Lee 125 RNFP - point of impact

[awaveritt]

Pretty excited about getting together my CAS guns. I'm a complete SASS/CAS newbie. Latest addition is my 357 vaquero (see attached pic). Now, if I can land one more good deal on the second pistol, I'll be set. My question is regarding point of impact in these fixed sight six-shooters. My go-to boolit will be the Lee 125 RNFP and my first trip to the range revealed that my new Ruger shoots them a little low at 15 yards, about 6 inches low. I quickly learned to compensate and had them all landing in the "gong of angle". My load for this boolit was 3.0grs Trail Boss. That is Hodgdon's starting load. Would increasing the charge in my next batch, result in higher or lower point of impact? I always get this mixed up.

[Dave B]

I may be wrong, but slow them down a little, or use a heavier bullet. Maybe the muzzle rises a little before they can exit. I know that if I shoot 357 mags out of a gun that is sighted for 38s, it always shoots low.

[leadman]

I have found that different powder charges and/or different powders usually move the point of impact around. I have had poi move a foot or so at 25 yards at times.
So go ahead and load a few rounds with incresing powder charges, staying within the manual specs.
If that doesn't work try a different powder.

If that doesn't work try a 158gr boolit. This is the standard weight that most 38 caliber handguns with fixed sights will shoot to point of aim.
PM me if you need some 158gr. boolits to try.

[44man]

Mouse sneeze loads are hard to work. The guys are right in that velocity and boolit weight will move you all around a target so you need to experiment.
Barrel time needs to be thought of but there is also torque and spin changing how a boolit leaves the muzzle.

[Tom Myers]

It has been my experience, using my revolvers, that changing the velocity while maintaining the bullet weight will affect the vertical bullet strike on target and changing the bullet weight while keeping the velocity constant will affect the horizontal bullet strike.