So here’s my dilemma. I came across a good deal on 1,000 148gr 0.357″ Wadcutter bullets. I already had powder and data for a VERY light .38 Special load using Lead bullets. Turns out these bullets are copper-coated. Doing some quick reading, and noting that the copper totally covers the lead I assumed they were plated, and just used a slightly warmer load for the lead data.
Needless to say I’ve had a BUNCH of squibs on this load. at first I thought I might be getting light charges, but you can hear the powder in the shells, and even screened shells would eventually squib. I suspect what I have are total metal jacket bullets. That’s not a problem as I like jacketed ammo for shooting better than lead as they make less of a mess, still I need a load that can overcome copper-fouling and not squib on me.
Was talking with Zercool about it this morning when complaining about my recent powder-screw-up. I found that hodgdon has data for Jacketed 146 gr FMJ bullets and the Tight-Group data for that looks promising. But Zercool mentioned that wadcutters, being flying soup-cans have a LOT more baring surface than a traditionally shaped bullet, so am I going to get myself into more trouble by adapting this load?
I found this forum thread that appears to be my same problem, but some of the loads they list aren’t in any of my manuals so I don’t know if I can trust those either.
Anybody able to point me in the right direction, or give me a rule of thumb how to adapt the FMJ bullet data to a JWC bullet load?
Thanks!
TMJ wadcutter? Did you check with the mfg’s listing to see if they are plated or jacketed? Plated will have a pretty uniform overall appearance where jacketed may (repeat may) have some fine striping from nose to tail – as a result of the stamping process. Jacketed may appear smooth texture where plated may appear a bit mottled – again the difference between the jacket being swaged versus electroplated.
Diameter of .357 would indicate jacketed and I think I’d expect .358 for lead or plated. But I’ve never seen a jacketed WC, as WCs usually are most accurate at mild velocities where a jacket wouldn’t be needed…
Are your squibs sticking in the barrel, not sounding quite right, really off-target, low impact energy, or what ?
As to using data from another shape – yeah I could swag a guess, but would feel better knowing if you have plated or jacketed and exactly how your squibs are squibbing.