One Sizer and Many .38 Special and .357 Magnums???

[Southern Shooter]

I have at least 15 various .38 Specials and .357 Magnums at home. Taurus, S&W, Colt, Dan Wesson, Ruger. I am trying to avoid having to slug each gun and buy mulitple sizers.

Is there one size of sizer (an average) that in most cases would be workable for all of these guns? I have a Lee C358-158-SWC mold I will be using to cast boolits. I am not looking for competition target shooting. Just something for range practice.

Thanks

[btreanor]

If I had one sizer to choose for those guns, I would choose a 0.358.

[SlippShodd]

Me too also. I load for half a dozen different guns in those calibers and .358 serves me well in all of them.

mike

[jmort]

.358 is the most generic for a cast boolit, but having a .359 as well is never a bad idea.

[375RUGER]

I would slug them all and then pick one based on the results to start with. I'd probably start with a .358 myself, I'm not home but I think that's the size I use. Wife only has 2 guns in .357, I have 1 .38.
Are you using a lubrsizer? oor Lee push thru?

[454PB]

I've owned a lot of them over the years, and I've never had one that wouldn't do well with either .358" or .359". However, if .359" is used, make sure the loaded rounds will fit in the chambers of all. Sometimes a tight throat or chamber can make them too tight.

[bobthenailer]

Over the years ive had over 15, 38 specials & 357 mags with most being S&W brand, ive allways sized @.358 dia for them with excellent accuracy from all firearms

[bhn22]

No one size fits all. Clean the chambers and throats in your revolvers, and use pin gauges to determine rough dimensions in them all. You'll find they're all over the place. Pin gauges do not take oval bores, or rough bores into account (more common than you might think), but this should get you close. Just to say it out loud, a .359 cast bullet will immediately assume the dimensions of a smaller bore upon firing, and pressures will not be substantially increased. My general guideline is to size bullets to the largest size that will chamber properly when loaded. I forget who coined the phrase that "when the big fire hits, the bullet will fit", but it's totally true with cast bullets. I have lapped my .358 Star die out to .359, and have never had an issue, 38 S&W excluded, of course.

[Dusty Bannister]

I am fortunate that my .358 sizer actually forms bullets of .3585 which works well in most guns. I have to sort brass if shooting this bullet in my .357 mag Contender though as it is a snug chamber.
A .359 sized bullet would NOT fit that contender at all. You might end up requiring extra cleaning in the throats with the larger bullet, so be prepared for that. Dusty

[Big Boomer]

I cast (about, roughly) a 120 gr. boolit from a Lee mould that is for a .38 Sp. or a .357 Mag. that works well in my step-son's Ruger P85 9mm. Also cast a 150 GR. SWC RCBS plain base boolit for a couple of .38 Spls. and an older S&W M27. My Star sizer/luber sizes all the boolits to .3585 and they work well. Also use a .452+ sizer for both my .45 ACPs (Ruger, Chas Daly & Dan Wesson) & .45 Colts (Rugers and a Dan Wesson). You just have to check to see what will work and what will not. I should mention that all my revolvers have had the chamber mouths slugged for proper dimensions and reamed out where needed. Not all chamber mouths come from the manufacturer with proper dimensions on revolvers. Autos are a different matter, of course. Big Boomer

[1bluehorse]

I have at least 15 various .38 Specials and .357 Magnums at home. Taurus, S&W, Colt, Dan Wesson, Ruger. I am trying to avoid having to slug each gun and buy mulitple sizers.

Is there one size of sizer (an average) that in most cases would be workable for all of these guns? I have a Lee C358-158-SWC mold I will be using to cast boolits. I am not looking for competition target shooting. Just something for range practice.

Thanks



Spend the 30 minutes or so (or how ever long it takes) and measure the guns.....you need to know the cyl throat size in relation to the bore on each gun (as well as how each gun relates to the other).....as mentioned before, gauge pins are great for measuring throat size, and will tell you whether or not there is a constriction in your barrel (if a pin will start in the bore it should go all the way through and out the forcing cone) but it won't give you groove size...you'll have to "slug" for that....otherwise it's just a crapshoot....JMO...

[mdi]

While you may not want to slug your guns (for a revolver measuring the cylinder throats is of primary importance) you have to know what you're dealing with. I have a few .38/.357 guns and I measured them all and chose the largest cylinder throat diameter and size all my bullets to that; for me it turns out to be .3585"-.359". For me, .001"-.002" over throat diameter seems to have no adverse affect on my bullets/leading/accuracy...

[John Allen]

I run a 359 on mine and have not had a problem it makes it easier than sorting for each gun. I have not had any problems with chambering in anything I own

[Guesser]

I've been using .358 for 40 years in Colts, Rugers and blue S&W. I was never able to make .358 work in stainless S&W models 65 and 66, said "nuts" to SS Smiffs, sold'em and moved on. Just no more SS Smiffs for me.

[Bzcraig]

First, as others have said, slug your revolvers barrels and throats if you want to get the best reloads possible because it does make a difference. Depending on your alloy your bullets can drop from your mold anywhere from .357 to .360 or larger. Based on the number of guns you have, it doesn't seem money is an issue so spend the extra $20 or less and get the extra sizer if you don't want to take the time to slug them all then enjoy the process of shooting each one, recording your results and check for leading. In any case enjoy the process!

[plainsman456]

I have sizers from 356 to 359.

The one i use the most is the 358 for the 38spl-357 mag.

The others seem to work better for the 380 and the 9mm.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

.358 seems to be the best all around choice to go with, although what the particular gun likes best has to be the governing factor. It may require some experimentation and close tracking of group size. Generally 38 and 357 are in the same ballpark, but 9mm/380 may be a bit different. LLS

[Char-Gar]

Size your bullets .358 and fret no more. Trust me on this one, I do have considerable experience with 38/357 sixguns.

[beagle]

Several years ago, I traded for a bunch of used sizers. Among these was about 5 or 6 .358"s. I cast some oversized "beagled" slugs and ran several through each and measured carefully with a micrometer. With what I already had on hand, I ended up with several that ran a true .358", one that ran about .3585" and one right at .359". These were all etched with the true sizing diameter. Over the years, the .3585 has gotten the most play and the .359" I guess the next. When in doubt, use a .358" but measure and be sure you're getting a true .358" sizing. Several of the ones I measured ran small for the marked size./beagle

[Larry Gibson]

+1 for the .358 sizer for multiple 38 SPL and 357 Magnums. Been using that for years also. Have .356, .357, .359 and .360 also. Tried 'em all and go back to .358 because I pin measure the throats and all (Colts, Rugers, S&W and a couple foreign made ones) I've measured are .3565 - .3585.

Larry Gibson

[evan price]

358 sizer, lean towards softer lead instead of hard. Don't size any 357/38 anything else than that.

[4rdwhln]

I Just wanted to chime in. I see most of the folks here size .38 and .357 at .358.. I have checked 4 different smith revolvers 2 each.38 and .357 and found the same thing they slugged at .356.. I have been shooting them for years sized at .357. Most favorite load in the model 686 is 358429 at .357 over 14.5gr 4227. I have never got a load at .358 to out shoot this load in this gun. I have used 2 alloys as well, old 1 was 90-10-2 coww-pb-sb. I have since cut it to 50-50-2 and am most happy, So It is possible to get great results at .357.

[wallenba]

Take a jacketed commercial bullet, measure the O.D. and see if it easily passes your guns cylinder throat. If a .358 can't pass, neither can a cast boolit without being swaged down (to .357?) Then a .358 or .357 sized boolit will end up the same in the barrel.

Best solution is to slug cylinder throats and barrel, then ream throats with a Manson or similar reamer. Five groove barrels like the Smith's offer a new problem, how to measure.

All that said, in my S&W 686+ I size my 38 wadcutters at .357. They are very accurate and I have less lead to clean out of my cylinder throats.

[mdi]

Well, in my opinion there is no downside to knowledge. In this case it is knowing more about your guns, the critical dimensions. Even if you never shot a cast bullet it's good to know what your gun is. Kinda like knowing what size the tires on my car are or the memory on my computer. I don't have to know these, but it sure makes me feel more comfortable knowing. But you can be like my wife when I asked her where the starter was in her car "Well, it's right in there under the key on the steering column, silly"...

[ipijohn]

I size all of the boolits for 38, 357 and 9mm to .358 with a Lee push through sizer. I load them up and shoot them in over 15 different guns. I have one CZ 9mm barrel that is a little tight so when I use that barrel for competition, I run the ammo for the event through a Lee FCD die which sizes the whole cartridge down .002.

[Juan Jose]

If your shootin' irons are accurate with factory ammo, .358 is what the factories use.

[Char-Gar]

I have been slugging bore and measuring cylinder throats for many years and have kept a data base of those measurments. I have scores of number on various 38/357 sixguns, most Smith and Wesson and Colt, but with one Ruger thrown in for good measure. There are always sixguns that are made screwy but in the main, 99% conform to the following.

Smith and Wesson will run .357 in the barrel groove (+- 002) and .358 (+- .003) in the cylinder throats. I have found one handgun (K-38) with a barrel groove of .356 and another (model 36) with the cylinder throats of .356.

Colts (old lockwork) will run .354 - .355 in the barrel groove and a pretty uniform .359 in the cylinder throats. I found a Colt New Frontier that ran .356 in the barrel groove.

I only have one Ruger, an OM Blackhawk and it runs .357 (groove) and .358 (throat). These are the specs of a new barrel and cylinder that Ruger installed in 1996. The pistol itself was may about 1970 IIRC.

.358 works fine for me in all of these sixguns, but in Colts and most Smiths a thousand larger or smaller won't have a serious negative effect. All in all the 38/357 is a pretty forgiving round when it comes to cast bullet sizing.

I do need to say, that I am not a handgun bench rest shooter nor seeking the ultimate accuracy that can be obtained. As long as the handgun and loads shoots better than I can I am happy. If I miss what I am shooting at, I want it to be my fault and not the gun or load.

[.429]

I have to use a .357 sizer in my gp100 for the .357's I load because the cyl is to tight for anything larger

[Char-Gar]

I have to use a .357 sizer in my gp100 for the .357's I load because the cyl is to tight for anything larger

Wanna bet! You can shoot cast bullet several thousands larger than cylinder throat with not ill effect, unless....

1. You are shooting rock hard bullets at red line pressure.
2. You are into handgun bench rest shooting and looking for bug hole groups. You will not notice any difference if you are shooting your sixgun hand held standing on your hind legs.

[dverna]

You can go nuts doing things "right". Do you really want (or need) a perfect bullet for every application? KISS

Like most here, I just use a .358 sizer and it works in every .38/.357 I have or had. If there is a 1/2 moa difference in accuracy I neither care nor am I now able to take advantage of such an improvement. It is not worth the hassle of changing dies in the sizer.

When I had no time to cast, I purchased .358 bullets from Mastercaster and they worked very well.

Somehow factory ammo works well in most guns and they do not offer custom sized bullets.

If you are not getting any leading, you are set. If you decide to bump a die to .3585 or .359, that is easy to do with a hand drill and emery cloth around a dowel. But I bet you will not need to do it.

Don Verna

[TCLouis]

I just went for 0.359" on the last of three 35 caliber sizer dies.

Covers all sins and may well be too big for some of the things I shoot (38 SPL - 357 Herrett).

[DeadWoodDan]

I have to agree with Don ( and others) KISS in reference to the .38/.357. I had to be reminded of this recently by another member. My life style does not allow me to concentrate on things for long. I tend to have to come back and relearn at times because I've been away to long or have forgotten the correct method. 15+ guns....pick the top two you are going to shoot the most and do your homework and know your weapon, then there will not be a doubt in your mind or method.
DWD

[Petrol & Powder]

.358 is the most generic for a cast boolit, but having a .309 as well is never a bad idea.
I'll correct your typo = .359

[jmort]

Thanks, I'll do the same.

[.429]

Wanna bet! You can shoot cast bullet several thousands larger than cylinder throat with not ill effect, unless....

1. You are shooting rock hard bullets at red line pressure.
2. You are into handgun bench rest shooting and looking for bug hole groups. You will not notice any difference if you are shooting your sixgun hand held standing on your hind legs.

My cartridges will not seat into my cylinder if I have .358s in the .357 brass. .358s will work in .38 brass just fine. And yes, I would bet on it ;)

[rexherring]

.358 seems to work well in every one I cast for from .380-.357 in about 6 different guns. Good starting point for most of them.

['74 sharps]

Shoot as cast and save a step.