Sight in distance

[indian joe]

I myself sight in my handguns, which are either SAA types and 1911s at 15 yards. Rifle I sight in at 50 yards. 100 yards is too far to walk to check for adjustments and change targets.

with ya on the walkin

I do most of it close in

new setup / never seen the gun before couple shots at 10 -15 yards - then back and sight it in at 25 - maybe closer - 17 yrds is good for something with a cowboy gun trajectory

once its dialed in up close take a few at 50 then at 100

[georgerkahn]

I am a 75-yarder.
goe

[mnewcomb59]

357 magnum

I like to sight mine in 1.75 inches high at 50, 2 inches high at 100, dead on at 150 and 7 inches low at 200. That is with my main load of a 158 gr with Lil' Gun at 2050 fps.

38 specials get sighted in 1 inch high at 50, dead on at 75 and 3 inches low at 100. That is a 125-RF at 1300 fps.


If you aren't lobbing it at least 1 inch at the midrange you are really crippling your range. For example with the 38 load above you could sight in at 50 yards and be 6 inches low at 100, or lob it 1 inch high at 50 yards and you are only 3" low at 100.

EDIT: checked numbers and I am 2.6" high at 100, not 2".

[mnewcomb59]

\ My desire to use the .38/.357 for coyotes out to 150 yards is likely a poor choice.

I would say maybe with your load, but definitely not with a full power type of load. You can shoot a 158 at 1400 with about 8 grains of fast powder like Power Pistol. Use 16-18 grains of slow powder like Lil' Gun and its a different animal. You wouldn't load up a 30-06 with 20 grains of fast powder with the case half full and think that was all you could get, so treat the 357 the same way. You gotta have a powder that gives you a case full and close to max pressure.

My main load will put 10 shots into 3 inches at 150 and it still has 800+ foot pounds. With a hollow point that will blow a yote better than any 223 or 22 Hornet at 150 yards because it has twice the power of the Hornet and equal power to the 223 55 gr SP at 150 yards. A hard cast wouldn't impress a yote too much, but my Ranch Dog HP (162 gr) completely acts like a varmint bullet in the rifle. The biggest chunk that remains is the base driving band of lead inside the gas check. About 35 grains. The other 125 grains turns into violent shrapnel and the main chunk penetrates only 3 jugs, aka 12" gel or identical to varmint bullets. This bullet will put a groundhog into about 3 different big pieces.

[timboslice]

Generally, I target 100 yards. I am in NH and can't shoot much beyond that, anyway.

[dverna]

I would say maybe with your load, but definitely not with a full power type of load. You can shoot a 158 at 1400 with about 8 grains of fast powder like Power Pistol. Use 16-18 grains of slow powder like Lil' Gun and its a different animal. You wouldn't load up a 30-06 with 20 grains of fast powder with the case half full and think that was all you could get, so treat the 357 the same way. You gotta have a powder that gives you a case full and close to max pressure.

My main load will put 10 shots into 3 inches at 150 and it still has 800+ foot pounds. With a hollow point that will blow a yote better than any 223 or 22 Hornet at 150 yards because it has twice the power of the Hornet and equal power to the 223 55 gr SP at 150 yards. A hard cast wouldn't impress a yote too much, but my Ranch Dog HP (162 gr) completely acts like a varmint bullet in the rifle. The biggest chunk that remains is the base driving band of lead inside the gas check. About 35 grains. The other 125 grains turns into violent shrapnel and the main chunk penetrates only 3 jugs, aka 12" gel or identical to varmint bullets. This bullet will put a groundhog into about 3 different big pieces.

Great post!!

I like one load for everything but you got me thinking. I have two rifles and one can be the Yote rifle with Yote loads. I can still go with lighter loads for more comfortable plinking with the pistols and the other rifle.

And by golly I have 3 pounds of Lil'Gun that I have no other use for (left over from after I sold the .22 Hornet). I have the MP .358-429 that will cast a large HP of 162 gr and the MP 359-640 that casts a 158gr HP. Both are PB but I have a BP GC maker.

Which MP mold would you suggest? Also, what alloy are you using for the "varmint bullet effect"? I assume the same bullet with a 20:1 alloy would be a good deer bullet?

Thanks.

[mnewcomb59]

I was unable to get deer-type of penetration out of the HP at rifle speeds. Even the cup point wanted to come apart. We are talking speds of 1800-2000 fps at the muzzle.

The varmint HP was actually an alloy that should have great weight retention (1.5-1.5-97) but the impact speed and hollow point depth and thin walls made this particular bullet start to fragment at anything above 1200 fps. I tried 1-1-98 up through 2-2-96 and pretty pure lead for 38 special speeds and I was never able to get satisfactory weight retention except for the 1100 fps or less loads. Everything from pure to 2-2-96 held up perfectly up to that speed, and every alloy after that speed had various degrees of fragmentation. The cup point let me get up to about 1400 fps with 100% weight retention.

For deer type penetration the solid bullet (180 gr) with 1.5-1.5-97 did good. I was able to get 4 jugs and a 70 cal mushroom, and the 2-2-96 made it a 66 cal mushroom that went to 5 jugs. The solid weighs around 180 and with a top load of Lil' Gun it goes about 1800 fps at the muzzle. The HPs weigh less so they got a higher, but not max load of Lil' Gun for about 1950 fps. I didn't wanna go all the way to the top of the 158 load data because the HP seats just as deep as the 180 solid.

My main problem with the Ranch Dog is the huge front driving band. At .358 it won't chamber in any of my revolvers. My ideal bullet would be the same exact Ranch Dog except half of the front driving band would be a bore rider at .348 and the other half would be .358. Another consideration would be a slightly longer nose. My Rossi and my Blackhawk and Security Six will all take an OAL of 1.64". If you find a longer nose 175-180 solid it will make a great 160-165 gr HP and be able to be loaded with 158 gr data. If you have a deep seated 180 with .300 nose length you probably want to reduce the loads for your HP because it seats so deep.

The 158s and Lil' Gun are the peak of the performance curve in the rifle. They scoot out at 2050 fps and if you check at any range down range from 100-200 yards they will have more power than any other bullet and powder combo. The 125s have less drop but less energy and more wind drift. The 180s have more drop, less energy, and equal wind drift. If you load the max load it only makes 25,800 CUP and your brass will last 6-10 reloads compared to 2400 or H110 (or any other powder that makes 35000 psi) where a single load at max ruins the brass. The max load of Lil' Gun makes less pressure than 13 gr 2400 or 15 gr H110 and the brass has much less bulge than any other magnum load. If you load a less than max load the brass look just like 38 specials as far as bulge near the rim.

The one downside is that your barrel will heat up quicker. It will take you longer to shoot 100 rounds of Lil' Gun than 100 rounds of 38 specials because the barrel will need to cool down. I also prefer other faster magnum powders for revolver loads. But for the rifle there is no comparison. If you shoot any other powder at equal pressure it will be 400 fps slower. If you shoot max loads it will be 200 fps faster than any other magnum powder while also at least 10,000 psi less pressure.

I really want the 360-640 double crimp groove with a gas check but they don't make it. The next best would be https://www.mp-molds.com/product/mp-...-multi-choice/

[Cast10]

38–55 at 100 yard ZERO with Williams FP sights.

1.6” at the highest point between 0 and 100. Anything I shoot ‘center mass’ out to 100 yards ain’t gonna know the difference. This rifle is mostly a hog gun, but have shot coyotes out to 120ish.

[Bigslug]

For defensive applications, I think in terms of staying inside of a 4" circle.

For the 9mm subsonic stuff I mostly play with, that works pretty well with a 75 yard zero for holding dead on out to about 100 yards.

A .357 will shoot a little bit flatter unless you're really watering it down. I'd have to crunch the numbers, but I imagine a 100 to 125 yard zero would stay near that 4" point blank trajectory to 125 to 150 yards. . .though that 150 may be a bit of a stretch.

[mnewcomb59]

I just ran my numbers again. For my 150 yard zero I am 1.75 high at 50 but it is 2.6" high at 100, dead on at 150 and 6.7" low at 200.

For a +/- 2" maximum point blank range zero at 137 yards and you will be 2" low at 160.












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[TNsailorman]

I don't hunt anymore at 82yrs. old/young. So, my sight in distances have been shortened considerably. I think defensively on sight-ins now. My hands shake now so longer distances are pretty much out of the question anyway. So it goes as follows:
.22 lr. + 75feet
.38 spcl, .357 mag., .41 mag., .45 ACP = 20 feet
30-06, 6.5x55mm = 100yards
.43 spanish = 50 yards
12 gauge & all shotguns = 10 yards
This is my general sight in procedure now. james

[Lance Boyle]

One of my preferred set ups depending on the drop......on a large black bull, 50 yard impacts above the x and 100 yard below the x and hopefully still in the black.

[slim1836]

Front door to driveway gate.

Slim

[littlejack]

slim1836:
Now that's funny.