Wc 820 357 Mag.

[TRM]

My LOAD WAS 13.3GR. Win. small pistol primer lee 158 rn. I have 9.5" TC and 17" TC. both barrels have unburnt powder. Vel. in the pistol was 1104 fps. very low. I had one that didn't ignite bullet moved into rifling. another was hang fire. Opinions please

[Junior1942]

WC820 gives squib loads with all but medium-heavy to heavy charges. It ain't a light or medium load powder. That's my experience with both 357 and 44 mag.

[felix]

13.3 grains is enough for the 357 and a 160 grainer boolit. Tell me about the storage conditions of the powder and where did you get it? Something is not right here. ... felix

[TRM]

I bought three jugs same lot number from Jeff Bartlett. It is stored inside dark air condition closet. I used some from each jug for 30-30 and 444 it works fine with them.

[felix]

Try it in another pistol and report back. Any caliber. Load as you would for AA9. ... felix

[Poygan]

WC820 is the only powder that has produced squib loads for me, as in the boolit is still in the barrel. This was with .357 and .45 Colt. From that point, I only used mag primers until the 820 was gone.

[skeet1]

One other thing you might consider. I know that with my old contender may loads I used was without any crimp. WC820 needs the crimp to raise the pressure for better ignition if you are not crimping try it it might surprise you.

Skeet1

[Maven]

I tried 11gr. (10.9gr. by weight) with a ~180gr. gas checked LBT boolit, sized to .359" & roll crimped, with CCI mag. primers in my Dan Wesson (6" bbl.) and couldn't have been happier: Highly accurate, clean burning, no powder residue in the bbl. Good stuff!

[454PB]

Though WC820 is a fine surplus powder, I agree with Junior1942. I had a boolit stick in the barrel of my Ruger SRH .454 using a load of 25 gr. WC820 behind a 260 gr. boolit. The same will happen with AAC#9. I no longer use it for boolits less than 300 grains in my .454's.

[RSOJim]

Well guys this is a timely thread because just last Monday I had the same problem with my 357 loaded with 13 grains of wc 820 powder. Bullets just fell out of the end of the barrel or stuck in the barrel. Oh, I was using standard small pistol primers. I have shot this load a lot with 180 grain bullets with gas check and had no problems. However, with this load I had 5 squibs in a row. I was using the 147 grain cowboy boolit without a crimp groove. I gave this a lot of thought and decided I did not have enough crimp. I came home and put a much better crimp on all 250 loaded rounds. I stepped out back and fired a few. No problems, no unburned powder. It appears that when using wc 820 powder it requires either a real heavy bullet or a really heavy crimp or both. After this storm clears florida I will go back to the range and do some more testing. Thanks Jim

[biggome]

I have had no problems with WC-820 PD and standard primers as long as the charges are heavy enough. I use 13.5 grains w/ 180 grain cast and 15.5 grains with 158 grainers. Lighter loads have produced "poopers" in cold weather.

If the bullet weight, charge weight or temperature is below what I feel to be fairly warm I only consider magnum primers to be safe to use.

As previously stated, a firm crimp is a must!

Paul

[TRM]

Made out to the range. CCI mag primer did the trick,Very accurate in both pistol and carbine. Thanks for everyones response.:-D

[rbstern]

My 357 WC820 loads are in the 10.5 to 13 grain range, with 158 grain cast bullets. I always use a mag primer (Magtech), and my crimp is moderate. Never had one fail to go boom. Pretty consistent over the chrono, no problems with unburnt powders.

[leadman]

I've been using WC820 I bought from Pat's Reloading for years. His label says to use a magnum primer only. Have followed his advice and had no problems.

[Dale53]

AA #9, WC 820, H110, and W 296 ALL require good bullet pull. In fact, even a good roll crimp will NOT substitute for proper bullet pull.

This is not a new phenomonom, but was reported by Elmer Keith when using 2400 in the .44 Special.

The first time I used H110 in a .44 Special (Model 24 w/6.5" barrel) I had a couple of bullets stick in the barrel (I was paying attention and "caught" them without a problem). I was using an old set of steel dies for the .44 Special. They sized hardly enough to hold the bullet while I crimped it. I ordered a new die set from RCBS, got a carbide sizing die that sized the case so that I had about .004" case tension on the bullet. That TOTALLY solved the problem for evermore.

The case has to be sized enough AND the expander needs to be several thousandths smaller than the bullet diameter to have sufficient case/bullet tension for the slow burning powders to properly ignite and burn. A good roll crimp can help but case tension is paramount.

Dale53

[RSOJim]

This is in reference to # 10 I wrote above. The tropical storm Fay is now out of Florida. I went to the range today. It seems that a 147 grain cowboy bullet is not heavy enough to provide needed bullet pull for consistant ignition. I still got some squibs. The same load of 13 grains and a 173 grain keith bullet shoots good everytime. Just my observations. I won't be loading anymore of the 147 cowboy bullets and 13 grains of wc 820 pull down powder. I will reserve the 147 grain cowboy bullets to be loaded over 6 grains of unique. More experimenting is necessary. Thanks Jim

[Jim]

I will admit up front that I don't have the experience Felix does, but I have burned a coupla' jugs of 820 by now. I land here: Load it as a full power load with a magnum primer and a heavy crimp or be prepared to dislodge stuck boolits from your barrel.