Anyone loaded Berry's plated 148 grain DEWC?

For some reason I have a box of Berry's 148 grain DEWCs and I would like to try them in 38 special cases. The trouble is load data for plated bullets is thin and when I went a-Googling I found lots of issued people ran into (stuck bullets, etc.) when they loaded these things using lead wadcutter data. When I look at what published data I could find, I see that lead HBWC start at 3.1 g of HP38 and top out at like 3.7. In contrast, I saw a load for 146 grain jacketed bullets that start at 4 grains of HP38. I do not want to get a bullet stuck in the barrel, so I am reluctant to go too light on a powder charge. OTOH, the idea of an overpressure load isn't thrilling either, although these would be shot in a 357 mag revolver so the charge would have to be way overdone to really have a dangerous pressure situation (shearing off some of the plating or destroying accuracy potential is plenty likely, though).

Does anyone load these bullets? Got a favorite load? More generally, what do you do with plated bullets? Berry's and Hodgdon seem to suggest using lead data, while many reloaders seem to think that somewhere between lead and jacketed loads are a better idea. Berry's says that up to 1250 FPS is fair game, assuming one can do so without getting an overpressure load. I was thinking about starting out with 3.7 or 3.8 grains of HP38 and seeing how they shoot, but if anyone cares to comment on their experience with these bullets and/or plated loading in general I am all ears.

Interesting comments from one and all. I am amazed to see the diversity of loads I see used when I trawl the interwebs. On the low side, some claim to use loads meant for HBWCs, and on the high side I have seen some claim to use 4.X grains of HP38 or equivalent. I think in the future my patience for buying bullets that do not have ample published data will be slim.

Walkalong said:

No, they won't outshoot the lead HBWC if you are good enough, but most of us are not. The OP wants help with this bullet, so that is what we should be focused on.

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While I am happy to hear more on what to do with the plated wadcutter, I am also just starting as a metallic reloader so others tuff is interesting, too.

Maybe a stupid question, but it is it completely a stupid idea to shoot wadcutters out of a lever rifle?

So I got to the range today and tried out a couple of loads based on the plated DEWC from Berry's, 38 special cases, and HP38. With 3.8 grains of powder the results were nothing special. 4.0 grains was the bees' knees, however. With the first cylinder of shells I shot the center out of the target at 12.5 yards using a 357 with a 4 inch barrel. Very mild recoil, too. I will be buying and loading more of these bullets. I seated the bullet maybe 1/8 inch out of case mouth, will post the measurements when I have a few minutes to get the calipers out. Frankly, this stuff shot so very well that I probably will not bother working up a load with straight lead wadcutters.

The 158 grain plated RNFP with 4 grains of HP38 were poor, OTOH, out of both the revolver and the rifle. I will try again with an upped powder charge, as these hit low on the target compared to lead and the commercially reloaded plated RNFPs I have been shooting.

Walkalong said:

Something like this? Although this one is the 148 Gr HBWC. 1.240 OAL.

3.6 Grs of Competition or 3.7 Grs of WST also shoot great.

Use at your own risk, I have no data to back these loads up.

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My digital caliper says 1.277" OAL, so very, very close. I suspect I could load an even heavier charge and do fine, but with accuracy like this and soft shooting I have no reason to do so. I won't be bothering to put any of these in the rifle since it really, really likes 158 gr lead RNFP with 3.8 grains of HP38.

Matthew Langone said:

Did you ever test these loads? How did you make out?

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Which loads? 4 grains of hp38 with the plated wadcutters is great. So is 3.8 grains under my home cast dewc and a158 grain rnfp.

Matthew Langone said:

I was referring to the plated DEWC, I just received 1000 of them. They did well with 4.0 grains of Titegroup at 1.240” in .38 cases and did pretty good with 4.9 grains of Titegroup in .357 cases, I believe the COAL on those were 1.350”. I just picked up some HP-38 and was going to try your load data, just wasn’t sure about COAL. Thanks!

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Ah. 1.27 coal or a touch more is what I use. I am out of these bullets and am having a tough time justifying ten cents a pop for them when I have a pile of cast done for less than than three cents a pop.