.452 wadcutter weights

[3rdgeargrndrr]

Hi all.
I was looking to find some WC in 300gn or heavier weight. Strictly for paper punching. Hopefully to push them 16-1700fps out of a 460SW or less depending on the accuracy. I have thousands of unused gas checks collecting dust.
Any ideas? All I could find were 250gn for 45LC. No published hardness on these.
Those might do.
Possibly I could cut a 405gn .458 down and resize.
Anybody have suggestions?
Is this a worthless endeavor?

 

[STORMINORMAN]

If you cast LEE has a 300gr R(ound Nose)F(lat Point) mold that uses gas checks C452-300-RF that's probably a lot less hassle than cutting and resizing .458" lead, but...

I know: it's not a wadcutter.

Accurate Molds has a .452" 270gr wadcutter that uses gas checks and can be reversed(?).

I know: it's not 300gr.

Good Luck!

 

[muzzlestuffer2012]

Hi all.

I was looking to find some WC in 300gn or heavier weight. Strictly for paper punching. Hopefully to push them 16-1700fps out of a 460SW or less depending on the accuracy. I have thousands of unused gas checks collecting dust.

Any ideas? All I could find were 250gn for 45LC. No published hardness on these.

Those might do.

Possibly I could cut a 405gn .458 down and resize.

Anybody have suggestions?

Is this a worthless endeavor?

Using lyman #2 ?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[mtgianni]

It is a home cast and custom mold proposition. I doubt that a commercial caster would sell enough to amortize the mold cost.

 

[Drm50]

I shoot 242gr Button Nose, Lyman/ Ideal in 25s. I'm shooting the other end of scale, 750fps but very accurate. In your situation would buy a Lee .458
around 500gr, to get enough parallel for WC. Center drill block and make a 458 pin, like a HP mold. You can set the weight by setting the depth of pin.

 

[USBP SW]

Just a word of caution, when you are pushing wadcutters to high velocity, bear in mind that a wadcutter occupies more of the case and has more bearing surface. The pressures spike much more quickly and can increase lead buildup in the barrel, also increasing pressure.

 

[PPCSHOOTER]

TRY BEAR CREEK BULLETS

 

[STORMINORMAN]

Just a word of caution, when you are pushing wadcutters to high velocity, bear in mind that a wadcutter occupies more of the case and has more bearing surface. The pressures spike much more quickly and can increase lead buildup in the barrel, also increasing pressure.

This post got my attention, and then I looked at an illustration showing the difference between a 454 Casull case and the OP's 460 S&W...

Everything you said is correct and has merit: let's just say that ONLY with a huge 300gr WC could you "run out of loading room" in a case that's 1.800" long? The 454 Casull's case is 0.417" shorter.

And we, the hoi polloi, carp about removing the 38 Special "crud ring" in our 357 Magnums!

If the OP is truly only shooting paper I question if the holes made by a LSWC or some other wide flat-nosed bullet would really make holes any sharper at 1,600+ fps...

Cheers!

 

[3rdgeargrndrr]

So a little background info on this idea..
My gun shoots well with Hornady XTP Mag 300grain over LilGun at ~1650fps. Wondering if I could improve on that with a WC.
If slower is better, then by all means, I will go for it.
Reversing a bullet is an idea, but a semiWC projectile would not be able to be GC'd.
assuming the wadcutter is 0.82", this leaves 26grains Lil Gun at 100% case fill per Quickload data.
Which theoretically amounts to 1650fps out of a 10" barrel. and approx 35,000Psi, well under max Chamber pressures.
I have pushed resized 405g over 1700 fps, just to check if an additional stab crimp would help increase pressure, and all was good, so I am sure the cylinder walls will hold better than my bladder.
This will probably be a summer endeavor.

a big thank you for all the input gents.

 

[DTH]

Matt's bullets has a 250 gr full wadcutter and you can ask him to cast hard. He also has semi wadcutters in the 300 to 350 range with gas checks.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Alloy! Alloy! Alloy!

In 38 Special you want a wad cutter to fully fill the rifling (called Obturate). If too hard you won't fill the rifling, if too soft and too fast you can fill the rifling with so much lead that it looks like a sewer pipe!

About 2-2.5% tin and .5-1% antimony and 97-98% lead will be an alloy that holds together well (caused by the antimony) flows in the mold well (caused by the tin) and the gas check keeps the barrel from leading.

Any custom mold company will need to know which brand of gas checks, The as cast diameter and as cast weight (weights are usually in grains of pure lead)

Ivan

 

[ruggyh]

Just a word of caution, when you are pushing wadcutters to high velocity, bear in mind that a wadcutter occupies more of the case and has more bearing surface. The pressures spike much more quickly and can increase lead buildup in the barrel, also increasing pressure.

Do you really mean spike? or are you referring to peak pressure?

Comparing what he is wanting to do- run a 300 grain cast bullet in place of his 300 jacketed bullet his peak pressure will occur later by a small amount. Lead bullets have start moving at a lower pressure than jacketed bullets. In this case the bearing surfaces are very close.

3rdgeargrndrr,

As an aside, I have shoot 300 grain GC Cast Bullet past 2000 fps in 460 with out exceeding 58 KPSI and 340 grainers just under 2000 fps at 57.5 KPSI.

Lil Gun works well with these heavy bullets but behaves poorly once compressed, actual drop in velocity.

Try 4227, I think you will like the results. 1680 also very did well.

PM me, I might be able to help with some bullets.

 

[Engineer1911]

The voice of experience whispers, "You can't size 0.458' bullets to 0.452" . Just saying that I know some body that tried. All went back into the melting pot for 'recycling'.

 

[3rdgeargrndrr]

The voice of experience whispers, "You can't size 0.458' bullets to 0.452" . Just saying that I know some body that tried. All went back into the melting pot for 'recycling'.

Ive done it with hardcast on a previous load. Worked out well.

 

[gwpercle]

An easy answer is a Lee 2 cavity bullet mould .
#C452-300-RF - a 300 grain , wide flat nose w/ gas check
Making bullets ... solves your supply problem .
$45.00 and you can be the master of your bullet supply forever .
The price has doubled in the last two years ...you may want to just go ahead and buy a mould now ... I don't see the price going down ... we have a couple more years of these inflationary policies to live out .
I see one In Stock at Titan Reloading if you're interested .
I bought every mould I wanted / needed two years ago and glad I did ... Lee moulds have gone from $22 - $24 to $45 in no time !
Gary

 

[STORMINORMAN]

An easy answer is a Lee 2 cavity bullet mould .
#C452-300-RF - a 300 grain , wide flat nose w/ gas check
Making bullets ... solves your supply problem .
$45.00 and you can be the master of your bullet supply forever .
The price has doubled in the last two years ...you may want to just go ahead and buy a mould now ... I don't see the price going down ... we have a couple more years of these inflationary policies to live out .
I see one In Stock at Titan Reloading if you're interested .
I bought every mould I wanted / needed two years ago and glad I did ... Lee moulds have gone from $22 - $24 to $45 in no time !
Gary

That's just about when I bought the majority of my molds as well... And they were available as well!

Cheers!

P.S. Gary: Please note Post #2 in this thread...

 

[smithra_66]

Hi all.
I was looking to find some WC in 300gn or heavier weight. Strictly for paper punching. Hopefully to push them 16-1700fps out of a 460SW or less depending on the accuracy. I have thousands of unused gas checks collecting dust.
Any ideas? All I could find were 250gn for 45LC. No published hardness on these.
Those might do.
Possibly I could cut a 405gn .458 down and resize.
Anybody have suggestions?
Is this a worthless endeavor?

Accuratemolds.com is the solution to all your problems.

They have a bunch of GC WC and SWC molds in their catalog of all weights, including well over 300 grains.

And they make a great product. I have several of them.