Need load data.....

[Bad Karma]

I had an article on th e.357 Magnum using 3 .350" round balls per case. I have a box full of .350" round balls and I can't find the article! It was i Handloader Magazine but alas nowhere to be found. I think it used a charge of 4-5gr of Unique but not sure. The wife wants to use my wheel gun and wants to increase her hit probability too. So if any of you guys have either the article or the load data I'd be very appreciative.

[missionary5155]

I do not happen to have any .35 RB´s here... I would wiegh one.. mutiply X 3 and check any reload manual for a cast bullet that weight. At .35 they are sure to be undersized so you should not have any excess pressure from that. You might also consider rolling then in a lube as they are gonna come in contact with the rifling as they cascade down the barrel.
I would also want to be sure they sit atop each other in the case and stay that way so there are no air gaps between the RB´s... that setup might act like a cylinder obstruction if handled wrong....

[Ohio Rusty]

I use .360 round ball. They are a tight fit and squeeze tightly into the neck of the case. I have never tried 3 ball, I usually shoot one in a .38 case using unique or trail boss. If you know the weight of one ball, you can X3 the weight and come up with a load. A .360 ball is a little over 60 grains in weight. multiply that X3. If you were to use the load data for a 180 grain bullet in a .357, that would be a good place to start. 3 ball would make an excellent defensive load at close range !!
Imagine 5 shots would leave 15 holes in a criminal. That would be an effective stopper load for sure. I love makling stuff like this to shoot .............I've made shot shells for a .357 using cardboard wads and crimping the top wad in place. Good for rats and small stuff at close range.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[mooman76]

What the others said. You might also try getting a 36 cal RB mould or just the balls if you want(they are .375) and size them to 358 and maybe a little JPW or LLA. I've been wanting to try something like that myself but haven't got around to it. I was thinking for my 45-70 or maybe just some for a 30 cal rifle for plinking! Sounds like fun though! I was thinking though, won't the .35 balls just drop down into the case? Might want to check that first before you try to load.

[Ohio Rusty]

I don't use a reloading press to load cases with a ball. I use my bench vise. When I put the powder in the primed case. I thumb the ball into the end, put it in the vice and close the jaws forcing the ball into the case and flush with the case mouth. When I had my charter arms snubbie revolver. I cast .429 round ball and made a bunch of the plinker rounds using trail boss powder. They were really fun to shoot as they were 44's with very little recoil. I cast both size ball with WW lead and roll them in a 50/50 mix of JPW and beeswax. A .375 round ball can be forced into a .38/357 case the same way without the need for sizing.
Ohio Rusty ><(((o>

[crowbeaner]

000 buck is .360". That may be what you need. Do-it has moulds I think.

[Bad Karma]

I have a .360" mould that I'll use. I plan on using pure lead.

[calsite]

I would think you would want to have a base (over powder) wad as well

[AlaskaMike]

I doubt you'd need a wad if you use .360" round balls, but three of them will probably seat further down into the case than a conventional bullet of the same weight, so you might want to drop the powder charge accordingly.

Mike

[beagle]

.350"s are a tad small. You'll get better accuracy if you bump them in a .358" sizer with a flat plunger and a flat TP. This makes small rounded "wafers" with rounded corners of .358" diameter. Then dip in liquid alox lube and let dry. Weigh all three and use a comparable charge to the entire weight. Start low and sneak up on max charges as has already been pointed out the increases seating depth will cause higher pressures.

The Lyman M die works well as a bullet seater for RBs.

I shoot loads of 2 ball loads in the .38 Special. They're pretty awesom at 25 yards but tend to spread too much past that distance. They make great snake loads.

See the Round Ball article on Castpics in the articles section./beagle

[MakeMineA10mm]

I've loaded 3 round balls in 357 quite a bit, and I'm here to tell you that pressures spike REALLY FAST and at really low loads (well below starting loads).

I used .375" RBs sized down to .358" in a Lyman 450. Because the sizing die was not tapered enough to squeeze down almost .020", a small ring of lead was cut off as the top punch got down to the top of the sizer die. I didn't weigh them after this small ring was cut off, but used their full weight to develop my loads. By multiplying by three, I figured they weighed about 215grs, and so found some load data I had for 230gr bullets I got for pin-shooting. Well, due to the extra-deep seating, the starting loads for those 230gr boolits (of which almost half of the boolit stuck out the front of the case), were still too high, and I got stuck cases and a couple pierced primers. I eventually got loads that worked well, but they're pretty low velocity and inefficient with lots of unburned powder.

I suggest you use a VERY slow powder that is not load-density-sensitive (in other words, avoid W296 & H110). I used 2400 and 4227 to get work-able loads. If I was starting over from scratch doing the load development today, I'd take a VERY hard, long look at lil'gun from Hodgdon.

I encourage you to try the LLA lubing, but I also used an old trick for lubing my loads (which I made before LLA existed): pour out enough melted 50/50 lube to form about a 1/10" layer in the bottom of a paperplate/pie tin/whatever. After seating the bottom ball, press the case mouth down into the lube to cut-off a disk of lube. Then, seat the second ball, and get another disk of lube. That provided enough lube for me that I never had any leading, even without the LLA.


38s are MUCH easier to load up than 357s. Use only two balls, and use the load data from Lyman for the 141gr. hard-cast WCs. I never found a load that didn't work in the 38s, and I had virtually no problems with them. Due to the deep seating, 357s are quite a handloading challenge...