38 special: WC vs. SWC?

[Yellowfin]

A thought popped into my head a few days ago to get my dad a fairly nice Christmas present at a fairly low cost: load him up some 38's for his Ruger. I don't shoot .38 myself but I keep the dies around because I have a couple of friends who do and I've loaded for them a couple of times as a gift/favor to trade. The objectives are accuracy and mild recoil--I know it can be like a .22 when you want it to be. I wish I could have time to work up a load but he'll be at the house on Thanksgiving. What's to know about the difference between 148gr WC's and 158gr SWC, generally speaking? If I don't know what his gun likes, generally is one more accurate than the other? I gather wadcutters in 38 were considered the gold standard for a long time, but I don't know if that's a thing of the past because other stuff is out there, or if it's just a specialist's round. Wadcutter has range limitations b/c of un-aerodynamic shape, right, or no? I'll consider cast lead, coated, or plated, having seen good options in all of them. Thoughts? I have Titegroup, Universal, Unique, and WST to work with.

[Hawk]

Wad Cutters are just that...wadcutters. They make a nice round easy to see hole in paper. To the best of my knowledge they serve no other purpose. Semi-wadcutters are similar except they don't produce the same clean hole of the WC. IIRC, Semi-WC's design was to improve feeding in semi-autos (specifically the 1911).

[RobW]

Thoughts? I have Titegroup, Universal, Unique, and WST to work with.

The classic bullseye load is 2.7 or 2.8gr of Bullseye under a 148gr HBWC. Super accurate and mouse-fart levels of recoil.

With the powders you have listed, you'd be looking at around 3.0gr of TG or 3.2gr of W231. +/- to suit.

[cephas]

I've shot some wadcutters and cast SWC, full, and HBWC's for .38 and .44. As Hawk mentions they were very popular with target shooters but they have various uses. The SWC is popular with cast hunters usually worshipping at the alter of men like Elmer Keith. WC's were also used in self defense loads. If you care do a search on the "FBI load". I've found this to be an interesting article on WC's and defense: http://www.grantcunningham.com/2011/...rge-wadcutter/
If it were me I'd go with the good all around SWC loaded at cowboy action levels. Hodgdon has data online for most of the powders you mention. These will be mild mid loads. If I wanted to get into minimal loads I'd really want to have the firearm to test them with.
The only powder you mention that I've worked with is Unique. With my 6" S&W .38 special 3.5 grs will go about 650 fps over the chromo.
At milder loads I'd want a softer cast than most produce like a 12 bhn from Missori bullets or a powder coated one.
Paging Ducati Ron. He's a member here who's in the business at http://www.steelvalleycasting.com
Not affiliated but he gives good info.

[RobW]

It should also be mentioned that you want to avoid any/all flake powders with the auto-disk measure.

[BobGun]

My wife has a LCR which I load for. I am currently loading 148 hollow based wad cutters for. The are really accurate because the base expands to seal the rifling even using a small powder charge. I loaded Bullseye, but found I got better consistency with Trail Boss because it fills the case better. Trail Boss was developed for the Cowboy shooting because they wanted a powder that less position sensitive.

[Dave_n]

The classic bullseye load is 2.7 or 2.8gr of Bullseye under a 148gr HBWC. Super accurate and mouse-fart levels of recoil.

With the powders you have listed, you'd be looking at around 3.0gr of TG or 3.2gr of W231. +/- to suit.

Agree in spades. If you load them as mentioned and put the bullet in until about 0.5 mm protrudes and then crimp, you have the classic load for the S&W 52. My two, if I do my job correctly will cloverleaf at 10 metres. Dave_n

[mbinpa]

Agree with all of the above. Wadcutters can be super accurate at low velocity. SWC also punch a relatively clean hole in paper.

The biggest advantage of SWC vs. wadcutters in a revolver is speed of reloading. If shooting bullseye and reloading doesn't matter full wadcutters are the way to go, however, if you are having to do any 'tactical' reloading the shape of the SWC guides the rounds in so much faster. It takes me about 2x or more to reload using speedloaders as the wadcutters harder to line up.

[BadMonk]

I've got a couple hundred Inverted WCs that were police ammo, if I'm not mistaken. These are 148 grains and are more accurate than I thought they'd be. I honestly don't know the advantage or benefits of an Inverted WC over a WC but I imagine there must be some since these were police ammo. Good luck with your project. It sounds like he'll really like getting WC ammo. I would...

[DucatiRon]

My favorite is a HBWC (hollow base wad cutter) loaded upside down. Makes for a great cheap cast hollowpoint bullet. Driven at the correct speed they will open up like a trumpet.