Wad cutters for .44 mag and .45 colt.

D

D.Nix

Inactive
Hello, I have been thinking about geting into casting boolits. Been doing alot of research and have noticed that lee, rcbs, lyman do not offer a wad cutter in any caliber except in the .38 . Just was woundering if a wad cutter would be practible in a .44 or .45 colt. I have been using berrys swc in both my .44 mag and .45 colt. they work very good and have been shooting lead out of them for two years. would like to get your guys thought on this. thanks
 
Lyman and RCBS (and I'm sure there are others) will build you pretty much any mold you want. Just give them the dementions.

I never thought of it, and I dont think its gonna get on my "to-do" list, but if you want one, by all means call one of the mold makers and go for it.
 
Post begs the question: Why? Unless you want to print sharp holes in paper targets (there is little interest in paper target shooting using those calibers these days), for what purpose do you want wadcutters? There are a host of standard .44 and .45 mould designs out there that are really good for any practical application. What do you envision using a wadcutter bullet for? I am just very curious.
 
Haven't checked the catalogs, but sure seems to me the Keith style semi-wadcutters mould would still be available.
BTW, they are considered by many to be excellent for hunting with proper hardness.
 
Blunt Force Trauma. . . . no i was just woundering if any one has seen or have thought of this. I am using keith style swc now. But i do shoot alot of paper along with a ton of jackrabbits. got to thinking " man I wounder what a full wad cutter in a 250 grain would do to a jackrabbit" Im always thinking outside the box.
 
Last edited:
Lyman old 44 WC is a 180 gr and makes a dandy SD bullet in my CA Bulldog, I mean...it works great in 44 mag light loads for rabbits and stuff ;)

The WC's have a tendancy to tumble after 50 yds or so so Lyman has a new version out, A 200 grain pointed WC (They put an aerodynamic tip on and retained a full caliber shoulder!)

That would be worth looking at
 
Edward, I used hard cast Keith style SWCs in my .44 Ruger Redhawk for many years. I shot it competitively and never experienced tumbling at any distance. Including (once) silhouettes at 500 meters. Gotta disagree with you. Keith hisself liked them for hunting at longer ranges.
 
I would disagree with myself if I had been talking about SWC's, please read again;)

The Keith SWC's are grand, I have both of them the 429421 245gr and the 429650 300gr GC. No they don't tumble.
 
Thanks for all the quick response's. I wasn't sure how accurate the wad cutter were, now i know. ill be sure and check out the saeco molds . everyone have a good weekend and be safe.
 
Last edited:
Remember that loading a WC bullet flush is going to almost cut your powder capacity in the case by 1/2. If you load something like a 200 grain wadcutter flush and use a charge intended for that same weight in a normal SWC bullet, you're going to get a very serious pressure spike.

I'd just look for a standard SWC with minimal taper, and you will have, for all practical purposes, a wad cutter.

I cast and shot thousands of wadcutters in .38, and found that the loads weren't any more accurate, and I just didn't like them anyway. wimpy dirty loads.
 
WC's in big bores

Make sure you slug your bores. If you're in the sweet spot and throats are accomodating, by all means get the commercial mold. If you have to, because of unusually large throats, go custom (and who wouldn't given that the extra couple of bucks spread out over years is meaningless and you get exactly what you want) then I can highly recommend Accurate molds. His 43-220 with tumble lube grooves in brass makes bullets so smooth and concentric I made a couple in to earings for my wife. Thet sparkle right out of the blocks ;)
 
The full profile meplat of a .45 Colt would be devestating and you would get excellent penetration. Look at the performance of the Buffalo Bore 150 grain hard cast .38 special that will do 900 fps in a 1 7/8" J frame and gives two feet of straight line penetration. Penn Bullets is the only manufacturer making a .45 225 grain wadcutter and it's good to know Saco is making a wadcutter mold. I think you will be very happy with the results and what a sef-defense round - an 11.5 mm .45 Colt wadcutter is nasty.
 
Montana Bullets (?), offered a wide flat nose meplat where the front barely touched the bore. It didn't quite look like a scaled down soup can, but that description wouldn't be too far off the mark. I think it was called The Leadhead, Flathead, something like that.
 
DSC00869.jpg


This old Ideal mould runs around 250grs.
 
^ That is my idea of a beautiful bullet. Nice meplat. I know most people are in love with expanding bullets but just looking at that bullet would scare me.
 
Yeah, I've got one of the old Lee wadcutter molds, too. Haven't used it in a while, but as I recall, it threw pretty nice boolits. I think it's just over 200gr.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top