I have been working on some other Firearm projects the last two years and my revolvers have been neglected. The projects are part of a business venture. Because of the project, I do go to the range at least once a week.

I have a ton of old 3-D Ammo from the late 80s. About 2 years ago, Academy Sports found pallates of this stuff and was selling it for $10 a box of 50 online. I bought a bunch! I decided I need to shoot some of it. I haven't shot any of my little J Frames in over two years. I left all my fancy Scandium and Titanium J Frames at home and grabbed a good old basic model 442. I figure if I am going to shoot lead, it would be through my least expensive J Frame

I just love the nice PERFECT round holes Wadcutters make. There is something very satisfying about it. I was also surprised how nicely this ammo performed. Recoil was pretty stiff. I shot about 80 rounds.

I was pleased that after not shooting my J Frames so long, every group I shot at 10 yards was about 2" or less! Double Action Only of course


Here are the typical groups I was getting at 10 yards offhand today (each square on the target is 1"):

Nice gun and good shootin...

Kind of makes me want to go shoot a Bullseye match..
Thanks for sharing,,

Brings back fond memories of the range training in the Basic Law Enforcement Academy in 1976. We shot up a lot of 3-D re manufactured ammo during training and qualifications. Never a problem with it.

Wonder if Police Departments moving away from .38 revolvers put this company out of buisness?

Probably had something to do with it. I was just looking through some of the rounds. All different kinds of brass.

3D would sell as many boxes of their remanufactured 38 wadcutter as you wanted. You give them the recently fired brass back in the box and they would discount the next batch of wadcutter ammo because they got their brass back. At least that is the way they did business 25 or so years ago. Haven't heard that name in many years. Frank

Yes. We had to "police" our lanes of the outdoor range after shooting picking up the brass with those big tin cans that food comes in. Easy with revolvers as the brass ended up close together when you dumped the cylinder of empties. Not so much with semi-autos. Still feel the need to do this at the range 41 years later!!☺

Old habits die hard!

In addition to all the brass we had to police up. What about all those little round paper circles behind the target, those were the tough ones.

Me too, love to punch round holes! That is some nice shooting with the Airweight
I have found some nice SWC coated bullets that will punch nice round holes in 45acp and 38 caliber, if you are interested send me a PM to share info or I'll send you a few of each.
Karl

I Love them also!
For 38 special , I snagged a Lyman #358432 - 160 grain , single cavity mould , on Ebay for next to nothing. It proved so accurate in all my guns 38 and 357 magnum that I ordered a 4 cavity of this design from NOE , 360-160-WC (360432)...a winner !
NOE made a run of this design in 41 magnum , 413-215-WC, it worked so well in 38 I bought a 3 cavity in 41...another winner.
For some reason this design works , more accurate than any of the other designs I've tried.
The 160 and 215 weights shoot to the fixed sights of my model 64 38 special and model 58 41 magnum....this has solved the "I can't adjust the sight to the load" problem ! I LOVE them !
Gary

I remember flipping a few HBWC cavity forward and shooting a 2x4. The 2x4 disappeared at the POI.

At the time it seemed a good SD load for social work.

Times change, technology advances, but it was impressive.

Next week I will bring another J frame. An M&P 340. It has the best sights I have even seen on a J Frame Snubby. I will see if I can cut those groups in half with the same ammo!

Well so much for my theory on this. I went and did this test today. The play guns that weren't for my work project today were two J Frame Snubbies; M&P340 and the same M442 I shot last week. I thought for sure I would get tighter groups with my M&P340 because of its excellent sights.

WRONG!

So I broke out a another handful of what remains of my 1980s production 3-D Ammo 38 wadcutters. I knew I would be busy with my work releated project and would not be playing around much with other guns, so I only shot 3 cylinders today.

The M&P 340 was up first. I figured I would need one cylinder to warm up and the second one would be "the one". All groups were 5 shots at 10 yards, DAO, Offhand.

Well the one on the left was the first group. The one on the right was the second. Pretty good, but only a touch better than the groups from the M442 last week.



Before I went back to my work project, I took the last 5 rounds and decided to run them through the M442 since I brought it with me. Glad I did. For some reason I prefer shooting the M442!?!?! I actually enjoy shooting it. Maybe because it is a couple of ozs heavier than the M&P340? Just over an inch at 10 yards with a DAO Airweight; you got to be happy with that!



I really love me some Wadcutters. Wish I could find a bunch more of the old 3-D Ammo from the 80s. Got to love those holes!