Tell me about boolits for tehe 4" GP100

[Adam10mm]

I just won a 4" GP100 off Gunbroker. I like heavy boolits, 180gr+. Who makes molds that will please me?

[Scrounger]

RCBS, SAECO, and there have been a couple of group buys here, might be one running now.

[dubber123]

If they are not too long, and you don't need a big meplat to be happy, try the RCBS 180 gr. Silhoutte mould. Mine end up at 198 grains checked and lubed out of WW's, and are super accurate in every 38 or .357 I have tried them in. They are long, but I think they would be fine in a GP-100.

[Adam10mm]

Ya know, I was paging through my Midway catalog last night looking at 357 molds. I wrote them down but can't remember them off hand. I was looking at the 158gr Keith from Lyman and that RBCS silouette one with the GC. The Saeco, I want to say like #310 or #315 or something, it was a 200gr TC. I think I might get the RCBS silouette mold for a plinker and get a 220gr Keith with a nice fat meplat made up from Mountain Molds.

[9.3X62AL]

Freak--

Most 357 Magnum cases--unless the cylinder is long like a Blackhawk's--are about done taking boolits at 200 grains or so. The boolit base starts to abut against the case wall inside taper, sometimes to the point that loaded rounds won't chamber.

A 180 grain boolit might be the best overall weight for hunting in the 357 Magnum revolver. I have one of the group buy moulds done by 357 Maximum, a gas-checked round flat nose. I have run it to 1200 FPS in my 4" 686, and to almost 1350 in the Bisley Blackhawk. There is still "some pedal left" in the Ruger, but I think running it harder accomplishes little. The boolit will likely shoot right through anything I hunt in this area, even from the 4" barrel @1200 FPS.

I can run a 160 grain-class SWC (Lyman #358156 or its Lee plagiarism) to 1500 FPS or more in the BisHawk's 7.5" barrel. Your GP-100's barrel length might lose 100-150 FPS or so at the top end, but a 160 grain SWC at 1350-1400 FPS will poleaxe deer with good placement--and the GP-100 is every bit as strong as the Blackhawk platforms. Like all good things, heavy-for-caliber boolits/bullets do some fine work, but there are limits to how far we can "push" a concept before butting up against a variable that makes the conceptual extension counter-productive. In my experience, 200 grains has been the top end weight-wise in the 357 Magnum for revolvers.

[Adam10mm]

Thanks for the info. I'll stick to 200gr. I like my boolits heavy. I'm going to get the 180gr silouette mold from RCBS like the one mentioned above.