Reversed HBWC

[Metman2]

I was at a recent "flee market for guns" and someone was trying to trade some .38Spl ammo in which the hollow-based wadcutters were seated upside-down, i.e. with the hollow bases facing outwards. Amused, I refrained from trading for them, but it piqued my curiosity, and once back home, I proceeded to make up a few of my own reloads, with the hollow bases facing outwards. It was the usual light target load of 3.1gr HP38, 148gr wadcutters. At 20 yards, they flew straight and true from my S&W 686, holes were round and sharp, and grouping was fine. I didn't notice any more leading than the usual light smear. I'm sure there's some increase in pressure compared to the same load with the hollow base facing inwards, since in the latter case there is slightly more airspace inside the case.

The lesson, if there is any, is that if you discover after seating a whole bunch of HBWC that you've accidentally reversed them, it's not necessarily cause to pull all your bullets.

 

[OldDude]

I've loaded a few by accident, but never had any problems with them either....

 

[bearhunter]

The reason for the hollow base, is to actually allow the pressure created by the expanding gasses to expand the skirts of the bullet into your rifling. I suspect you alread know this.

It's a holdover from the pre 1898 days tech. Many pistols were chambered to accept different diameter bullets, as long as they were close.

An example, are the old Webley pistols. Many are stamped with two different bullet diameters.

For example, 476/455. My old girl digests both diameters without hiccups and reasonably accurately. One thing though, it isn't fond of solid or flat based bullets. It doesn't care if they're cast lead or copper jackets. I just likes the hollow base bullets. They fill the lands properly.

There used to be a bit of a game we played with reversing hollow base bullets, filling them with as much fast powder as they would hold with a primer stuffed into the nose. When fired against cynder blocks or rocks, they would make a hell of a bang. If we used fine ground black powder, we also got the fun of a puff of white smoke. Dumb as posts were we. That was 45 years ago.

The only hiccup I ever saw with reversing hollow base bullets was in a pistol that didn't have a tight lock up and was slightly out of time. The skirt caught between the cylinder and the throat of the barrel. Blew the top off the cylinder and bent the top strap.

 

[Metman2]

The reason for the hollow base, is to actually allow the pressure created by the expanding gasses to expand the skirts of the bullet into your rifling. I suspect you alread know this.

It's a holdover from the pre 1898 days tech. Many pistols were chambered to accept different diameter bullets, as long as they were close.

An example, are the old Webley pistols. Many are stamped with two different bullet diameters.

For example, 476/455. My old girl digests both diameters without hiccups and reasonably accurately. One thing though, it isn't fond of solid or flat based bullets. It doesn't care if they're cast lead or copper jackets. I just likes the hollow base bullets. They fill the lands properly.

There used to be a bit of a game we played with reversing hollow base bullets, filling them with as much fast powder as they would hold with a primer stuffed into the nose. When fired against cynder blocks or rocks, they would make a hell of a bang. If we used fine ground black powder, we also got the fun of a puff of white smoke. Dumb as posts were we. That was 45 years ago.

The only hiccup I ever saw with reversing hollow base bullets was in a pistol that didn't have a tight lock up and was slightly out of time. The skirt caught between the cylinder and the throat of the barrel. Blew the top off the cylinder and bent the top strap.

I heard pretty much the same tale - from another shooter - of explosive wadcutters. The fearlessness of youth! In a way, I'm glad I only got into reloading in my middle years, for in my late teens to mid 20's I worked with explosives (underground mining - those were the days when you could get a job right out of high school), and I might have been too dismissive of the relatively puny bullet loads. I've never had an accident with either, although a few people I knew while I worked in mining were seriously hurt or even killed.