Love me some 357 Mag

[aharlow]

Busted out some .358 cast boolits for my 6" Ruger GP100 357 Mag. First 2 are NOE 150Gr SWC with the middle round being a HP. The 3rd is a 180Gr WFN with a 82% meplat that i designed through Mountain Molds for hunting with. Gotta love the versatility of the 357 Mag and man is it fun to shoot!

156108

[rjathon]

Beautiful. Does the 180WFN shoot well? How do you load it?

thanks

[Bullwolf]

Really liking that 180 grain WFN boolit you have there. It looks like it needs a custom boolit seating stem though, as the one you are using may be rounding out the meplat some during seating. (or else the die body itself is contacting the meplat)

Tell us more about the custom 180 grain .357 boolit. Like what weight does it drop at and what alloy are you using with it. Does it shoot to the sights on your GP100?

Nice looking boolits aharlow!



- Bullwolf

[fredj338]

The 357mag was my first handgun round & still a fav 40yrs later. Nice looking bullets.

[dragon813gt]

I to love the 357 Mag. More so in a rifle than a revolver. 327 Federal has replaced the 357 as my favorite handgun round. Not as versatile. But not as brutal when pushed to the limits.

[Bazoo]

I love the 357 also. Pushed hot or mild, it is a great round. Very versatile.

[aharlow]

Bullwolf i use an alloy of COWW with 2% tin added and let it air cool to get a BHN around 13-14. I load it over 12gr of 2400 and after sized to .358 and lubed they come in at 181-183grs. Will be shooting some at the range after the holidays so no real test result yet so some tweaking might be needed but will see. Yes i do believe the die body might be contacting the edge causing it to round off so i might have to play around with the seating die to see what i can do. Here is a pic of the custom mold i use from Mountain Molds.
156162

[Bullwolf]

Bullwolf i use an alloy of COWW with 2% tin added and let it air cool to get a BHN around 13-14. I load it over 12gr of 2400 and after sized to .358 and lubed they come in at 181-183grs. Will be shooting some at the range after the holidays so no real test result yet so some tweaking might be needed but will see. Yes i do believe the die body might be contacting the edge causing it to round off so i might have to play around with the seating die to see what i can do. Here is a pic of the custom mold i use from Mountain Molds.
156162


An absolutely beautiful mould to go along with that beautiful boolit. Please keep us updated on how it performs.



- Bullwolf

[Maximumbob54]

If that rounding is from a Lee die then have them make you a flat nose seating stem.

[aharlow]

Oh nice i will look into that Maximum because it is a Lee die that i use. Didn't know they had one or could do that. Thanks for the info. Thanks Bullwolf and will do when i get some range time

[jonp]

Heavy 357 can be tough to shoot due to recoil but the GP100 helps tame it quite a bit. The loads I used in mine were punishing in the sp101. Shot one of the best deer in my life with mine, opoen sights and a 165gr jword. Sold it and keep kicking myself. One day I'll get another one. FUN! Post some targets from the range to let us know how those different ones shoot.

[aharlow]

Yeah i was actually impressed how the GP100 handled recoil. The thing is built like a tank and i did some trigger work by replacing the hammer and trigger springs and did some polishing on the internals and it is real nice and smooth now. I will post pics as soon as i get her to the indoor range. I also replaced the grip with a crimson trace laser grip and it looks really mean now...lol.
156438

[harley45]

After 15 years of wearing a full duty belt Ive become tired of bending over and chasing brass so I bought a Smith model 27 and have been playing with loads. I bought the NOE 180gr GC mold and so far it is showing great promise. I intend to try it on hogs this Spring. I also think with the right holster I can use her as a CC gun

[Tenbender]

That mold would be nice for my Max Contender if it is GC.

[aharlow]

Nope not a GC mold Tenbender but yes if it was it would be real nice for a Max Contender.

[bangerjim]

Oh nice i will look into that Maximum because it is a Lee die that i use. Didn't know they had one or could do that. Thanks for the info. Thanks Bullwolf and will do when i get some range time

I make custom seating stems for my Lee loading dies all the time. Easy to do if you have a lathe. You do not need any fancy tooling. I make mine out of hard brass/bronze. Saves the nose of your not-so-standard boolits.

You just unscrew and take the top off the seating die, take the standard nose piece out and drop your custom one in. I use different razor-tip Sharpies to color code marks and lines on the threaded top piece neck to know how deep to screw it in for different nose stems. Saves a lot of time when changing out.

banger

[Jjed]

Yep great round, and very under estimated. I have taken two deer with a contender in 357 mag one was only about 20 yards away the other was just over a 100 yard shot.(I had a friend see me make the shot no B.S.) both dropped in their tracks. the contender is very accurate and powerful, I used this gun to shoot a bowling pin shoot league for many years. now I have a 357 max barrel very impressive, big flash and boom factor and very accurate.

[aharlow]

Thanks Bangerjim for the info. We'll see what i can do. I don't have a lathe so will need to figure something out or find someone who can make one. Thanks again

[rjathon]

With respect to deer hunting how much difference in performance is there between your monstrous wfn and the nose on the Ranchdog bullet with its 0.255" metplat?

Thanks

[aharlow]

As far as performance i really don't know yet. The jury is still out since i haven't really had the chance to put it through some test yet. I'm playing around with some powders and will be taking the reloads to the range to do some trial and error. So as of now I haven't used them for hunting yet so only time will tell. Heck half the fun of reloading is also unloading and tweaking things until you get it right. You really can't go wrong with the Ranchdog 175gr boolit either.....great round. I just wanted something that i designed and a wide flat meplat projectile has a far greater potential to transfer its energy immediately upon impact than a sleek pointed projectile when bullet construction of both designs are equal. So with that being said to fully utilize a wide, flat meplat projectile, it needs to be used in firearms that are designed for close range work or- in cartridges which already have such low velocity, that trajectory is not greatly effected by bullet meplat design hence the beauty of the 357 Mag.