Handloader Magazine article on Wadcutters

In this months issue of Handloader, there’s an article on loading cast wadcutters in 38, 357, 44 Special and 44 Mag revolvers.

The bullets were from an NEI mold casting a H&G #50 clone casting at 144 gr in the alloy used and a RCBS 38-150 SWC mold very similar to the commercially cast 158s.  The following are the 38 Special loads, FYI.

144 NEI. WC
IMR Red.     2.5 gr.    658 fps   2.6 in group
IMR Target.  3.0 gr.   821 fps    2.4 in group
Win 572.      3.0 gr.   608 fps.   3.3 in group

150 RCBS SWC
IMR Red.     3.5 gr.   774 fps    1.8 in group
IMR Target.  4.0 gr.   852 fps    2.4 in group
Win 572.      4.0 gr.   673 fps.   2.6 in group 

The Win 572 might not be getting a good burn because the ES was very high.  As always, YMMV.

Distance of target?
Jon

Jon Eulette wrote:Distance of target?
Jon

probably 12ft

B

Jon Eulette wrote:Distance of target?
Jon

25 yards.  No idea if it was a ransom fest or not.

Chris,
Were you throwing bullets at the target to test your shoulder?

Otherwise, testing out of S&W m19/357M with 4" barrel at 25Y.  Presumably tested of sandbags.
AP

Greetings,

Here is a target fired with an out of the box Model 586, 4" barrel at 50 yards via the Random Rest.

I was surprised...



Cheers,

Dave

Al Miller wrote a series of articles for Handloader on 38 match loads, from case prep, to bullet selection & load development, to Ransom rest results at 50 yds, using several K38s and M52s.

They were published way back in the early 70s, when a sizeable percentage of the readership actually cared about such stuff.

Jim

PS: fc60.... NICE!