HBWC in 357 lever

[Cump]

I've recently started shooting a light load with 2.8 grains Bullseye and 148 gr HBWC (Hornady) in 38 spl brass in revolvers.

Has anyone shot this or an equivalent powder puff in a carbine? Any issues or squibs? Should I up the charge?

 

[ReloaderFred]

That load may not leave the barrel of the carbine, so take a brass rod with you when you try it. My wife and I shoot thousands of rounds of 125 gr. RNFP cast bullets over Bullseye for SASS matches. Very easy to shoot and exceedingly accurate out to 50 yards, which is as far as I've shot them for groups.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Reefinmike]

feeding the suckers in a lever gun would be my first worry.

 

[cfullgraf]

Be careful driving 148 HBWC too fast. The skirt can blow off and get stuck in the barrel.

If you want to shoot wadcutters, get solid base wadcutters such as double ended wadcutters (DEWC) or bevel base wadcutters (BBWC).

SWC do not feed well in my 357 Magnum lever gun. The shoulder gets hung up in the action. It takes a little jiggling of the lever to get them to feed. i am sure you might have similar issues with the wadcutters.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I agree, I would be concerned about blowing the skirt off the base of the bullet from a Carbine. LRN bullets are just as cheap so why not use them?

 

[Schwing]

I can almost guarantee that they will not cycle in your lever action. I have yet to get any wadcutters to work reliably in any of my lever actions. Semi-wadcutters are fine.

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yeah, chances are they're not going to feed regardless of brass or OAL. Never worked in my 1892 replica or Marlin. I don't think they will stick in the bore though, Factory HBWCs shot OK in my long guns (single loaded). Not real accurate though. A lead SWC or FP loaded light will do much better in a carbine.

 

[Captcurt]

I can almost guarantee that they will not cycle in your lever action. I have yet to get any wadcutters to work reliably in any of my lever actions. Semi-wadcutters are fine.

I am with Schwing and Hammer on this one. RN or LSWC should feed fine but WCs will be Jam Central.

 

[Cump]

Definitely wouldn't heat 'em up much because of the skirt. And prepared to single load. Mostly worried about squibs, and then accuracy.

I just had a range trip where I ran out of my 158 grain load but had the hbwc, and the thought crossed my mind but I decided against it. Squibs aren't the end of the world, but I prefer to avoid them.

My kid really likes the light load, good news, so I'll be loading a lot of it in the future. I can envision some range days where I just get around to loading the hbwc and thought it would be nice to be able to shoot a few from the rossi.

I know it depends on the rifle, but how much higher would I need to go to get out of the squib zone -- and when does it become too hot for the skirt?

Of course, then my kid might not like it as much. I know, just need to load more, speculate less.