Win/Miroku 1873 .357

[Randy Bohannon]

I just picked one of these up for a decent price, any one have an idea what's a good mold is for these rifles.I do like heavy for caliber boolits.I have never loaded for a lever .357 .I have no plans to shoot .38 Special just .357.Do the bores on the 357's run big like the 45 Colt do ?

[FergusonTO35]

My Marlin 1894C loves the Lee 358-158-RF. This design will take a gas check no problem if you should feel the need for one. Also, I find that magnum shot shell powders like Blue Dot and HS-6 work best for boolits in .357 carbines. They are cheaper and easier to find than magnum handgun powders too.

[Greg S]

Slug your barrel first to see if a 357-8 will do it or ya need a 360. The Lyman 358665 and Lee copy of the 158 RNFP feed well in the levermatics. I'm running a Mihec 360-180 in a Winuko 92 with a stout load of H110.

Something you might look into is if the 1873 design can handle old full house 357 loads with new steel heat treat methods or the new frivilous lawyerized 357 mag loads.

[Randy Bohannon]

Thank you for your responses gentlemen. I did slug my my barrel and came up with a .359 bullet for .01 over bore dia.Not to late to change it to .360. I plan on light /med. loads with 180 gr. Accurate mold @ 359 with Lyman # 2 alloy. Blue Dot appears in the Lyman Cast Bullet book as being a favored powder for this bullet and will start here.I was surprised at the pressures with a cast boolits.My goal is a safe med. load and not beat up a fairly weak design. I see no need for full house magnum loads to punch holes in paper. I have a "Winuko" 92 in .45 Colt for hunting.

[T-Bird]

I shoot Lee 358158rnfp over sized .359 in .357 case over 7gr AA #5 for 1200 fps and no leading in my miroku 1873.my hunting load is Ly 358429with pb gc over 13gr Lil Gun for 1700fps- not used it yet.