BE-86 in .357

[facetious]

I am going to try to work up a load for my .357 ruger security six 4" using a LBT 150gr. OWC with gas check and BE-86.

After some Googling about I have not found much with cast. In the Lyman book thy show Herco at 7.8gr. with 358477 150gr. and 8gr of Unique and a 146gr. JHP. The Alliant 2014 reloader's guide shows a 158gr. cast rnfp with 8.1gr of BE-85

Every thing I have read says that BE-86 falls between Unique and Herco and 8grs. seems to be the common top end for that range of powders.

If Alliant calls for 8.1grs. with a 158gr. I am thinking that with a 150gr. that maybe calling 8.2 tops and 7.2 to start, going up .2grs. at a time.

Most of the stuff I could find on BE-86 is two or three years old and am wondering if any of you have any newer experience with it in .357's.

I have used this boolit with 15grs. of 2400 sense the 90's but am all out of 2400 and was looking at BE-86 as a replacement. Most of what I could find about it puts it about 100fps slower than 2400. BUT the Allinant book says tha 8.1grs. will get 1438fps with a 158gr. cast boolit! That is faster than I think I'm getting now.

I know that it will not have the power I was gatting with 2400 but most of what I have read says that you can get 1200fps and that is good enough. I have one pound to play with to see if I like it. And I would get all most twice the rounds from a pound.

If you have tryed it in..38's I would like to hear how you liked it. Just looking for ideas.

[osteodoc08]

Use the BE-86 data for the 158gr boolit. Back off the standard 10% max and work up. I've had good success with BE-86 and cast in my magnum revolver and also semi auto loadings.

[facetious]

I got to try it this last week. I started with 7.4gr and went up to 8.2gr .2gr at a time.

7.4 shot good but felt light, as I went up in powder charge POI moved around a bit and recoil went up each time but not buy much but when I went to 8.2 it got snapyer. It was more of a increase than before and the POI was higher and to the left of the other groups. 8.0grs did the best and it had the same POI as a group shot with 16.1grs of h-110 just to see how close thy were.

It was kind of windy and i was shooting at 15yds from a good rest I'am not the best shot and the gun is well used but 8.0grs got a group the size of your hand, I am going th load up a bunch and see if it will keep doing it or if I just got lucky, power wise it recoiled noticeably less then 16.1grs of h-110. I have some loaded with 15grs of 2400 put away that I can compare with. I'm thinking it may be a good general purpose load. It still had what felt like enough thump to be usefull but with a bit less kick . I don't know how fast thy are going, if you know how fast you are going it would be fun to know.

[Kosh75287]

I've used BE-86 in 9x19mm, .40 S&W, .45 A.C.P., and .45 Colt, and been very pleased with it. In all cases (pardon pun), I was struck by how it resembled Unique, in work-up, except that it metered slightly better and burned somewhat cleaner. If I was at a loss for loading data for BE-86, I'D be inclined to start with charge weights that are starting loads for Unique, and work up carefully.