357 magnums

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 5:31 pm

I've been loading some 357 magnum rounds for my S&W 686,
and they have been quite fun to shoot. I was a little bit antsy about
how much powder (20g of W296) that is required. Is it simply a matter
of the burn rate?
Haka

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:21 pm

WW 296 is one of the odd powders out there, it's not all burn rate. It was design for the 357mag and 44mag calibers back in the 70's I believe. 296 is on the slow end but is hard to ignite the reason a Mag primer is required. It's also one that is pressure sensitive and mfg's recommends a smaller use window and heavy crimp. It's what I use when I want a full house mag load for my Python. It really shine when your shooting a heavy bullet, >125gr. When it was first released you were informed to load as listed, no reduction. Since then they have revised that but they may have tweaked the formulation a little over the years.

When I'm at the range and the shooter are commenting on mouse loads I pull them out for a cylinder full. It gets there attention in a big way. It does take a good heavy gun to shoot them, not for the cheap Sat night special revolvers.

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:43 pm

Used a lot of W296 myself but in 1/2 ounce loads in .410 for skeet and sporting clays, if I recall used to use about 12 grains.

Oldguy · Post by **Oldguy** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:50 pm

For target shooting and paper punching, I use 4.0 grains of Titegroup. Titegroup is much faster burning. As I recall, it's around 1,000 feet per second, maybe a little slower, but is accurate. Lighter recoil for all day shooting as well.