TargetTalk

Whats the fundamental difference between the set-up of a hardball gun and a wad gun?

For instance, if I wanted to shoot wadcutters using a hardball pistol can this be accomplished by simply changing the recoil spring, or is it more involved?

It is a bit more difficult than just changing the recoil spring. The magazines usually must have the feed lips adjusted to allow an earlier release of the round as it is fed into the chamber of the pistol. This is because of the different shape of the wad cutter bullet and its tendancy to bind as it tries to go over the feed ramp. Occasionally a bit of tweeking on the extractor may also be required But this is seldom found if the pistol feeds properly with hard ball. The difference between a 4 pound hard ball trigger and the 3 1/2 pounds of the wad cutter have been more of a problem than I expected as the lighter recoil seems to set me up for difficulty with the heavier trigger. I have no idea why this should occur. The last thing I would mention is the ejector , If you start having stove piped jamming of the pistol you will want to replace the ejector with what is referred to as an extended ejector. This type strikes the base of the fired case just a bit sooner in the cycling of the pistol . Good Shooting Bill Horton

Funny thing that you should mention this Larry S. I have a Clark hardball gun that I had never shot wadcutters in, only 230 gr. jacketed ball. I have had some arm and shoulder problems and thought I'd try a lighter gun with iron sights for a while. I only changed the recoil spring and took it out to the range today to shoot it. It functioned flawlessly with my wadcutter mags from one of my wad guns. I was using Star 185 gr. LSWC bullets over 4.0 grains of Alliant Bullseye for my load. The only issue I had was that it ejected cases all over the place except into my brass catcher! Of course I didn't change the trigger weight.

My first 45 was a Remington Rand National Match hardball gun. I did not know what I was buying at the time. I put in a new recoil spring and a Clark scope mount and shot it as a BE gun for about 2 years until I bought a Mike Curtis 45. Then I removed the scope mount and started to use the gun for its intended purpose. The gun has functioned well under both circumstances. Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones!

I have a Ball gun built by Roddy Toyota. When I am training with it I usually shoot my wadgun ammo in it. I have an 18# recoil spring and shoot 4.2gr of titegroup over a 200gr H&G #68 for the long line and 4.2gr of tightgroup over a 185gr H&G #130 for the short line. I cast both bullets. These are crimped to .463-.464. It functions flawlessly with these loads and the 18# spring. About 1 case in 30 might not go into my brass catcher. I amazed myself the other night with a 98-5x TF target with an 8.
It is possible to use the one pistol as both a ball gun and your wadgun as long as you can manage the 4# trigger. You can even drill and tap the slide for a scope rail if you want to use a dot sight as long as you remove the rail for EIC matches. I also know one person who has one barrel he uses for lead bullets and a seperate one for use with jacketed.

cisco

Thanks for all the feedback. This is good to know. I don't use a red dot and have been hoping to avoid getting two pistols if one can suffice.