Newbie Question on speed

[Hunterwinco]

Hi all,
I have a local supplier of cast bullets that has .358 158 grain round-nosed flat points....beveled base and I think he used Magma Eng molds. They are supposed to be 18 brinnell. I would be looking to load these for my S&W 27-2, my Ruger LCR and MOST importantly, my 357 HandiRifle. My question would be how fast can I send these down the barrel of my rifle. I have some 2400 on the bench for powder. I would like to pick up 500 of these bullets. Your thoughts? Would they be good for running through the Handi with 2400 or would that be too fast? Should I pick up another powder that would be better? Any help is MUCH appeciated!

[williamwaco]

18 BNH is harder than I would like, but it will be OK if the bullets are not undersized.

More important is what is the diameter?

The .357 will not push these bullets fast enough to give you trouble if they are lubed correctly and fit properly.

You may have trouble getting the same diameter to work in both the revolver and the rifle.

I use the Lee 158 gr RNFP In my .357 rifles at a little over 1700fps it is a bevel base model but I cast them at about BNH 12.

.

[DrCaveman]

William said it.

What is their actual diameter, and what diameter are your bores, throats & chambers?

as long as they fit pretty good you should have good results with 2400. I would keep it out of the lcr (unless it's the magnum version) but you can load 14-15 gr and get your the 1700 William is talking about from the rifle.

Btw I love my 357 handi. It makes the 357 pretty ******, and easy to be deadly accurate at 100 yds. I can't (yet) do that with revolvers.

[dromia]

Aye, boolit fit is king.

Start there, get that right and all else will follow.

[44man]

Yes, they can be shot fast but remember, accuracy is King so work for that.

[Hunterwinco]

I'm sure it is obvious that I have not slugged the barrel of my rifle:(...the rifle is really my main concern. (yes the Ruger lcr is a 357 not a 38). This is where my thinkin is...last week I tried some .357 meisterbullets that a buddy of mine gave me and they keyholed in my rifle with a "light" load of HS6. This weekend, I loaded up the same .357 bullets with 14.5g of 2400 and no keyhole at 25y. I found someone in my home town that is making the bullets I referred to in .358, so I was wondering if I should scoop a box of 500 of these for use in my rifle and whether or not the 2400 would be pushing them too fast.

[**oneshot**]

If they fit your barrel you will have a broader range of usable loads. Without knowing that, you are rolling the dice on whether they will work.
If they fit you should have no problems pushing them fast.

[C.F.Plinker]

Can you get a few samples from him to try out?

[DrCaveman]

My guess is you'll be ok with .358" for the rifle.
I size to 358 for my handi 357 and it works. no leading, loads vary in accuracy as much do to lube and powder as bad fit, at this point

Start around 12 gr, work your way toward 15 gr, see how it goes. Due to the hardness, maybe start a little higher but the beauty of the handi rifle is that checking the bore after every shot is second nature. Things cant go bad too fast.

And if ya don't like em you got your lead for some casting of your own!

[runfiverun]

i have that same magma mold.
my pop liked it, i hated it,i did sell a lot of them back in the day.
get them at 358 and in a bhn of about 11-12.
you can shoot them pretty hard