357 magnum

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Hakaman
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357 magnum

Post by Hakaman » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:46 pm

I am planning to load up some 357 magnum rounds, just for practice at the range.
I have never loaded them before, and am looking for info in regards to it. I'm thinking I need
specific primers, powder, and bullets. Is this correct? Any other info pertinent would be appreciated.
Haka

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:21 pm

You know there is a reloading section now ......

What weight make and model bullet do you want to shoot. Mag loads, light pinking loads. What powders do you have? I use 296 for my mag loads, but 231 for light loads, and 2400 for LSWC.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
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Hakaman
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Post by Hakaman » Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:53 pm

I have some 125g berrys plated flat points, w231 powder, Mag brass. Do you need special Mag psdr or is w231 ok. How about the bullets, is plated ok? I do have mag primers. One last quesion, can I use my 38sp dies for this procecure?
I'm writing this without my glasses, so it I can tproof read what I wrote
thanks, Haka

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:10 am

Your dies will work except you will need to adj them for the longer 357 Mag length. The only die you need is the Bullet Seater/Crimper if you do not want to readjust your 38 spl dies. They do make a them with the Taper Crimp vs the Roll Crimp. If you have the taper crimp for the 9mm it will work, that is what I use. You can shoot your 38spl in the 357 for lighter practice rounds yet, with velocity ~100fps slower.

I like Berry's Plated bullets and they work just fine. They use a softer thicker plating than Ranier's and can be loaded to mid range of the std load with the same bullet profile. The plating does not get cut through as easily as it does on Rainers. 125gr HP is what I shoot the most but with the Hormady XTP bullet.

With WW-231 powder load range would be 4.6 gr - 5.5gr max, with a 1.580" OAL. With the 231 powder you can use a std SP primer if you like, but I have always used Mag SP primers on my 357 loads. This load should put your velocity in the 1050 to 1185 fps. As long as you stay below 1200fps with plated bullets you normally don't have any problems. Now for crimp. I would use a light Taper Crimp on this bullet, no roll. There is no cantalure grove for the roll crimp, so a taper crimp is recommended. Now if the OAL allows the bullet to be seated deep enough to do a light roll crimp, you can do that, but I do not recall it setting that deep.

If you want true Magnum loads for the 357 Mag you must use the WW-296 Powder. It was formulated specificly for MAGNUM caliber/loads. Be careful with it though, because you can not back the charge down below what is specified. Doing so will cause a large pressure spike. With the Hornady 125gr XTP the load would be 21-22gr with a max velocity of around 1966 fps. A Mag Primer must be used with the 296 powder as well as a heavy roll crimp. This powders put the Vel in the range where the Old Super Vel Ammo was at, near the 2000fps. Now this is a blast to shoot if you like the heavy recoil and muzzel blast. Only use in a modern gun that is heavily built.

Here is the link to Hodgdon's/winchester load data. Mfg are starting to list plated bullets in the load table now, but WW has not updated theirs to include them yet. http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp
David

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Hakaman
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Post by Hakaman » Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:58 pm

If you want true Magnum loads for the 357 Mag you must use the WW-296 Powder. It was formulated specificly for MAGNUM caliber/loads. Be careful with it though, because you can not back the charge down below what is specified.
Thanks for all the "good" info Blue, I think I have the components to complete the load. I'll probably start off with the W231 loads, they seem to be a good "beginner's" load.
Appreciate the help, I'll let you know how it works out. I can't shoot them til we move outside from the basement range, though, because of the noise/concussion issues, but will give me something to do in the mean time.
Haka

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:13 pm

I need to load some up but by garage is about 45F now from this extended artic weather we had come through on monday night. Once it warms up or my wife goes back to work, I may move my setup inside and do it on the kitchen table.

I finished loading 3800 round of 9mm on Monday while the temp was 65F.

I have shoot the min 4.6 gr and it's a very soft shooter. When I had a neighbor wanting to shoot a cheap saturday night special revolver I started him with min 38 spls 147gr LSWC and stepped him up. He was wanting to shoot some mag loads because it said 357 mag on the revolver, so at the end I let him. After 1 cylinder he had enough of them, hurting his wrist. After shooting them he now knows why I told him it was not a good idea with his gun. Shooting them in my Python was not a problem. He liked shooting my 229 9mm the best.
David

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greener

Post by greener » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:29 pm

Been putting off catching up with reloading because of a freezing garage. Been a tad colder than TX.

I like blue's loads and may give them a try. I've been reloading .357 with either 8.3 gr Bullseye or 8.6 gr Universal using 125gr JHP.

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Post by Medicine Hat » Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:21 am

I guess that from all the cold garages noted, that I'm lucky !!!
Very happily a batchelor after a divorce 10 yrs. ago. :D
When I retired 2 years ago, I bought an older 3 bedroom house in the town where I finished high school. (at the foot of the Blue Mts. in WA.)
I have no real need for 3 bedrooms, sooooooo...One of them is now my toy room/reloading room, etc. No arguements about using the kitchen table, not too worried about cold garages, eat and sleep when I choose. :lol: I always wanted a dedicated room for reloading, repairs, builds, etc. and now I have that. When the grandkids come, (from 6 yrs old to 22 yrs old), if needed, I can just close the door to that room. They all know they don't go in there unless I'm with them anyway. (Safety) And its pretty easy just to spin the dial on the safe to lock it if needed.
Times are good.

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Post by bgreenea3 » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:24 am

holy cow.... i don't know how cold my garage is but it hasn't been much over 20° here in a couple weeks....I guess the 18" of snow we got this past week is giving it a bit of insulation...

my basement is a comfy 65°F or so, that's where my work bench is.... :lol:

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:56 am

Well we got dumped with 3-4" of snow last night. On top of the 1/2 ice and 1/2" snow we got on Tuesday. This area is not setup to handle ice and snow for more than 1-2 days max. And they have NO snow removal equipment. My garage is insulated and normally does not get as cold as it is. We are suppose to get above freezing Saturday with the Super Bowl being Sunday. Cold is all realative to where your at. Our normal lows on a ave is 43F. Since monday night into tuesday we have not got above 24F. Setting records here but not Low temp records since we were down in single digits 15+ years ago. This Texan is waiting for it to get back to Normal.

Now back to the 357 loads. WW-231 will burn cleaner under higher/heavier loads. Only step up at 0.1gr at a time, because it does not take much to make a big difference with it. If you want to use lead case bullets I like 12 gr of 2400 under a 147gr LSWC is a very nice soft shooting round.
David

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Post by bgreenea3 » Fri Feb 04, 2011 6:40 pm

I've had good luck with Blue dot with heavier bullets (158 lswcs and 180 gas checked swc) and Universal clays with 158 and 125gr bullets.

blue dot isn't the cleanest but it shoots well.

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Hakaman
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Post by Hakaman » Sun Feb 06, 2011 10:14 am

With WW-231 powder load range would be 4.6 gr - 5.5gr max
Load Data Center says 7.3-8.5g ?

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Post by blue68f100 » Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:46 pm

Look again... Not for Lead/plated bullets.
David

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Post by Hakaman » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:16 pm

You are right Blue. Since my original post, I have purchased some Hornady XTP hp's, and was looking at that load data. My question is, why "so much" difference? I know there should be some, but 4.6-5.5 to 7.3-8.5? big difference. Oh well, that's the way it is.
Haka

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Post by bgreenea3 » Sun Feb 06, 2011 10:52 pm

jacketed bullets operate at a higher pressure and there is more resistance going down the bore than lead bullets of the same size/weight, to get higher pressure you need more powder and get higher velocitoes.

also if you push a lead bullet at the speeds of jacketed rounds you will get a bedly leaded bore..... unless you use a gas check.

since my .357's are for plinking I load lead at lower to mid range velocities/pressures.

158 GR. CAST LSWC Hodgdon Universal .358" 1.610" 4.0 890 15,700 CUP 6.2 1247 33,400 CUP

I usually go with 5.5gr of Universal and get good results

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