1. I apologize for being so tardy in replying to this thread. Right after my last post, I quite stupidly took off my safety goggles while cleaning a pistol to get a closer look at a part. I decided it needed to be flushed with cleaner so I could get a better look, sprayed it with Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber, and took a bounce-back blast of spray in the eyes. That stuff is painful on skin and much worse in the eyes. My eye doc says the chemical burns will eventually heal completely but it's been a while since I felt I could get anything done at the range. I'm supposed to shoot a match this weekend, so I went to the range today to evaluate my progress and decided to take along a couple of revolvers and a box of 148gr HBWCs.
Always remember to wear your safety glasses, folks.
2. David M. - I have chronographs but, at present, no place suitable to use them. If that changes, I may amend this topic.
3. James H. - About WCs not being designed for snubbies, I agree. Still, it's a common combination for purposes beyond the scope of this board.
Now, to business -
I'm now confident you're correct.JamesH wrote:Tearing like that has nothing to do with flyers, I'm confident its low velocity and or/poor quality targets.
I always thought that wadcutters would cut clean holes no matter the velocity or quality of the target. I thought that was the reason they earned the name. It's obvious that the folks on this board have far more experience with them than I do because pretty much everyone figured it out instantly. I, however, had to beat my head against the wall for a while to get the message. I had to get some good targets and go back to the range before I could learn what y'all already knew.
The photo below shows 4 groups of 5 shots each fired at an Edelmann target set at 10 yards distance. The top and left groups were fired with the PPC revolver shown, a piece specifically designed for use with wadcutters. The right and bottom groups were shot with the snubbie.
In all cases, the results are perfectly round holes. There's no evidence of tipping, much less keyholing. I also shot both revolvers at 25 yards and the results were exactly the same. (I have pictures so if anyone is curious, feel free to pipe up.)
The only question left unresolved for me is the flyers I got using some very old Federal ammo through the PPC revolver. I'm now out of that ammo and doubt I'll find more, so I'm willing to leave that mystery alone for now.
Thanks to all for withholding the flames and helping me learn. I really appreciate it.