Loading wax in .38?

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Archibald

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Regina, Saskatchewan
Does anyone have any experiance with loading wax in their revolver cartridges?

I am wanting to shoot paper or balloon's at close distances, maybe a maximum of 10 feet.

I have a few loads ready to test:

Test 1) Melted wax in pan and stuck cases in to fill half way until wax hardened. Then primed the case.

Test 2) Same as test 1 only bored out the flashhole on .38 cases so greater flash enters case.

Tests 3 & 4) Same as test 1, only added 1 and 2 grain powder and a wad (thin cardboard) between charge and wax.


Any reccomendations before I go shoot these?
 
I have shot thousands of these wax rounds over the years. Generally just pushed the mouth of a primed case into slightly softened wax [warmed] about ½ inch thick. Great for indoor practice at close range. Gather up the wax, remelt and start over. Never found any advantage in oversizing the primer flash holes, because it renders the case garbage for a bulleted load later. Magnum primers do give slightly better performance. Any powder tends to melt the wax somewhat. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Don't know about the ones with powder--have used wax in.38 spl but I just prossed the case through one of the parafin sheets so "slug" was about 1/2" long. accuracy at 15 feet wasn't bad. slightly higher velocity with the drilled out flash hole. Make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you don't use the drilled out cases with regular loads by mistake--can have unpleasant consequences.

I had some of the rubber bullets that were primer powered for plinking and they worked quite well out to 20 feet or so. as long as the backstop didn't chew them up you could re-use them many times before the skirts cracked.

FWIW, 44Bore
 
I never tried it with the primer flash holes modified, but I always found the primer backed out slightly and hung up the rotation of the cylinder.
 
well i did up 10 rounds of just primer, 10 rounds modified flash hole, 5 rounds with 1.0 grain, and 5 rounds with 2.0 grain. Obviously if the rounds with the primer only work fine I will not bother with the charged ones.

The charged cases are basically a blank round, with much less powder.

I will take my chrony out and test them anyhow.

I hope I can break balloons with these loads.
 
Grizzlypeg said:
I never tried it with the primer flash holes modified, but I always found the primer backed out slightly and hung up the rotation of the cylinder.
Click to expand...

Yup, from what I've read that's what happens if you don't drill out the flash hole. I can't say I understand why and I keep meaning to test it out.
 
I used candle wax when I prepared the cases last time, where are you getting the paraffin? I tried Wal-Mart and I searched for about 45 mins with no luck, each employee pointing me to the opposite direction of the store.

I did end up with a new computer game, a can of starch, a pillow and a roll of masking tape.
 
Every once in a while we would get packrats in our shop or home when we lived up north. I used .38 special cases with magnum primers only, no powder or modified primer flash holes. I used the paraffin wax that my wife used for making jam. Just softened the wax a bit so the cases pushed through easily. They were accurate and deadly on packrats and squirrels. I made the mistake one time of using a .44 Redhawk on a pack rat that was hiding behind our fridge. When I finally got him out in the open I took a shot and got him but it passed through him and lodged in the gyproc. My wife was not impressed.
 
gallen270 said:
how long are the 'bullets', i.e. how thick of a wax block should i make if i use a 'cookie cutter' method.
Click to expand...

I used it around 1/2" thick. The guy above sounds like he used a full bar's thickness. That's probably around an inch. Press the cases into the wax while its still warm. Otherwise its crumbly.
 
I don't have a .38, or any personal experience with this, but I do have a complementary copy of the 1968 Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia volume 1.
(as a kid my cheap parents would always just get the introductory free volume of any encylopedia, so now I'm educated in all things that start with the letter "A")

Page 80: Ammunition: "Blast away indoors with wax bullets"

Basically, the casings primer holes are drilled out with a 5/16 drill, countersunk to fit shotgun primers. The bullets are made with a pan of paraffin wax 5/16" deep.

They advise that since the primers fit loose for easy reloading, the unprimed wax cartridges should be loaded into the revolver cylinder before putting in the primers.

For safety, they warn that it can break glass, put out an eye or bruise someone badly. They also warn that without a proper target trap, the splatter from the wax bullets "can spoil the appearance of a room or basement in a hurry."

There is a picture of a guy with a crewcut and a suit shooting his revolver at a target sitting beside his piano, in a room with a lot of retro wood panneling.

I imagine that unless his house was an approved range by the CFO, this would be illegal today in Canada.
 
My dad used to make these, but I'm pretty sure he included some Beeswax in the mix. Anyone got a recipe like that?
I can't wait to try this out :D
 
There is a quick draw group that uses the range I belong to and they moslty use cases modified to fit shotgun primers for plastic bullets. One of the casting forums even has a section on how to cast plastic bullets using a mold and a glue gun.

When I have used the wax cookie cutter method I found a few different things. Drilling out the flash hole would stop the primers backing out and locking up a revolver. Priming the case AFTER the wax was in the case would make the pressing a lot easier and the compressed air in the case would not start to push the wax bullet back out of the case on a warm day.

Never tried using any powder with wax but I suspect that it might lead to poor accuracy and a lot of melted wax in the barrel. Could even cause a complete failure of the bullet from fragmenting or gas channels cutting into the sides. There is a segment of the cowboy action shooting that shoot from horseback to break balloons. Not sure what they use but I don't think its even as substantial as wax. Maybe sawdust?
 
Grizzlypeg said:
I used it around 1/2" thick. The guy above sounds like he used a full bar's thickness. That's probably around an inch. Press the cases into the wax while its still warm. Otherwise its crumbly.
Click to expand...
I used full bar thickness, in the 45-70, it was only a half inch thick bar.
Available for canning, I think my wife got it from home hardware. But the canning stuff is available in lots of places, check the food stores, even Canadian tire used to have it, in the fall when canning is going on.
I just left it in the sun for a bit to soften it.
 
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