148 gr wad cutters out of a s&w airweight

[sandman228]

I loaded up a few guns this morning and headed back to the range I took a couple 357's my ruger Blackhawk 45 lc and my s&w air weight 38 spl I put 50 wad cutters through the the 38 with hit and miss accuracy (I realize this is a close quarters gun ) anyhow I was shooting a lee 148 gr tl wc bullet sized to .358 over the starting charge of hp38 . I noticed when I got home and was doing all my cleaning the cylinder throats were all streaked with lead i cleaned them up and measured them with my dial calipers and they are sized at .357.ive never had this problem with any of my other revolvers . what im wondering is if theres anything i can do about this ? i was thinking of maybe ordering a .357 sizer die and having wad cutters or any lead bullets for that matter sized to shoot from that gun only. but i own a s&w 686 ,a ruger black hawk , and a rossi r 92 all in 357 mag i would like to just have 38 cal bullets that will work in all my 38/357 caliber guns if this is possible

[MtGun44]

.358 in .357 throats is fine. Measuring throats with calipers will not be accurate,
first the calipers are +/-.001 and then it is nearly impossible to get a valid number
that way. Drive a soft lead slug thru the dismounted cyl to get the correct throat
size - and measure with a mic.

Leading is usually poor fit (too small, not too large) or not enough lube or good
enough lube. The overwhelming number of .38s and .357s will just happy as can
be with .358 diam with a good lube and good boolit design.

Bill

[Recluse]

Leading is usually poor fit (too small, not too large) or not enough lube or good
enough lube. The overwhelming number of .38s and .357s will just happy as can
be with .358 diam with a good lube and good boolit design.

Bill

To add to this, I'll say I never had any luck worth whistling over with using that TL wadcutter boolit. In fact, the only two TL design boolits that I have exceptional results with are the TL158SWC and TL230RN. The two other TL boolit moulds I have only produce fair to fair-to-poor boolits and leading is always a concern.

For my wife and daughters' airweights, I load up the Lee 105SWC over 2.7 grains of Bullseye. This gives them a round that is a lot more pleasant to shoot in their lightweight guns. This boolit uses a traditional lube groove, which I happen to tumble-lube, but have zero leading issues whatsoever.

[rockshooter]

to clean .38/.357 chamber throats, an M-14 chamber brush does a fine job, esp with the ratchet with a screw in it
Loren

[Ben]

.358 in .357 throats is fine. Measuring throats with calipers will not be accurate,
first the calipers are +/-.001 and then it is nearly impossible to get a valid number
that way. Drive a soft lead slug thru the dismounted cyl to get the correct throat
size - and measure with a mic.

Leading is usually poor fit (too small, not too large) or not enough lube or good
enough lube. The overwhelming number of .38s and .357s will just happy as can
be with .358 diam with a good lube and good boolit design.

Bill

Bill speaks the truth ( as usual ! ! ).

Ben

[Moonman]

PIN GAGES do the job for measuring cylinder bores.

I've been shooting a BUNCH of LEE REGULAR GROOVE Button- Nosed

Flat Base Wadcutters loaded forward and backwards in a S&W 642 SNUBBY.

THEY HAVE BEEN HI-TEK COATED, LOVE THE STUFF.

Wadcutter over 2.5 grains of BULLSEYE powder IS A FUN LOAD in the snubby.

[Lefty Red]

I have a pair of S&W 642s and they are quite accurate, out to 7 yards.
I use the 148 WC, but the non TL version. I do TL with 45-45-10 though.
I double dip mine. No leading and I run them around 875fps with 3.5grains of Bulls Eye.
I have dropped the charge down to 3.1 and its much nicer.

Jerry

[StrawHat]

Never used the TL wadcutter but did feed a PPC addiction with a pair of the Lee 2 cavity 150 grain DEWC molds. Those boolits were used in my Davis revolver, the two 686's and my 36-1 all the way out to 50 yards. Never lost any points because of the bullets or load (2.7 grains Bullseye). Cast a bit harder and loaded a bit faster, they made good hunting/defense loads.

['74 sharps]

.358 in .357 throats is fine. Measuring throats with calipers will not be accurate,
first the calipers are +/-.001 and then it is nearly impossible to get a valid number
that way. Drive a soft lead slug thru the dismounted cyl to get the correct throat
size - and measure with a mic.

Leading is usually poor fit (too small, not too large) or not enough lube or good
enough lube. The overwhelming number of .38s and .357s will just happy as can
be with .358 diam with a good lube and good boolit design.

Bill

And an alloy that is too hard that will not allow the bullet to obturate at the pressure necessary to do so.

[earplug]

I shoot the Lee TL 148 grain for Bullseye with my K frame and practice with my J frames. My easiest and best results have been by cast, tumble, load then use the LEE factory sizing die.
I have settled on 3 grains of WW 231. I don't get any leading with scrap lead.
Bullets and guns vary, If I do the same loading routine with my .45 ACP I get tumbling bullets. I have to size my 452 bullets first and skip the factory sizing die.

[catboat]

I shoot the Lee 358-148 TL bullet from my S&W 49 "humpback" snubnose 38 special, over 3.25 grains of Bullseye. I get about 1.5 inch groups at 10 yards. The bullets I'm shooting (wheel weight alloy have two tumble lube coatings (just because I had a bunch of them made up that way for a S&W model 14 that leaded a great deal with a commercial 148 grain hbwc-and I double lubed those commerical hbwc as well as my Lee TL wadcutters).

Try two coats of tumble lube (or the version with Johnson's paste wax).

You may want to consider reaming your cylinder throats to .358".

[rhead]

At a gun show a few weeks ago i found a S&W 49-3 for a reasonable price. I tried it out with some 160 grain rn boolits over 4 grains of Unique. At a stepped off fifty feet shooting at the bottoms of pop cans I got three out of five hits and caused the other two to move. That was shooting single action, double action is not quite that good.

Then the trouble started. My wife wanted to try it. I didn't get to keep it long. it went back to the house in her pocket.

[stu1ritter]

My model 37 Airweight (which I bought new in 1978) has cylinder throats that measure .355........with pin gauges, so, you never know.
Stu