Oal of the 38 hbwc bullet

matou2041

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I work on a reloading project for 38 long colt bp ammo, i wish to know the lenght of the hornady and speer hollow base wad cutter bullet on 148 gr, i dont want to brought 2 big box of bullet if is to long to fit with a black powder charge in a 38 long colt case. I know it will fit but my oal of the cartige have to fit on my gun cylinder ...

Thank
 
Normally you fit the HBWC so the nose of the bullet is flush with the mouth of the case. So that means it has to fit all the way back into the case. Also you normally do not want to have ANY air gap in a black powder load. And with a hollow back bullet you will automatically have some air gap unless you are careful to compress the load enough that it pushes the powder up into the hollow in the base of the bullet. So my suggestion is that for black powder loads that you should go with a bullet that has a flat base on it.

A .38LC case isn't all that big. If you fill a lot of it with a bullet like the HBWC that sits so low in the case there won't be a lot of room for the powder. So there again you might find that you are better off with a more normal bullet like a round nose or semi wadcutter that has a flat base on the bullet and does not need to be seated so deeply.
 
can't go with a flat base regular 357 bullet the barel on a 38 long colt have 0.375, the 357 just surf on the rifle I have to use a heeled bullet lot of problem or a hollow base who will expend and fill the barrel, the powder will fill the hollow base like the ammo was built at the start of the 20 century they do that with the 41 lc and the 38 lc to put the lubrification inside the case.
 
Ah, I see. If that works it's a great idea.

Given what you are doing You can load the bullet only part way into the case. I would suggest that you use the last lube groove as your cannelure groove.
What are you using for lube? The HBWC's that come with lube grooves are filled with lube that is likely not compatible with black powder fouling. So you may get a very sticky mess. If that is the case then you will also need to boil out the stock bullet lube and replace it with some black powder friendly lube.

And in fact I've read references to where hollow back bullets for rifles were filled with lube so they don't have an air gap and so that the extra lube in the back aids in giving the barrels a generous lubrication.
 
for lube i use home made bore butter (crisco and bee wax), i have some batch light like the commercial one and some really stick to be fold by lube groove of the bullet.

the hbwc dont work , black powder take a lot of volume and i will finish with a 1.7" oal my maximum have to be 1.4"

next option is to use a bullet from a lee conical mold for the 36 navy, the bullet is .375" dut the base have .363 " i have to rezise the base at 359" how that what i have to work in, that will give me a heeled bullet at budget price
 
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