Which wadcutter

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  • Last Post 13 January 2017
Eutectic posted this 11 January 2017

I am looking for a double ended 38 wadcutter so I can load it sprue first for best accuracy.

Saeco has two #392 which is a 2 groove 2 crimp groove with narrow bands and #348 which has one large groove and two crimp grooves. does anyone have experience with these designs?

 

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David Reiss posted this 11 January 2017

In my position as a firearms instructor for many years and having fired 10s of thousands and observed many 100s of thousand shot, I can tell you that unequivocally there is not enough difference to make a, as they say, “hill of beans". Choose the one you want and be happy. We used and tried nearly every design available, casting our own and buying them in bulk. As with all revolvers, the chamber throat fit is more critical than design. I will add though that in my experience the HBWCs have a slight advantage in accuracy over the PBWCs.

David Reiss - NRA Life Member & PSC Range Member Retired Police Firearms Instructor/Armorer
-Services: Wars Fought, Uprisings Quelled, Bars Emptied, Revolutions Started, Tigers Tamed, Assassinations Plotted, Women Seduced, Governments Run, Gun Appraisals, Lost Treasure Found.
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Eutectic posted this 12 January 2017

Thanks David,

I did Ransom Rest testing with two button nose wadcutters one H&G bevel base and a Lyman plain base. I could see no difference in accuracy, but the H&G produced a higher % of perfect bullets, and I did not like the way the Lyman 4 cavity handles worked. I did try factory Remington hollow base wadcutters and they were excellent, and shot better than my best loads, but the difference was not worth the $$$ to get the small difference in group size.

Ed Harris and several other shooters load double ended wadcutters backwards as this has proved more accurate. So I tried this with my H&G button nose and got a bit worse grouping than my normal loads. So I tried some commercial cast DEWC, but quality was poor and alloy too hard, accuracy was abysmal, no use trying a comparison. I was thinking about a mold so I can control the quality. 

Am I tired of my 40 year old H&G mold, or just looking for something new to fool with?  Probably the latter, since any accuracy improvement is likely to be small.

Steve Hurst

Probably “New Mold Syndrome"  

 

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Ed Harris posted this 13 January 2017

I think with cast .38 wadcutters as-cast diameter is as important as design. The Saeco #348 molds we use all drop  .359-.360 in backstop scrap gleaned from the FBI Academy indoor range many years ago.  The factory bullets also run large and soft.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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