So... Red Dot and .357 Maximum???

[revolvergeek]

Evening all,

I have a 'new' old Ruger .357 max and I want to load up a bit of blasting ammo, just low end plinking stuff for shooting out to 50 yards or so.

I have brass, Red Dot and a pile of Lee 161 grain RNFP boolits sized .359. Any thoughts on maybe a 6-6.5 grain load?? My manual shows 5.5 as max in .357 mag with a 158 lsw. In the future I plan on experimenting with Blue Dot and 296 to try for hotter stuff, and am not trying to do that with the Red Dot.


Thanks,
Danny

[missionary5155]

Greetings revolvergeek
For the 38-40 (1.3 OAL) an old Lyman book shows for a 170 grainer 5.5 grains starting (1070 fps)and up to 9 grains as a max. This was a Winchester 24 inch barrel.
The 38-40 would have a case capacity close to the 357 max so that start load would certainly not be over powered. Your desired 6.5 grains should fall right in there.
I would load one and see what it does.. may just be the thump you want.
Mike in Peru

[revolvergeek]

Ok, so I ended up going with 6.4 grns, and they were nice mild but not super weak. I shot a bunch of them Sunday and the best group was about 1.5" @ 25 yards. Considering that I had two 24 oz cups of coffee that morning I think that it is a good start! Thanks for the input. :grin: