357 and 2400, why did I ever try anything else?

[bootsnthejeep]

Fascinated and enamored with the writings of St. Skeeter, the first handload I ever tried in my brandy-new 4" stainless 686 was the 358156 over 14 grains of 2400. Would shoot big one hole groups, and I never looked back. Would load once a year on my dad's machine when I was home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, 1000 rounds at a time.

For a while I lost interest in casting. Been gathering up wheelweights and getting back into it with a vengeance this year. And acquired a NOS 358429, as I'm now not only a devotee of St. Skeeter, but also St. Elmer.

Holy HELL. Per the recommendation of some here, 13.5 grains of 2400 under that bullet, WW, water dropped, shot like it had a LASER BEAM on it out of the same Smith. And it was a LIGHTNING strike on whatever I was shooting with it. I'd shot some 158 grain bullets with the same charge of 2400, they were shooting clean holes in the tin can I was shooting at. The first 170 grain that connected damn near turned the can inside out. Blew the label off. Next shot, at just the label on the dirt bank, turned it into confetti. Further shots at the can almost shredded it. Can't believe the damage that round will inflict.

I'm SOLD. I'm not canning my Ray Thompson mould anytime soon, but there's gonna be a SLUG of those Keith bullets run out as soon as my Bullplate comes in.

I've done runs of Unique and Bullseye and Bluedot. They all did ok. Oh, 2400, why did I ever stray??

Wonder if you can get that stuff in a 55 gallon drum?

Boots

[Jack Stanley]

Why did you stray ?? That's easy .... you have an affliction known as restless loading press syndrom . Sufferers are known to have feelings of such affection for the loading process , they soon start making excuses of why they should load more ammo . Reasons include wanting to make "practice" ammo or "training young shooter" ammo or the infamous "plinking" ammo .

With your admission of including yet another bullet mould you are only expressing how far the sickness has spread . There is yet hope for you and I'm willing to step up and help out . The only known cure is to get back to your first love of 2400 , the Thompson bullet and .357 cases . All the rest of that stuff ... the extra bullet mold , the powders and any .38 cases you have just pack up into flat rate boxes and ship to my address . I will put them to work with the poor and needy who cannot afford to buy the items you have to feed their sickness properly .

Please note I do not charge for the service of collecting or distributing the items

Jack

[Char-Gar]

YOu have heard a thousand times the old saw.. "If it ain't broke don't fix it!". With 50 years of handgun loading under my belt I still use 2400 for Magnum loads (357 and 44), Unique for mid-range loads in many calibers and Bullseye for target loads in many calibers.

I buy these three by the eight pound jugs and see no reason to stock any other powders for handguns. The powder makers other than Hercules/Alliant are very glad I am a strange old fashioned fellow and other shooters are still searching for the Holy Grail of powders.

[sundog]

Charles, you old stick in the mud! Ya gotta embrace technology, son! There your living in the lap of luxury in one of the greatest country's God ever made, Tejas. And still you keep to the old ways. Good on ya, I say. You are not very far from #1 daughter. Which brings me to my next item. Since you are so set in your ways, which I most emphatically endorse, would you care if we should shoot together on the next occasion to visit your area? We should shoot some bulls and some boolits. A feller could do a whole lot worse!

[dk17hmr]

Im a big fan of the 358429 bullet. I use it in my 38's with Unique and my 357 with H110.
I had a 358156 for a while and just didnt like the fact it was a gascheck mold. I used it tumble lubed instead without a gascheck in my 38's and it shot pretty darn good that way.

[9.3X62AL]

#358156 has been a long-time favorite of mine, #358429 came about more recently. It's a fine one, as well. Alliant 2400 might be my most-used powder, serving for 410 shotshells--cast boolit Magnum handgun rounds--and much of my cast boolit rifle work.

I imagine about a zillion other Old School reloaders will make similar comments here.

[bootsnthejeep]

I think I could get by with just 2400, Unique, and Bullseye. Everything else is just fluff. I should start buying the kegs of it.

I tried the 358429 in the 38 special over 5 grains of Unique, very pleasant to shoot, fairly accurate too. I haven't shot any of these on paper, just going by "minute of soup can", but I hardly ever shoot at anything off a bench, always offhand and usually not shooting at anything smaller than that, so it works out. But these show promise.

Anyway, like I said, I just went thru and tuned up, cleaned and kroiled several of my moulds, as soon as the bullplate shows up I'm going to town. Gonna cast till my hands won't hold the mould anymore. I'm excited.

[softpoint]

I can agree on the 2400-Unique-Bullseye combination. Although I have been using a lot of Herco for the medium burn rate. Works better in the shotshells I load, works as good as Unique in my pistols

[looseprojectile]

I have bought H240 which is surplus 2400 for fifty cents a pound in the middle to late fiftys. The store would put as much as ten pounds in a paper bag. I sent many pounds downrange.
2400 doesn't burn as well as other powders like AA#9 or H110 or 296. Was always accurate and the more you cramed in the better it shot. Did I say it was cheap?
Course this was before you could buy ammo with jacketed bullets in pistol rounds like .357mag. My concern was to eliminate leading caused by pure lead bullets. Solved that with harder alloys and gas checks.
I would not hesitate to tout 2400 to anyone loading .357s or .44s. Also works quite well in rifle cast boolit loads.

Life is good

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Been using 2400 in my 357/44 mags for +40 years, and I see no reason to switch....good choice.

[USSR]

Been using 13.5gr of 2400 and 5.0gr of Unique (.38 case) with the 358429 for the past 30 years. See no reason to change. Just found another use for 2400: cast bullets for the .30 Carbine.

Don

[Ben]

Ditto with Deptuy Al's remarks. I like my 2400 ! ! !

Ben

[sheepdog]

14 grains of 2400? Will that even fit in a 357 mag case uncompressed?

[Gohon]

14 grains of 2400? Will that even fit in a 357 mag case uncompressed?

Depends on the particular bullet design. Lee C358-158-SWC/GC sits right on top of the 14.5 grains of 2400 I shoot from a Marlin 1894C but the load is not compressed. Lee 358-158-RF will actually sit a fraction above the powder column with 15 grains of 2400 under it. Both loads shoot great in the rifle with good accuracy and no leading and no signs of high pressure. Not sure I'd want to try to hang onto a revolver with them though.

[watkibe]

I think I should take this thread as a sign, ha ha. I have always used Unique and H110 exclusively for my 357, 41, and 44 mags. (I had a brief fling with Bullseye, but I hate to admit it.)
I don't know if I have the restless reloader syndrome as mentioned above, or if I have been coming up with good reasons, but the result is I have been thinking about switching from
H110 to 2400.
I read a post the other day where a guy said he didn't like "the drama" that came with loading H110. I don't know exactly what he means, but I have noticed that you have to have the case full, but not too full, with H110. There is a fine line between enough and too much. Some data says "use exactly as shown" and other say "do not reduce more than 3%", while other data just shows a starting and max load. I'm always a little nervouse when I try a new load.
So next time I can find some, I think I will get a can of 2400 and try it out. Besides, I remember when Skeeter and Elmer had new articles out every month, and 2400 was usually featured. I picked up a lot of their other advice, I don't know why I skipped over this.

[sniper]

WHY did you stray? Because you could! The saints Skeeter and Elmer will probably forgive you, if you go and sin no more! I, too have settled on that particular load, or as close to it as my powder measure and bushings will get me!
Enjoy!

My brother-in-law has a most unique way of using 2400...fills the .357 case, levels the top, and seats the boolit . He uses a Ruger Blackhawk, which explains his continued residence on this earth, (he is 86) and when he touches it off, it is a spectacular sight! I do NOT recommend trying that at home!

[shooting on a shoestring]

Several years ago when my chronograph was new, I burned a pound of pretty well everything on the gunshop shelves. Looked at position sensitivity, shot to shot deviation, extreme spread, SDEVs, group size, leading etc... Now I shoot Bullseye, Herco and 2400 for close to %90 of my revovler rounds. Occasionally I load some H110 in .357, or play with Longshot, BlueDot or Lil'Gun for ??? for??? Yep, then I load Bullseye, Herco and 2400 for fast, faster and fastest.

[bootsnthejeep]

My brother-in-law has a most unique way of using 2400...fills the .357 case, levels the top, and seats the boolit . He uses a Ruger Blackhawk, which explains his continued residence on this earth, (he is 86) and when he touches it off, it is a spectacular sight! I do NOT recommend trying that at home!

I always thought the 14 grain load was plenty stout, and heard of people running 15 but never felt the need to try. That's got to be close to 18 there. Oy vey.

I never gave much though to it, that load shot great for me so I kept with it. We were Jeepin in Northern Maine and we stopped at a gravel pit to have lunch and I unlimbered the Smith and did some shooting. My buddy's wife came over to me with her eyes almost falling out of her head (and struggling to get her fingers out of her ears) and said "Do you have any idea how much FLAME comes out the end of that when you shoot?" Out of a 4" barrel, I guess that charge of 2400 burns halfway to the target!

Of course, that statement she made was quickly followed by "Can I try it?!?"

[That'll Do]

I always thought the 14 grain load was plenty stout, and heard of people running 15 but never felt the need to try. That's got to be close to 18 there. Oy vey.

I never gave much though to it, that load shot great for me so I kept with it. We were Jeepin in Northern Maine and we stopped at a gravel pit to have lunch and I unlimbered the Smith and did some shooting. My buddy's wife came over to me with her eyes almost falling out of her head (and struggling to get her fingers out of her ears) and said "Do you have any idea how much FLAME comes out the end of that when you shoot?" Out of a 4" barrel, I guess that charge of 2400 burns halfway to the target!

Of course, that statement she made was quickly followed by "Can I try it?!?"

Same here. When I initially worked up the load for a 158gr LSWC and 2400, I started at 11.5gr and made it to 14gr–at that point I said "no more!" (13.5gr is just right for me). I could only imagine what 18gr of 2400 would feel like being touched off! Yikes!

[sniper]

Of course, that statement she made was quickly followed by "Can I try it?!?"

Funny how often that happens, isn't it?