Testing New 357 Mag. Load

[Headhog]

Took the BBS to the range today to test some 357 Mag. loads I put together yesterday. I was very pleased with the overall performance. The load was a Missouri Bullets 158 gr. RNFP, hi-tech coated, with 5.8 gr. of Hodgdon Universal loaded to 1.585". I'm using Federal small pistol primers, not magnum primers. The chrono data confirmed this to be a very consistent load, that produced a 2" group at 35 yard with the standard Henry sights.

Chrono data:
No. of Shots: 5
Avg. Velocity: 1178.8 fps
High Vel: 1194.3 fps Low Vel: 1159.2 fps
SD: 17.4 ES: 35.1 fps

After firing the first 5 rounds over the chrono and then 5 more for grouping I repeated this test. The results of the second 10 rounds were almost identical with only minor differences not worth considering. I'm very please with the performance of this load and If needed there is still room to tweak the powder charge up. Hodgdon lists 6.2 gr of Universal as max for this recipe. My guess is if I ran the powder charge to max I'd expect to get velocities around 1250 fps or more.

Considering how this load performed, going forward I will probably make this my go to load for 357 Mag. with a coated cast bullet. Recoil was very reasonable and it shoots well.

When the testing was done I finished up some the extra test rounds by blasting some steel plates. Then I finished the day with 80 rounds of 45 Colt from the Marlin 1894 Cowboy. The weather was great and made for a wonderful day at the range.

[Rifletom]

Paul, that is a very good write-up, thank you. I'll be loading some .357 using your data and be heading out to the desert shortly. My usual .357/158 load is with 12.5-13.0gr 2400. Your load is up next. Thanks again for the report. Nicely done.

[JEBar]

nicely done, nicely reported .... looking forward to monitoring your progress

[BigAl52]

Universal and Unique are real close together on the burn chart. Universal is a favorite of mine but I have other guns who like Unique. So I keep both. Nice report. Wonder what you would find accuracy wise at 6 grs. Thats what I use when using Unique

[Headhog]

Universal and Unique are real close together on the burn chart. Universal is a favorite of mine but I have other guns who like Unique. So I keep both. Nice report. Wonder what you would find accuracy wise at 6 grs. Thats what I use when using Unique

That’s my next step-up. I’m going to assemble some 6.0 Universal loads, but it will be one day next week before I can get to the range.

Paul

[Oldbrass]

Great report. I've been curious about this load recipe since you posted on the reloading page. I've never loaded coated bullets but you've got me thinking.. Thankyou for posting

[Headhog]

Great report. I've been curious about this load recipe since you posted on the reloading page. I've never loaded coated bullets but you've got me thinking.. Thankyou for posting

I've been using coated bullet for several years for 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 ACP loads. I've fired more than 10k of those and have no leading issues. Many of these rounds have been in Glock pistols and again no lead. If you like to shoot a lot, these are the way to go. Much more cost effective that the copper plated (Berry's etc.) bullets. According to what I've seen published the coated bullets are good up to about 1400 fps without leading issues.

Paul

[Vaquero]

Great report. I've been curious about this load recipe since you posted on the reloading page. I've never loaded coated bullets but you've got me thinking.. Thankyou for posting

I've been shooting the coated bullets for several years now. 357, 44, 45 acp & colt, 41 mags.
Also some in the 35 Remingtons, and the 444's.
No problems what so ever, I cast some of my own and powder coat them myself.
Hate lubing cast, I was just about to give up casting because of the mess.
Then a friend introduced me to pc'ing, gave away most of the lube and I will never go back.

RP

[Headhog]

Great report. I've been curious about this load recipe since you posted on the reloading page. I've never loaded coated bullets but you've got me thinking.. Thankyou for posting

I've been shooting the coated bullets for several years now. 357, 44, 45 acp & colt, 41 mags.
Also some in the 35 Remingtons, and the 444's.
No problems what so ever, I cast some of my own and powder coat them myself.
Hate lubing cast, I was just about to give up casting because of the mess.
Then a friend introduced me to pc'ing, gave away most of the lube and I will never go back.

RP

I gave up casting about 20 years ago, before powder coating showed up. You're so right about lubing as it was the main reason I quit casting. Since I gave away most of my lead I have no plans to go back to casting. I'll just stick with buying my PC bullets. They simply work great.

Paul

[Oldbrass]

Now y'all done it. Just ordered a thousand powder coated 158gr from DG Bullets for the 38s and 357s wish me luck.