Saturday, June 15, 2013

What alloy for 38/357 hollow base wadcutters at target velocities?

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I recently bought a Mihec 4 cavity mould for 38/357 hollow base wadcutters and was wondering which alloy to use for casting hollow base boolits? I normally use Lyman #2 alloy (90% lead/5%tin/5% antimony) for everything, but I thought that a softer alloy might be better to allow the hollow base to expand. 1:20 tin/lead? I would appreciate any suggestions. I'm not a serious target shooter, I just want to keep my S&W M66 fed..it liked the Hornady swaged HBWC, but I got tired looking for these projectiles since they were always "out of stock". Buying a Mihec mould to cast these boolits was a great decision..thanks
I use just about any old alloy for wad cutters, but at normal terget velocities, I think I'd just use range lead with a bit o' tin and call it good. It fill out well and stll be soft enough to shoot well.
_________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.
Can't tell you about hollow-base .38's, but the 9.75 BHN mix of range scrap & COWW from my first smelt is working GREAT in a hollow-base .455 Webley. Thus far, it seems to be my least lead-prone handgun - whether that's just the low velocity, the hollow base sealing better, or both, it gets the job done. Will probably be casting 9-9.5 BHN straight range scrap for it in the future - simply because any future wheel-weighty alloys in the 12+ BHN range will get shifted to the .357/.44 end of the pile. Unless you're doing serious match work, I don't see much point to breaking out the sexy alloys on pokey rounds like this.

While I personally wouldn't be pouring out rifle-worthy 15BHN Lyman #2 for plinking-grade 700fps WC's, I also would try not to overthink the base-obturation issue. I tend to think that if you have pressure to smash a boolit down enough to engrave the rifling and travel the bore, you've got enough pressure to blow a hollow-base into the rifling as well.

WWJMBD?

I like my science WEIRD.

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Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"


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