Using round nose upside down as a wadcutter?

[CodyGT46]

So I want some advice from some of you guys that have a lot more knowledge than me. A friend of mine who's been reloading for probably the last 5 years vs my reloading for a little over a year now, was over at my house the other night and saw me getting ready to order some wadcutters for loading. To which he exclaimed "why spend more money on getting those? You have plenty of perfectly good makeshift wadcutters here! Just take those round nose rounds (.38/.357 158gr) with two grooves on them and flip them over and load them like that and you'll get a wadcutter"

I went and looked online all over about this and can't really find anything about doing this and sounds kind of stupid to me, but then again I could be wrong? I always have to take his advice with a grain of salt since he has given me as much crap advice as he has good advice.

Thanks ahead of time for the info everyone!

[pacrat]

Can you do it? Sure you can. Should you do it? Only you can answer.

First off. Why take the same bullet and load it backwards? Just to make a clean hole in paper?

Revolver bullets made of lead "obturate" when fired. Fancy smancy word for "swells". This happens when the pressure slams into their flat butt when the gun is fired. This makes the bullets fit the bore and is good for accuracy.

Loaded backwards, the round nose, will not obturate like a flat lead base. So the bullet will not fit the bore as it should. Accuracy will not be as good.

Round nosed bullets also load into a cylinder a lot slicker than wiggling and giggling those damn flat face wadcutters into place.

Old Timey revolver bullseye shooters use wadcutters because they not only make easier scoring holes in paper. But they are a lot lighter than RN or SWC designs. Meaning less powder and less recoil.

There's a quick run down on a few pros n cons. You decide.

[JMP]

You can, but you need to be careful with small pistol bullets. You need to be sure that you have enough bearing surface seated to make sure the bullet is aligned perfectly concentric. Often, with such smaller pistol rounds, we do not seat the bullet nearly as deep as a rifle. It's a better idea to do this with a rifle as they commonly have boat tails and you have more contact with the neck and bearing surface to get them lined up concentrically. When doing so, folks usually do this is subsonic light weigh loads where they want less penetration.

The concern on a pistol is that the bullet is short, and it can be dangerous to lead with a full diameter if it does not hit the lands concentrically. Having a nose that this thinner than the bearing surface guides the bullet into the chamber even if it isn't perfectly straight.

Personally, I wouldn't in the aforementioned example.

[CodyGT46]

Thanks guys, like I thought it was a stupid idea. I'm sure he's done it fine, but then again he's ruined a gun or two due to his "handloading specials" and other bubbasmithing. I'm sticking to loading how I already load.

[Ferrum]

There's a fair amount of information out there if you google "poor man's wadcutter".

Actually, Elmer Keith did a really interesting write up of shooting rifle bullets backwards...

[LynnJr]

Lots of guys shooting the 300 Whisper load the Sierra 240 MatchKings backwards. I don't shoot much pistol ammo but its more common than you think in rifles.
The ammo channel on YouTube has a video on it that I unsuccessfully tried to link here.

[J-cat]

Can you do it? Sure you can. Should you do it? Only you can answer.

First off. Why take the same bullet and load it backwards? Just to make a clean hole in paper?

Revolver bullets made of lead "obturate" when fired. Fancy smancy word for "swells". This happens when the pressure slams into their flat butt when the gun is fired. This makes the bullets fit the bore and is good for accuracy.

Loaded backwards, the round nose, will not obturate like a flat lead base. So the bullet will not fit the bore as it should. Accuracy will not be as good.

Round nosed bullets also load into a cylinder a lot slicker than wiggling and giggling those damn flat face wadcutters into place.

Old Timey revolver bullseye shooters use wadcutters because they not only make easier scoring holes in paper. But they are a lot lighter than RN or SWC designs. Meaning less powder and less recoil.

There's a quick run down on a few pros n cons. You decide.

Obturation depends on many factors, not just base profile.

[Carcassonne]

I have done it. There are some videos on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvWgz4Zvs_E

.

[Odd_Ball]

but then again he's ruined a gun or two due to his "handloading specials" and other bubbasmithing ....

Ha! Never heard the term 'bubbasmithing' before ... nice...

[rdfact]

Lots of guys shooting the 300 Whisper load the Sierra 240 MatchKings backwards. I don't shoot much pistol ammo but its more common than you think in rifles.
The ammo channel on YouTube has a video on it that I unsuccessfully tried to link here.

Here's the Ammo Channel video where he tests .308 bullets loaded backwards. They are fired at short distances with some devastating damage. The 3 rounds he tested all had split necks. At the end he suggests you don't try this.

[LynnJr]

Here's the Ammo Channel video where he tests .308 bullets loaded backwards. They are fired at short distances with some devastating damage. The 3 rounds he tested all had split necks. At the end he suggests you don't try this.

Yeah you would think a place calling itself The Ammo Channel would have a little bit more common sense but they don't.
If your going to work up a load this will help a poorer performing bullet become a better performing bullet on animals.
If however your not willing to work up a load and you just want to flip the bullets around your better off buying factory ammo.
In the case of the 300 Whisper it allows a hunter who is shooting subsonic rounds to shoot a target bullet that would normally not expand well at subsonic velocities to use a heavy bullet with more energy and get more expansion.
If you don't have any common sense you shouldn't be reloading.
So my post doesn't upset those posting here.
You can search bullets backwards if you have a special requirement and you work up the load.

[Carcassonne]

At one time loading a wad cutter backwards was a good way to get a bullet that would expand violently. The old wad cutters had a huge hollow base. Loading a standard base bullet can be done but my question would be "why"?

Hornady still makes a hollow base wad cutter,


.

[hermosabeach]

back in the 1950s and 1960s, big game hunters in Africe would load solids backwards....

The Hatcher Formula came into effect with a big blunt surface to cause trauma within 100 yards and less likely to be deflected off of brush....

for me, the uneven base of the projectile pictured below would make me to load these normally.... and then buy some of the 147 wad cutters....

but load a dozen and check the accuracy.... let us know how it works out