360-75-wc

[happy7]

I was one of the lucky ones to get one of these molds. I have been trying to load three of these in a 357 case with difficulty. The case wall starts to thicken before I can get three in deep enough to chamber. I am still playing with it, but has anyone else done this successfully. What brand of case did you use? Any ideas.

Does anyone have a pet load for a single? I have the Lyman data. I am going to try 5 grains of unique, but am interested in what others have had success with.

[750k2]

maybe .357 max brass cut back?
Just a thought I have oe of the new group comin and will make it work
what ever it takes.
Keep this goin a this is what I'm after.:grin:

[94Doug]

The older Ideal/Lyman manuals do have data for single loads. I don't have my fingers close to one right now.....

Doug

[happy7]

I tried some federal, winchester and CBC (magtec right?) brass. The magtec seemed the best. I just got back from playing with it some more. I can get it to chamber in my Dan Wesson at an overall length of 1.383 in mag brass. But this definitely sizes down the bottom bullet. I pulled one and it looks like about .355 or .356 (sized originally to .359). But the case does not bulge enough to restrict the cartridge from chambering. This with straight WW. I think the Lee buy is going to work better for stacking due to a flaw in the Lee production. They made the button on the nose shorter than what was indicated in the drawing. I think this is a good thing as far as stacking goes. I'm not sure it is good for singles. Anyway, seating this deep does cut into the room for powder and trying to come up with something out of the loading manuals that would give a starting point is difficult. For one, I could not find a heavier bullet than 200 grains and no where could I find one seated so deeply. The best I could do was a 358430 in 38 S&W which, although a lighter bullet loaded to much lower pressures is at least the only data I could find with a smaller powder volume. This is data from an older Lyman manual. Data for this bullet in 38 or 357 brass is such a larger powder capacity volume that it hardly seems applicable. Anyway, I have some loaded some with various loadings. Also loaded some singles. It has been raining a lot here lately and I am going to have to wait for my local range to dry out, but hopefully some day I will make it to the range and report back on my findings.

Question: How is this going to work with my chronograph? Will it treat this as one bullet or confuse it? Answer: Chronos fine.

[happy7]

I shot some today with mixed results. All shooting was at 25 yards. I shot some singles out of magnum brass with 5.2 grains of Unique and standard primers, but ignition was not consistent, since I was getting unburned grains of powder when I ejected the cartidges and speeds were between 600-950 fps. I may try trail boss and/or magum primers or bullseye.

With the triple loads I started with 2.9 grains of Unique and worked up to 4.4 grains in several increments. I seated them to the middle band on the top bullet. Seated longer they would not chamber. 2.9 grains chronographed at 650 fps out of my six inch Dan Wesson. 4.4 grain went over at 850 fps. I only loaded two rounds of each increment since I was unsure of pressures, but from the looks of the primers, 4.4 grains was still not maximum. My sample size was too small to say for sure, but it seemed that groups got bigger as the speed increased. Groups at 650 fps were as small as 6 inches out of the revolver, but as big as about 3 feet at 850 fps! I did not seem to get any kind of consistency though. More work is needed. At least I have an idea of pressures now and can increase sample sizes. The tightest group I have scanned in and is attached and it was shot with a 357 marlin rifle. It was loaded with 2.9 grains of unique, but I did not chrono it out of the rifle.

[725]

I'm waiting for the "other" GB to come in. I wasn't lucky enough to get any of the JD 2 cavities, even though I ordered two.

Any thought to sizing the first loaded into the case at .356 and the second at .358 and third at .360? Or something like that? As the case thickens closer to the head, the smaller ones might just work.

[Lucky Joe]

I have worked with this boolit for quite some time having had a couple of Lyman 358101 moulds. I did sell one and still have a NIB and also have the Lee GB in the 6 cavity. It can be a finicky little boolit to work with and I'm not sure how much advice to offer especially if your looking for MOA. Each gun may take a different loading but here is a little of what I have learned.

happy7 If you look at this link from a sticky on this forum (http://www.lasc.us/FryxellLyman358627.htm) you can read an article by Glen Fryxell where he does work with the Lyman 358627 which typically drops from my Lyman mould at 214 - 216 gr.. Also I have the Lyman Cast Bullet book which is my avatar I'm going to include a page from that showing the load data for that boolit it also shows the 358432 and the 358430, some day I would like a 358430 and a 358439 mould. Probably 90% of the 74 gr. boolits that I shoot I shoot one at a time although I do have multi's on hand and usually have couple with me when out on the farm.
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/Luckyjoe_01/IMG_0003Medium.jpg

A little trick I learned at least it worked for me while working up a load for my Security Six. I wondered with such little driving surface if a softer alloy would work better, take more advantage of the rifling, long story short it worked in my Rugers the S&W 686 accepted them the easiest. Shortly I will stub an H&R and build a .357 rifle with a 1:20 twist I hope they will shoot good out of there, if you have the patience this can be a really applicable boolit for plinking and small game. The light recoil is good for beginning shooters too.

My interest in this boolit came about after reading an article by Dean Grenell in one of his ABC's of Reloading and I never looked back, try to get a copy or I can try to scan mine and send it to anyone that wants it. In there he had H&G build build the mould, though I do think the Lee is just as good and the new one Swede is building should be a good mould. A lot of shooting from a pound of lead and a pound of power, don't give up it's a great little boolit.


As usual all load data is your responsibility.

This is about all the help I can offer.

[JBL]

I found reloading data in the Lyman 45th Edition

75gr. Cast
Bullet #358101

Powder Starting Velocity Max. Grains Volocity
Bullseye 2.0 607 3.0 788
Unique 3.0 577 5.0 842
SR7625 3.0 469 4.0 570

[JBL]

Got out to the range and did a quick test

Range lead sized to .357 inches and lubed with Lyman orange magic
Pistol: S&W m19 4 inch barrel
Single bullet

2.0 gr Bullseye average velocity 425 fps
3.0 gr Bullseye average velocity 667 fps
4.2 gr Bullseye average velocity 884 fps

There was a wide variance in velocity. I’ve seen this before with light loads of Bullseye in 38 cases. I think it’s a case of to much volume and not enough powder. I plan on trying Unique next or maybe a filler.

[Russ in WY]

Mine are dropping at 360 & W/W + some tin weigh 70 -to-71 grs. I tried loading them sized to .357, but in Frontier nickel cases am getting a lot of bulge . Then switched to .355 & is not as bad. Was trying to roll crimp into the top lube groove, but then the 3rd one gets stuck in the die & is pulled out. Checked & found that the Win cases I have seem to be a bit thinner, will try some of those next. Am loading 3.4 grs of Unique for start.
Can't have much boolit out of the case are they will not chamber in my Ruger Security Six. I have doubles of .357 & .355 in the Frontier nickel cases & think I will just pull the trigger on them.
Think I will try & seat a fraction deeper & use a slight crimp on the top drive band, or is a crimp really called for, got to remove the bell from the initial seating. There appears to be room yet above the powder. Any comments or input welcome.. Russ.

[McKenzie]

Well, I too tried a couple of loads of multi projectiles with this GB.

First was Winchester 357Mag brass, CCI small pistol primers and 4.50gr of W231. I found a W231 load for a 200gr boolit and reduced it. I sized the bottom boolit to .356 and the top two to .358. It bulged the case too much to chamber, so I ran it through the sizing die again, without the decapping pin.

I fired them in a Ruger SP101, as it is the stoutest 357 I have. Quite a bit of recoil, actually, not pleasant. I'm going to try a 3.5gr load next. At 20 yards got about 2 1/2 inches of spread on the three boolits. I would also like to try sizing the bottom one down to .255 and see if that would stop the excess bulge. I'll have to find a .355 die first though.

The second load tried was in .38Special brass, CCI small pistol primer, and 10.0gr of 2400 under two of the little boolits. Bottom boolit sized .256 and top one sized .258. This round fired very nicely. about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of spread at 20 yards. Recoil not bad at all. I also tried this in the 101.

I will try the second load (38Spl) in my 4" barreled S&W 38 now and chronograph it. I was hesitant about trying to chrono these loads until I saw how much them spread out. The old Shooting Chrony is already riddled.

Oddly, neither load showed much sign of high pressure at the primer, but the 357 load was difficult to extract the empties from the cylinder, although I have stuck other loads much worse.

Hope this helps. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

[LeadThrower]

I finally made it out to the range. Sadly, my staple gun broke after sticking up a single target, so I don't have accuracy information, except to say my 8.5x11" target was shredded after this round of shooting. About 20 yards, weather sunny, 45 degrees, light breeze.

Single load in 357 mag brass, cci500 primers, bullseye powder, 6 shots (except as noted) from gp100 6", BHN 23 (way too hard, particularly for the light loads), COL 1.394:
2 gr, 381fps
2.5 gr, 509 fps
3 gr, 600 fps
3.5 gr, 730 fps
4 gr, 950 fps
4.5 gr, 1085 fps
5 gs, 2 shots recorded, 1035 and 1089 fps
5.5 gr, 1187 fps
6.0 gr, 1389 fps
6.5 gr, 1467 fps (primers showing flattening)
7.0 gr, 1586 fps
7.5 gr, 1636 fps
8.0 gr, 1697 fps
8.5 gr, 1784 fps
9.0 gr, 1831 fps
extreme spreads were very large (342 fps for the 3.5 grain load!!) due to powder position. I tipped the powder back to the primer on the 4.5 gr loads and es was only 13.5 fps. All of these proved easy to extract, and only at the 9 grain load were 6 of 6 primers showing flattining (and no cratering). Of course, repeat any of these loads strictly at your own peril.


Double-stack load in 357 mag brass, cci500 primers, bullseye powder, 6 shots (except as noted) from gp100 6", BHN 23 (way too hard, particularly for the light loads), COL 1.394:

2.0 gr, 523 fps
2.5 gr, 660 fps
3.0 gr, 752 fps
3.5 gr, 862 fps
4.0 gr, 944 fps
4.5 gr, 1040 fps
5.0 gr, forgot to cycle the chrony :oops:
5.5 gr, 1199 fps
5.7 gr, 1219 fps

[Franklin Zeman]

What seating depth are you using on single slugs? What is the casting diameter with wheelweights? Any one else using different lube then the orange listed here? 50/50 Alox would be my primary interest.