38 wadcutters

[Tabby Lynn]

Ah, Tabby. I am a person who doesn't believe in doing things that are completely unnecessary and are not done by those who compete at the highest level. Have you ever heard of Bullseye Competition? This is a sport in which the shooter shoots one-handed at targets at 25 and 50 yards. These guys would do anything that would give them the edge in their sport.

Trim .38 Special cases?

"Nope. Seats on rim.
Use a taper crimp if your worried."
James R Chapman, Admin. Bullseye-L Forum
NRA Classification : former PPC Master, ATA 27

"I have never trimmed a revolver case at all. I haven't measured one to see it would be too long either so ignorance may be bliss for me."
John Dervis
NRA Classification : Expert

So, my take on this is, if the finest Bullseye shooters in the country don't do it, who am I to argue with them. A innocuous, simple, extra step? Sorry my friend, but anybody who has done any reloading knows that trimming is the worst part of the reloading sequence. But, hey, knock yourself out if you want to trim your straight wall revolver cases.

Sigh, Have I ever heard of Bullseye Competition, but of course and I shot a lot of it when in the Army, both rifle and pistol. I was on many different military teams, and as such shot a lot of matches, but I have to admit with military issue .45 ammo across military courses. I have come to the point where I really, "Don't give a rats butt what the male counterpart here, or anywhere thinks or does. Why, simply because each and every one of you do you best to disparage anything that any person of the female persuasion has to say. No matter what I care to say, trying to pass on what I have learned over the years, you all down play it. Your comment about ignorance being bliss can simply be turned around. If you haven't tried it you can't even begin to say whether it's effective or not. Before you throw stones, look around at the people working as representatives for the major manufacturers, many do not have male appendages attached to their bodies. I wonder why that is? I am out of here.

 

[USSR]

Hmmm, forgive me, but I neglected to look between your legs, otherwise I would have agreed with what you say.

 

[Forrest r]

Do you mix the BB’s in with the paint powder?

Yes, pretty much just use john deere green anymore

 

[Forrest r]

I need to experiment more next time I cast my button nose WC with seating them out. All my .38 and .357 brass was not wadcutter specific brass. As such not seating quite as deep may be beneficial as you’re not stuffing the lead cylinder in to brass that more quickly gets thicker in wall thickness. True wadcutter brass has thinner parallel sides deeper than regular brass.

Myself, I don't seat them out because of the different brass. I use the correct expander and that makes the brass a non-issue.
I seat them out further to get the nose of the wc cast bullets out into the leade of the chambers in the of the 357mag cylinders.
In the cut-a-way of the cylinder you can see a "step" in the chambers where the bullets body (full diameter of the bullet) is sitting in that leade/step in the bottom bullet.

Loading the wc bullet long in the 38spl cases puts the bullet out into the leade of the 357mag cylinders chambers greatly increasing accuracy. I use the same reloads in the 38spl revolver (only own 1) and the 357mag revolvers.

158gr fn hp's seated long in the 38spl cases being crimped in the bottom crimp groove. 6-shot groups @ 50ft in a 357mag.

A close-up of that bullet pictured above, the mold casts a 158gr fn hp and a 170gr rfn bullet with a high-low crimp groove. The high-low crimp groove was designed for the bullet to be seated long (crimped in the bottom crimp groove) to fit in the longer l-frame/gp100/etc longer cylinders. The top crimp groove made the reload shorter for loading in n-frames/pythons/etc. I use the bottom crimp groove to get the bullet out into the leade's of the 357mag chambers when using 38spl brass.

Huge difference between a swaged hbwc and cast wc's & hbwc's. Some 35cal wc's and hbwc's I've cast and used in the past.

A s&w 624 44spl and testing 220gr cast hbwc's in it looking for accuracy.

The 220gr cast hbwc's were:
tumble lubed
lubed in the bottom lube groove
lubed in both lube grooves
lubed in both lube grooves + tumble lubed (rpre- powder coating days)
seated flush
seated in top lube groove
seated in bottom lube groove
And yes seat backwards making a huge hp

Anyway, the world is your oyster. Doesn't hurt to experiment looking for what's most accurate in your revolvers.