Lookin' for loads, in all the wrong places? 44 Special

[pettypace]

Weeeelllllll there's glass then there's a well glass. People hear glass put in a context with other barriers like wood/walls/etc. and think window or door glass.

Glass like what windshields are made out of, a little different and angled. And ya things like slow moving bullets teach people to spell ricochet.

There's certainly a difference between window glass in my house (which might stop a BB) and auto windshield glass at the compound angle specified in the FBI testing protocol (which probably won't stop a target wadcutter from a .38 snubby).

For perspective, here's an exchange from another forum:

Q: Have you tested standard wadcutters through auto glass?

A: Of course.....about 2 decades ago. It is all about the hardness of the lead and the launch velocity when confronting glass. Harder lead WC's at 744 fps went 14"; softer lead WC's at 651 fps only went 9".

In this exchange, the answer was provided by DocGKR, a reknown expert in terminal ballistics. Although it's not stated, I assume that any auto glass testing DocGKR did would follow the FBI protocol with the glass angled 45 degrees to the horizontal and 15 degrees to the side.

In any event, I wouldn't want to depend on a car windshield to protect me even from a soft lead, slow-moving wadcutter.

[Chill Wills]

For those who want to reload the .44 Special, this is a good read.
https://www.goodrichfamilyassoc.org/...%20Special.pdf

Thanks for posting that link. Good read and I would print it off if I could. I did take note of the loads I was interested in. I have taken a serous interest in my 44's for carry this last winter and I am not done. Herco powder, of which I have just slightly less than one pound still, turned out tops for my three 44 Specials using bullets in the 250 - 265 grn range. I have more Unique but Herco was really good.

[racepres]

Thanks for posting that link. Good read and I would print it off if I could. I did take note of the loads I was interested in. I have taken a serous interest in my 44's for carry this last winter and I am not done. Herco powder, of which I have just slightly less than one pound still, turned out tops for my three 44 Specials using bullets in the 250 - 265 grn range. I have more Unique but Herco was really good.

Yes...Herco excells...mostly with slightly longer Barrels IME. I really Like Unique in short Barrels (Bulldog). But, As it turns out...Red Dot excelled, Again!!