The best I saw with the old Remington Factory loads was 5/8" at 25 yards. The best I could do with my solid base was 3/4" at 25 yards. However, that will give me under 2" at fifty yards and I can live with that...[smilie=1:. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. I load the sprue OUT - it is a bit ugly but "Pretty is as pretty does" and they shoot better as you have a perfect base - the steering end of the bullet. I only lube one groove.

Dale53

[jdgabbard]

I love those H&Gs...

[ciPeterF]

We have PPC scores like 1494-6 90x with those DEWC's.. work well,,

[Dale53]

ciPeterF;
Your mention of PPC made me feel a bit nostalgic. I was quite active locally in PPC many years ago. That sparked my interest in the .38 Wadcutters that have stayed with me for many years. This reminds me, I need to cast a couple thousand with that six cavity mould as I am down to my last thousand. I am NOT looking forward to this. This particular mould is a dandy. It is almost like shelling corn. But-t-t, that dern thing is HEAVY. It weighs nearly five pounds and after I have run twenty pounds of bullets through it, I am about tuckered out.

Dale53

[Bret4207]

I've seen some of Dales targets posted here in the past. If he says it's so- trust him.

[Dale53]

Bret;
I thank you for your kind words. We had a tight knit group shooting PPC so I had a number of good .38 Target revolvers to run over the Ransom Rest. I managed to learn a bit by doing and am just trying to pass it on.

Ed Harris has published some excellent information on .38's over the years. Look at his articles on The Cast Bullet Forum:

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/view_topic.php?id=1383&forum_id=4

Ed and I sometimes do things differently, but I ALWAYS am ready to listen to anything Ed Harris has to say. He has an Engineering background, was on the NRA Staff and was a Developmental Engineer with Ruger. More important, perhaps, he is a shooting enthusiast of long standing. He loves to take long walks in the mountains of his native West Virginia and he is always accompanied by a trusty revolver and/or rifle - and loaded mostly with cast bullets.
As an aside, I would suggest that any of you that are interested in Cast Boolits as, of course, we all are, a membership in the Cast Bullet Ass'n would NOT be a bad thing to do. I have been a member for many years. Their magazine is well worth the subscription.

Dale53

[ghh3rd]

I've only fooled around with the .38 wadcutters that I cast from my Lee mold at 7 yards with my snub, but I do well with them. For some reason, I seem to shoot better groups with them than with factory .40 cal in my Glock. At less then $0.02 per boolit (cost of my lead and some gas to melt it), you can't beat the price of homemade boolits.

Thanks to this web site and it's members for all of the help and inspiration. This forum rocks!

Randy


edit: oops -- forgot to move the decimal, it's a little bit less... $0.0015/boolit for the lead :-)

[StrawHat]

Harry O,

For PPC I used to shoot HBWC for the matches and DEWC (cast from two double cavity Lee molds) for practice. After a bit of fiddling with the loads I noticed my scores were the same so I quit buying the HBWC and continued shooting cast in competition.

Two double cavity molds gave me a pile of boolits rather quickly.

[BrianB]

I purchased the 148gr Lee wadcutter mold a while back. I don't remember what it is called, but it is the one with micro-bands that does not need sizing. Unsized and Alox lubed, I got better groups with them at 25 yards out of my Handi-Rifle and GP100 than I did with the Hornady HBWC's. With a six cavity, you should be able to seriously crank out some bullets.

[Harry O]

Thanks everyone for the very good advice. I think I am going to try a Lee 6-banger for practice. The TL bullet sounds better and better.