Lee 105 grain mold for .357 Contender

[Judan_454]

Im looking for a good cast bullet to shoot out of my .357 Contender for IMSHA field pistol next year. I have used the 140 grain lee mold for field pistol before with good luck but the disavantage of the bullet is that I cant it load down enough were I can use a rifle scope on my contender without being hit in the head with scope from the recoil. I have used a pistol scope on the Contender with good luck in competion but it still a disavantage because you have to hold the gun farther from your body,which is less stable. I was thinking if I went to Lee 105 grain mold I could push the bullet fast enough too stablize the bullet enough out to a 100 meters to knock over the field pistol rams and use a rifle scope on the contender without being hit the head with the scope.

[Larry Gibson]

I've not gotten any decent accuracy with that bullet over 950 fps out of my Contender. Don't know if that is enough to knock over the Rams?

Larry Gibson

[Lonegun1894]

Would the same bullet but loaded in either .38 Special or in .357 brass but to .38 special velocities be an option in order to reduce recoil (and headaches) while maintaining the heavier bullet weight for the extra energy it gives be an option? Just throwing that out with no experience in field pistol competition. Most of my shooting is just personal target practice with a hunt thrown in when I get a chance, so I have no idea if that would solve your issues or possibly create more.

[stubshaft]

I never found great accuracy out of light boolits in the 357 and early on decided to get a dedicated barrel for field pistol. Bought a 270 REN and never looked back. Tried the 32/20 years later and had a ball with it too using the RCBS 115gr.

[dbldblu]

I bought a .32 H&R mag contender barrel that came with a rifle scope on it; now I understand. Very accurate barrel by the way.

[DragoonDrake]

I picked up a 22 hornet to shoot FP. I had a few people let me try theirs, which impressed me enough to pick one up.

I will say this, there is very little recoil, but there is a whole lot of volume. I think I jumped more from sound the first time than the lack of recoil.

[bobthenailer]

Get a 22 hornet mine will shoot 1 inch groups at 100 yards with 55 gr hornday sp bulk bullets Using spp and 4.5 to 4.8 gr of 231 . and is rifle scope friendly , also only partialy size the neck of the brass to hold the bullet,
Ive used alot of cast bullets in 357 mag single shot pistols & the most accurate cast bullet for me is the rcbs 200 gr rifle bullet I have also found that heaver bullets 180 gr+ are usually more accurate at 100 yards than bullets lighter than 158 gr at 100 yards.

[thegreatdane]

want to trade some Lee 105 RNs or 102 SWCs? I have plenty ready to go.

[Judan_454]

Get a 22 hornet mine will shoot 1 inch groups at 100 yards with 55 gr hornday sp bulk bullets Using spp and 4.5 to 4.8 gr of 231 . and is rifle scope friendly , also only partialy size the neck of the brass to hold the bullet,
Ive used alot of cast bullets in 357 mag single shot pistols & the most accurate cast bullet for me is the rcbs 200 gr rifle bullet I have also found that heaver bullets 180 gr+ are usually more accurate at 100 yards than bullets lighter than 158 gr at 100 yards. I do know about the 22 hornet the majority of shooters shoot it in field pislol I just wanted something a little more cast bullet friendly. But great info a the 22 hornet I remember when I first started shooting IMSHA field pistol you could only use straight wall pistol cases then the 22 hornet was aloud and most of the shooters switched to the 22 hornet except for me. lol

[Judan_454]

The 32 mag and 32/20 how is the recoil?could I put a rifle scope on them. I dont know if TC still makes the barrels for them.

[stubshaft]

Recoil from the 32/20 is minimal and I have shot it with a Taco hold in FP (about the same as the REN but not as flat shooting). IMHO - the Hornet is cast friendly and not hard to find accurate loads with it.

[DragoonDrake]

All I shoot in my hornet is cast.

RCBS 22-55 so far as done well, I also have the BRP 22-47

[L Ross]

Judan, I did exactly that in the 1980's, Lee 105 SWC for Hunters Pistol Silhouette. I used a lot of Bullseye behind it. I used data for 110 jacketed bullets from a manual so I wasn't just guessing. It shot very well, so well a couple of the jacketed boys bought moulds and switched. Yes we were holding the scoped pistols very close to our eyes because we were using rifle scopes on our Contenders. I think I was shooting half WW and half Lino as the alloy, sized to .358".

Duke

[thegreatdane]

IIRC, its 9.1 bullseye per Lyman cast boolit handbook?

[L Ross]

GreatDane. I hesitate to encourage someone to venture out onto thin ice. I took a quick look after seeing your posted question and the nearest I can find is in the 46th edition of the Lyman Reloading Handbook with a 92gr. bullet cast of lino. I'm quite sure I started at their listed minimum and crept up until I got a flat trajectory and was knocking the rams down as cleanly as the guys shooting 32-20's with jacketed. I half expected to see melted lead running out of the muzzle back then but I didn't even have a leading problem. It was running over 1500 from a 10" Contender if I remember that many years ago.

Duke

[TJD]

You might try RCBS's 9mm 124 gr round nose with a gas check. It shot very well in my 357 Super Mag and my Dan Wesson 357 Mag. I would load them in 38 special cases and use the load in either gun. I could even hot rod it out of the 357 super mag case.