Best alloy or BHN for non gas checked SWC in 357 carbine?

[JNG3]

Moulds are Lyman 170 gr #358429 and RCBS 150 gr 38-150-swc. These are non gas check designs. The rifle is a .357mag Henry Big Boy Steel 16.5" barrel. I am aware that proper size is one of the critical issues, besides that what alloy should I be looking at? What generally would work in a 6" revolver I don't think would work in a carbine as the velocities tend to be 200-600 fps higher. Would like to hunt with it so I need higher velocities than 'plinking' loads. I have on hand 1-20, Lyman #2, and COWW. The lube I have on hand is a White Label lube that I use to pan lube. Unfortunately I can't remember which one it is right now but when I get home I'll update this post.

Edit- the lube is 50/50 beeswax

[LeroyvdH]

My son uses 1-20 in his lever gun and revolver seems to work for him.

[John Boy]

Best alloy or BHN for non gas checked SWC in 357 carbine?

Preferably 1:16 or softer. The break point when a GC should be used is 1600 or higher fps

[Bigslug]

A ton of possibilities there:

Elmer Keith's preferred metal was 16-1 (11 BHN), and he didn't get famous for shooting light loads. Back in the day, he considered this a "hard" alloy.

Your wheelweights are pretty close to that for hardness, maybe a touch harder at 12 BHN, though a lot of folks like to bring the tin content of them up by about 2%, giving something like 3% tin/3%antimony/94% lead. This usually helps mold fillout, doesn't really change hardness, and makes the bullets a little more "chewy" and less "crunchy"

Your Lyman #2 (15 BHN) could be used as is, but since it's 5/5/90, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to turn it into the above 3/3/94 by dropping in the right amount of pure lead.

20-1 expands beautifully at the speeds a .357 can attain, but I'd approach it with some caution in that and other smaller-bore, high-pressure rounds. It ran great in my pseudo-.32-20 rifle at 1250 fps, but accuracy went down the tubes as the pressure/velocity increased. It's awesome in a .38-40 levergun with a black powder substitute pushing it to around 1350, but there you have more bore volume, lower pressure, a wider bullet base to spread that pressure over. Currently working with it in a couple different .45-70's shooting black substitute, and it seems to get kind of fussy about about proper fit about 1350-1400 fps. Again, less PSI on a larger base than you'd have in a .357, so unless you have the gear and the time to really experiment and figure out proper fit in your guns, I'd lean toward harder stuff.

[mold maker]

Don't get all warped about hardness unless there is an indication that it's needed. As stated above, an addition of a % or two of tin to get good fill out should make what you're using adequate. Fit is far more important than hardness.
Using BLL will be sufficient if the lube you're using comes up short.
I belive in using only enough hardness to get the job done, and you'll know right away if itoesn't.

[Larry Gibson]

"What generally would work in a 6" revolver I don't think would work in a carbine as the velocities tend to be 200-600 fps higher."

That is basically correct regarding PB'd cast bullets used in carbine/revolver cartridges.


The White Label 50/50 lube is fine.

I suggest starting with the #2 alloy with either bullet. Develop the load for accuracy staying within 357 Revolver published load data. The load developed in the rifle using revolver data is then quite safe in the revolver and most often is accurate. I found in several 357 Carbines with the 358429 and 358477 (the RCBS is comparable) that 2400 and 4227 worked quite well, especially 4227. I didn't get quite as high velocities I revolvers with the 4227 loads but the velocities and accuracy were almost always better in the carbines and rifles with 4227. The accuracy was comparable to 2400s in the revolvers but velocity was 50 - 75 fps slower. I almost always used 4227 with those bullets and the 358156 bullet in the 357 magnum.

Larry Gibson

[gundownunder]

I use plain based 180 gr bullet made with COWW + 2% tin and drive them through my Marlin at up to 1750 fps. Before I started Hi-Tek coating I used a lube made with equal parts Alox, beeswax, and lithium grease. With the Hi-Tek I never bother to clean my barrel any more but with the lube I was usually cleaning it after I put a few hundred rounds through the rifle, and usually only because I thought I should, not necessarily because the rifle needed it. The most important consideration is whether your bullet is fat enough for your bore, if not, you will get leading in the barrel. My barrel slugs at .356 and I cast at .358 then coat. Run them through a .3575 sizing die then add two more coats. The coating adds about .005 per coat to the bullet, so final size for the loaded bullet would be about .3585. If I'm not mistaken the Lyman 358429 it only made at about .357, which would probably not be fat enough for full house loads in a rifle.

[robg]

7 gr of true blue works well in my win94 using the Lee 158 gr wfn boolits.