.38 special wad cuters

OK. I know and will buy carbide, but I’m looking at die sets and see nothing that specifically says wad cutters, would like to be able to seat both in .38 and swc in .45.  I already have a rcbs.45 acp carbide set for .45 what else do I need?

Dillon bullet seater dies are the most friendly to change the seater plug that I am aware of.

My old Lyman dies for .38 spl came with two seating stems.  One is for WC, and another for SWC/RN.  The Dillon dies (well the 45acp anyway) comes with a seating stem that you flip around - SWC on one end, RN on the other.  There are aftermarket seating stems made for the 45 so you can seat on the shoulder of the bullet and that type of stem can be used for different profiles of SWC without changing the adjustment.  There might be something like that made for 38spl too.

Good luck.
John

I made my own seating insert for wadcutters using a bit of jb weld on the RN insert that came with the die. I think a Lee die? I used a wadcutter bullet to mold the seating surface. Hardest part was getting the whole contraption to stay straight while it cured. It's not pretty, and it was supposed to be a temporary thing, but here we are, 4 years later... Makes great ammo.

That said, you'll definitely want to get the PhotoEscape powder through expander. Designed for Dillon, but you can get a standalone die from him for it.

Dave

My .38 SPL die has a seating stem that was ground flat for wadcutters. A buddy did it for me decades ago. The set is either Lyman or RCBS. I have the aftermarket seating stem for Dillon dies in .45 ACP wadcutters that seats on the shoulder of the bullet. It is the cat's meow.

It used to be that RCBS sold 38 dies with three seating stems, RN, SWC, and WC.   I don’t think they do that anymore, but there are lots of those old die sets around.

lee just does a nasty round nose only thing... its 10$ to get a special one ordered but you gotta know the website code.. 

Or do what i have done. I use the lee universal flare die with the dies upside down... seats well.