Uberti 357 Magnum El Patron 1st Outing. Wow.

[ESquared]

This was one of those trips where I had no idea what to expect. A platform (revolvers) I'm not that familiar with. A manual of arms (SAA) I have almost zero experience with. Brand new gun, so new sight picture and grips to figure out. Throw in 3 different reload recipes that were originally loaded up with only the Big Boy Steel 357 in mind, and you get what you see below.

Target on the left is where I started out with some factory Fiocchi 142 gr flat-points, just to try to get my bearings from 6 yds, standing, two handed hold. Okay, but, man, even with a 2.3 lb + gun, this is a fun handful. Sight picture is somewhat different than my 45 Colt Uberti, which just wants to see the very top of the front blade. Tried that here and ended up landing low on almost all the loads. The "low/left" phenomenon is just me trying to get this gun NOT to twist in my hands.

Went from the factory load to the 110 gr XTP/9.0 gr of Unique. The muzzle blast and flames shooting outward from the cylinder is considerably different from the Fiocchi. A LOT different. Same issue: low, left, and this trigger, by the way, is tuned almost exactly like the 45, which is to say light enough for the flyers you see. Another learning curve...

Ended up with the target on the right, where the head shots are 125 gr XTP/17.5 gr of Alliant 2400 and the body shots are 125 gr XTP/19.0 gr of 2400. As noted above, both were loaded a few weeks ago as part of my "anything but a 158 gr XTP" testing. As before, the firestorm coming out of the front of this revolver was a hoot, but a hoot to be treated in a very respectful way. More wrangling with grip, sight picture, the "holy crap" factor, stuff like that. Not very happy with it, but at least my deficiencies are of a consistent nature.

Uberti 357 El Paton 1st Range Trip 3-1-19 003.JPG (170.15 KiB) Viewed 2129 times

The pic below is of the cylinder, post-cleaning, where you can see an example of where the aforementioned blasts (mostly from the Unique and 2400 loads) have taken the bluing off of the front edge of the cylinder (in the same spot in every chamber) in a sort of half-moon shape. Much more of that, and they cylinder will match the CCH look of the frame!

Uberti 357 El Paton 1st Range Trip 3-1-19 011.JPG (90.19 KiB) Viewed 2129 times

Anyway, my takeaway is that I need to research some good "cowboy" loads for this gun. It's not going to be a HD or carry piece, obviously, so I need to figure out a softer shooting, easier to handle load. To that end, I'm all ears from my reloading compadres here on the forum.

All in all, however, I'm very glad I ventured back into the revolver world, just have a few things to figure out.

[CT_Shooter]

Thanks for the range report and the photos, E^2. I'm sure you'll find a .357 load that you like soon enough. For all of the reasons you site, I prefer to use the low end of the reloading data, no matter what bullet I reload. I'm not really interested in beating up my guns or my hands with full house loads. Even so, I have those same half moon shaped markings on my cylinder.

[fortyshooter]

E2....here are some low level 357 Mag loads I use for my old S&W M66.... 125 gr. Hornady XTP loaded over 8.2-8.5 gr. Unique.
I get 1200-1280 FPS out of my 4 inch barrel M66 and 1100 out of my Ruger LCR . 357

For .38 Special brass I load Xtreme 125 gr. plated bullets over 6.0 gr. Unique and see about 940-1000 FPS out of my M66.

Also a known defensive load is the old "FBI" load using the good Rim Rock 158 gr. SWC HP bullet with 6.0 gr. of Power Pistol.
I get 1030 FPS out of my 4 inch M66 and it expands very well in my water jug test stopping in 4th jug.

From what I read shooting hot loads with 125 gr. and lighter weigh bullets can cause some flame cutting issues with the forcing cone
and top strap.

Here is my test of the .38 Special FBI load...
https://youtu.be/254ntTady5E

And thanks for posting your 6 shooin' results!!

[Mags]

.
I had the low/left thing going on today too. After reading your post I took a look at my cylinder and I see the beginnings of the half moon too on mine.

As prior you do a good write-up on your experiences. Thanks for well written thought out sharing!

pinkchk_xsm.png (558 Bytes) Viewed 2122 times

... ended up landing low on almost all the loads. The "low/left" phenomenon is just me trying to get this gun NOT to twist in my hands.
... have taken the bluing off of the front edge of the cylinder (in the same spot in every chamber) in a sort of half-moon shape...

[PT7]

.
I had the low/left thing going on today too. After reading your post I took a look at my cylinder and I see the beings of the half moon too on mine.

As prior you do a good write-up on your experiences. Thanks for well written thought out sharing!

pinkchk_xsm.png

... ended up landing low on almost all the loads. The "low/left" phenomenon is just me trying to get this gun NOT to twist in my hands.
... have taken the bluing off of the front edge of the cylinder (in the same spot in every chamber) in a sort of half-moon shape...

Would be cool to see your target photos, and a few more shots of your revolver, too??

[PT7]

This was one of those trips where I had no idea what to expect. ~~~ A platform (revolvers) I'm not that familiar with. ~~~ All in all, however, I'm very glad I ventured back into the revolver world, just have a few things to figure out.

Know exactly what you're saying, Evan. Although I have always favored and shot wheel guns, it has been with D/A revolvers. The S/A Cowboy Six Gun is a different critter. (At first, the Russian top break took me to Siberia, dumped me, and I was lost as to what to do next! ) Took me a while to kinda "untrain" from all the memory work I've done with a D/A trigger. I haven't forgotten it because I still regularly shoot D/A with my LCRx. But had to work at the S/A side of revolvers.

For me the "changeover" has been much fun. Glad you're enjoying your "venture back into the revolver world."
PT7

[ESquared]

E2....here are some low level 357 Mag loads I use for my old S&W M66.... 125 gr. Hornady XTP loaded over 8.2-8.5 gr. Unique.
I get 1200-1280 FPS out of my 4 inch barrel M66 and 1100 out of my Ruger LCR . 357

For .38 Special brass I load Xtreme 125 gr. plated bullets over 6.0 gr. Unique and see about 940-1000 FPS out of my M66.

Also a known defensive load is the old "FBI" load using the good Rim Rock 158 gr. SWC HP bullet with 6.0 gr. of Power Pistol.
I get 1030 FPS out of my 4 inch M66 and it expands very well in my water jug test stopping in 4th jug.

From what I read shooting hot loads with 125 gr. and lighter weigh bullets can cause some flame cutting issues with the forcing cone
and top strap.

Here is my test of the .38 Special FBI load...
https://youtu.be/254ntTady5E

And thanks for posting your 6 shooin' results!!

Great stuff, Fortyshooter, thanks very much. I'll dial back the Unique and see what happens. For these 110 grain XTPs, I'll need to do some more manual work. I'm not sure what "flame cutting issues" are, but it sounds BAD, so I'll want to avoid it! Haven't even really thought about 38 special, as I'm not eager to deal with another inventory variable, brass-wise. Might be advisable, though, just to get to something that's more manageable. I'm sure a Google of "Cowboy 357 SAA" will yield a trove of info, it's just a matter of sorting through it.
Appreciate your guidance!

[ESquared]

Interesting to hear that all of you are seeing the "half moon" burning of the end of the cylinder. I've never owned a blued revolver, so I'm guessing it's been there on my stainless cylinders in my past 357s. I'll consider them character markings.

[Mags]

.
Just finished the write-up on that and posted http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 233#p86233

Would be cool to see your target photos, and a few more shots of your revolver, too??

.
I had the low/left thing going on today too. After reading your post I took a look at my cylinder and I see the beings of the half moon too on mine.

As prior you do a good write-up on your experiences. Thanks for well written thought out sharing!

pinkchk_xsm.png

... ended up landing low on almost all the loads. The "low/left" phenomenon is just me trying to get this gun NOT to twist in my hands.
... have taken the bluing off of the front edge of the cylinder (in the same spot in every chamber) in a sort of half-moon shape...

[fortyshooter]

Low and left? Did you try shooting with your left hand assuming you shoot right handed and see where the bullet hits?
Sometimes a hard pull on the trigger could bring the barrel down and left a bit.

Don't bother with loading .38 Special unless you had that brass handy. You can load the .357 to same levels.