357 Cast for deer questions

[GhostHawk]

Glockky IMO it all depends on exactly how your chamber was reamed.

Only way to be totally sure is to do a chamber cast or a pound cast.

With a Handi Rifle both are pretty straightforward.

I am using the .360dw brass for my best loads, including some of the lee 200 grain. Mine are not set quite that long. All depends on exactly where the ogive kisses the rifling.

I am not pushing mine hard but so far it has been my most accurate rifle.

3 in a one hole smaller than a dime at 50 yards, 2 touching at 100 yards with the third I managed to pull it an inch up and left. Shot at a golf ball at 100 yards they all 3 would have hit. Not quite MOA, not that day. Not guns fault, its doing what it needs to do. Blame is all on this old shooter.

[smoked turkey]

Here is another +1 for the NOE 360-180WFN. I have limited experience with the boolit on whitetail compared to others here, but my experience is that if I do my part the boolit performs well. I usually shoot for the heart/lungs and the deer seem to to about 30 yards and its over. That has been my experience whether I am using my 357 Mag rifle load, 35 Remington, 308 Win, or 7x57 Mauser. My load for my 357 Mag rifle is 6 gr. Herco or in 38 special cases, I use 4.0 gr Herco.

[Blammer]

for my levergun

[Tailhunter]

Another one for the NOE 360-180WFN, has worked well for me in my marlin

kills deer, dead.

[chutesnreloads]

Is your handi reamed to max?
360DW brass just barely works in my factory chamber. I haven't loaded any of it yet but I didn't figure you would still have to seat the bullet out that far.

It is not reamed to max....Don't NEED to seat it out that far but that's where the boolit meets the rifling in MY Handi......BTW,after some load work it seems best groups with 2400 is only at 13.5 grain......Not a whimpy load but will try a different powder next

[Lead Freak]

I actually very much like the new Lee .360 200 grain gas checked mold.

With the .357 mag it is not hard to reach speeds of 1200 to 1700 fps with good accuracy.

Personally I only shoot paper targets, my load is 4.6 grains of Red Dot under the .358 158 gr round nose tumble lube.
But for most deer hunting the 200 grain would be my #1 choice. Perhaps not quite as accurate, or perhaps I have simply not yet found what it likes.

I see a .358 200gn Lee rifle mould, but not a .360. What would be your starting load behind that? Does anyone have any ballistics on this?

[HiVelocity]

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...roducts_id=460

HV

[Black Chrome]

I was just looking at this mold on NOE's site. I have a beginner question though. In the options it says drill for probe for an additional $2.50. Is this to make 1 cavity a hollow point? If not then what are they talking about. Thanks.

[Black Chrome]

for my levergun

I really like the look of these HP's. May I ask what mold and the specs on the bullets please and thank you.

[tja6435]

Pretty sure they're the NOE 360-180-WFN from a RG mold. The RG molds are the hollow point and hollow base captured pin setup NOE uses

[MT Gianni]

I was just looking at this mold on NOE's site. I have a beginner question though. In the options it says drill for probe for an additional $2.50. Is this to make 1 cavity a hollow point? If not then what are they talking about. Thanks.

No that is for their temperature probe.

[davidheart]

What's the weight of the 180gr boolits with the hollow point? Is it still 180 or is it something closer to ~160-170? How well do y'all thing these would perform in a handgun as opposed to rifle for deer?

Looking for a heavy woods hollow point and I saw this on NOE's website. Now I found this thread! Looks promising...

[Lead Fred]

I like the Elmer Keith 160gr hollow point mould. It seemed to have stopped men for the FBI for 30 years.
Good enough for bambi

[davidheart]

I like the Elmer Keith 160gr hollow point mould. It seemed to have stopped men for the FBI for 30 years.
Good enough for bambi

Wow that's some good expansion. Who makes that mold?

Read earlier in the thread a 180gr boolit at 900fps will be plenty fine for deer (assuming <50 yards?). I have a SP101 2 inch and chrono 158gr loads at 1250fps 10ft from the muzzle. I hit a 2 inch target at 25 yards. Does this mean even my 2 inch SP101 will work for hunting?

[Lonegun1894]

Yes, your SP101 will work as long as you hit where you need to. I know I have used mine for hogs and it worked just fine. Now I had to pass up shots that were out beyond the limit I set for myself, but that happens with any weapon, so no big deal.

[Blammer]

sorry I'm late to the party,

the HP's bring it to about 170gr. A bit too much HP if you ask me or maybe I don't have my alloy right. The first picture shows the "dish" or "cup point" and with the expanded bullet in the picture you can't get better than that IMO. If I recall it went through 3 1 gallon jugs of water and landed in the 4th. The Dish or cup design is really close to 180 still, say 178gr or so.

I can only speculate in the hand gun as I've never shot them in my handgun, but if you get accuracy and velocity in your handgun I don't see how you couldn't drop something within your range and ability.

[Blammer]

as an aside note. I cast up some HP's with a really deep HP, they weighed about 155gr. Loaded them in my 35 whelen, full tilt load, no I don't have any idea what the velocity was.

anyway, there was this ground hog see.... lets just say, I had to get a shovel and pick up the pieces...

[44man]

I never fell for the .357 for deer. Nothing wrong though except bullet/boolit choices at the time. People bullets.
A survey done long ago showed a 50% loss on deer with what you bought. It is solved with cast now.
Same as the .41 long ago, poor choices for a boolit. Expansion too fast and loss of penetration.

[TXGunNut]

I'm on the fence here. I've hunted the Nail Ranch here in TX and the guide (Tim?) I hunted with both times had a low opinion of 357 0n hogs, not sure how he felt about them on deer. OTOH I've done quite well with the 35 Rem on deer and hogs. I doubt my guide had much experience much with good lead boolits. There isn't much difference between a stout 357 rifle load and a moderate 35 Rem load.
As we've seen over and over again, it's about boolit placement and boolit design. I've flattened large hogs with a RD 359-190 @ <2000 fps (in a 35 Rem) so I suspect a 180 gr boolit from a 357 rifle at 1800 fps is good for most deer, but I honestly don't know.
Bedtime, backspace key very tired.

[outdoorfan]

Although I've never hunted hogs, I would probably not hesitate to grab my Rossi 92 loaded up with 190 grainers at 1800 fps. Pretty bad medicine. A water-dropped 50/50 alloy 190 grainer with .28 meplat (MP 358-180-rf) will shoot through 7 1-gallon milk jugs (filled with water), bursting and launching the first 3 jugs off the table. Or, the same bullet at 1150 fps will penetrate 11 jugs, bursting and throwing the first two (although not as violently). Just to clarify, the above testing was with the solid flat-nosed configuration, not the hp. I've ran tests with the hp, as well; and also with the solid bullet at 9 bhn (50/50 alloy).

Interestingly, the 9 bhn fn bullet at 835 fps penetrated 11 jugs.