Got a few questions. 357 rifle loads

[GhostHawk]

My .357 is in a handi rifle single shot. It is most accurate using the Lee .358 158 round nose plain base over 4.6 grains of Red Dot in either .357 mag case or preferably the longer .360DW case which is roughly halfway between the standard mag case and the max.

Handi rifles often will chamber the .360DW without trimming or anything more than adjusting OAL so that it is just a fly whisker short of touching the rifling.

Very inexpensive to load, with light recoil but a good thump on the far end.

I will be experimenting with a lighter SWC shortly.

The 4.6 grains of Red dot put 3 in the same hole at 50 yards, 2 touching at 100, but I let the pressure throw me and pulled the third shot an inch high and left.

But that was the shooter, not the load. All shot with CCI small pistol primers and all lubed with Ben's Liquid Lube and loaded as cast, no sizing.

[TrashcanDan]

Would you know off hand what the twist rate is?

For some reason, a majority of the rossi rifles run a 1 in 30 twist for .357, .44 and I think the .45 colt

[marlin39a]

I have a Rossi 92, 357. It shoots the Lee 358-158-RF flawlessly.

[Mica_Hiebert]

So how are you guys loading 360 diameter bullets? My noe 360-180 is dropping at .3595 and with both a Redding and rcbs seating dies they are trying to size the bullet down. I find it only works after my bullets are sized down the .358 which is what my pistol cylinder throats are but I've herd the rifle likes them fat. I'm just kinda puzzled at how you guys are able to load them or what dies you are using.

[GhostHawk]

Bear in mind Mica Hiebert that for cast boolits case mouths need to be "flared" out with Lyman M die or Lee Universal flaring tool.

I personally have no problem loading .360 200 grain gas checked boolits into .357 mag cases using this method. You don't need a huge flare, just enough so that the base of the boolit will enter the case smoothly.

A little pressure and the case neck expands some, boolits swage down a bit perhaps but not a lot. 2 thousandths is not a lot IMO.

With a small crimp the flare is removed like it never was.

I actually started doing this with a steel center punch of the right taper, and a tap of a light hammer. Did exactly the same thing, for the same reason.

But the lee universal flaring tool is a very handy inexpensive tool. Think I paid 17$ for mine.

[GhostHawk]

I think it is a 1 in 10. To be honest have not measured it.

I can understand why .44 mag has a slow twist, but not the .357 mag.

Slower twist should shoot short mid weight boolits in the 120 to 158 range well. But might have problems with the larger longer boolits.

Of course experimentation is the only way to know for sure.

Would you know off hand what the twist rate is?

For some reason, a majority of the rossi rifles run a 1 in 30 twist for .357, .44 and I think the .45 colt

[RedHawk357Mag]

Mica don't have my dies or notebook available but my seating dies weren't the problem I don't think. Where I had drama was the crimp dies. I have RCBS, Hornady, Pacific, Redding and Lee. I cataloged with pin gauges all my crimp dies and determined that my Redding Profile crimp die was the tightest. My RCBS crimp dies from a non carbide set of dies was the most generous. The problem was the RCBS crimp die was magnum only. 38 special sank to the rim without ever touching the crimp groove. For lest change in bullet diameter my best crimp dies are the Lee uncataloged collet crimp dies in 44 and 357. These Lee dies do not have the dreaded carbide sizing ring that many folks have issues with resizing bullets. But with your comment about seating dies I believe I will investigate mine further. I believe that care must be exercised in crimping as just a smidgen too much will start to affect accuracy and shortly after leading will be a issue once you pass appropriate amounts of crimp.

[shoot-n-lead]

I think it is a 1 in 10. To be honest have not measured it.

I can understand why .44 mag has a slow twist, but not the .357 mag.

Slower twist should shoot short mid weight boolits in the 120 to 158 range well. But might have problems with the larger longer boolits.

Of course experimentation is the only way to know for sure.

What???

[Outpost75]

So how are you guys loading 360 diameter bullets? My noe 360-180 is dropping at .3595 and with both a Redding and rcbs seating dies they are trying to size the bullet down. I find it only works after my bullets are sized down the .358 which is what my pistol cylinder throats are but I've herd the rifle likes them fat. I'm just kinda puzzled at how you guys are able to load them or what dies you are using.

I use the RCBS Cowboy dies which are dimensioned for lead bullets.

No issues loading .360 bullets in my Marlin 1894 Cowboy II which prefers them FAT.

[hornady308]

My everyday load for the Rossi is 14 gr 2400, the Lee 358-158-rf using wcww and standard pistol primers. I have some heavier bullets to try, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I routinely practice at a hundred yards with open sights and would not hesitate to use this load on a deer at that distance. I tried the Lee C358-158-SWC, but the groups weren't as good.

[Went2kck]

Lyman 170 gr bullet works really well with 11 gr of 2400 pushing it out of a rifle or a pistol.

[TrashcanDan]

125 gr seems to be the magic number for this rossi 1:30 twist.

At 50 yds with 4, 4.5 and 5 grns of Unique, groups tightened up immensely vs. 158 gr.

Still playing around with powders.

[TrashcanDan]

As per the advice of Outpost, Bullseye powder gave me the best group.

As I don't have the info in front of me, I want to say start with 5 gr, work up to 6 gr. 5.6 gave me the best.

IMR 4227, IMR sr 4756, unique all seemed to group well. Titegroup had the biggest spread, or preformed the worst. Unique was really good, but left a lot of soot on the casings. I do not own any powder outside of that listing.

Loaded up 10 rounds, of each charge, for each powder. So 150 rounds total? I did 5 shot groups, so I burned through 75 rounds total.

C.o.a.l. is what's listed in the Hornady book for .357 125 gr rnfp.

Brass is new Hornady .357.

125 gr r.n.f.p., cast, sized, powder coated, then sized again to .358. Lee tumble lube mold. Clip-on wheel weights.

Win sm pist mag primer

20" octagonal barrel, 1-30 twist, rear tang sight.

At 50 yds, decent weather conditions, range-rambo's interupting me, managed less than 1" spread with Bullseye.

I have no doubt that in a vise, these would be one on top of the other.

For me, and what I'm doing, this is ideal for 100 yds, and have complete confidence that I would survive should paper target suddenly come to life and attack. I have no doubt it will also work for the 100 yd summer league I'm in.

Will it put holes in paper at 150-200 yds? Probably.
Not too many ranges around here that offer anything past 200, and on a busy day with range-rambos, theres really no getting down that far to hang targets because they want to see how fast they can burn through ammo. Then complain about how much it costs them to shoot.

Will it knock things over at 100 yds? I don't know.

Will it take game at 100 yds? I don't know, there is no rifle hunting on this side of the state. Will it take a coyote if it comes into my back yard? It sure will. I've done it with .22.

Will it work for cowboy action shoots? No idea. Doubtful as the heavier stuff seems to work up to 25 yds, but beyond that fly left and right, or they did for me.

Did powder coated cast leave any lead at a roughly estimated 12 to 1500 f.p.s. (based on estimated data from both manuals and online info provided by various powder manufacturer recipes ) after 75 rounds?
Nope. None at all. Gunpowder residue and thats it. Few swipes with a boresnake and it was clean.

Did I take pictures of the targets? No. Looking back I probably should have, but because of social media, a lot of ranges around here banned any type of live feeds, or pictures, blah blah blah. They don't want to run the risk of bad press. I can understand that.