Win 296 in a short barreled 357 mag

[nueces5]

Good day. A rainy day during the holidays. What can be done?
Of course I think I would load 296 using a 357 magnum with 2 and 3/4 inch barrel (Taurus 605)!
I think it's not the best powder gun for this short-barreled gun.
Was anyone doing tests?
Winchester website uses it with small pistol magnum and 10-inch cannon. I do not think I can get small pistol magnum primers.
I have two boolits that I can use, 158 Grains Semi-capped and 113 grains wc, when I have the handles for the mold, I can modify the lead alloy with linotype and get hard boolits.

[dragon813gt]

W296/H110 requires a magnum primer regardless of application. It’s a hard to ignite powder. W/ a short barrel there are better options but there’s no reason W296 won’t work.

I have loads worked up w/ small rifle primers instead of SPM. These have worked well for me but I started low and worked up accordingly. There are plenty of others that use SR in lieu of SPM primers.

[NSB]

W296, even in short barrels gives good performance. It doesn't necessarily require a long barrel to work. In fact, it still usually gives higher velocity than most other powder. What it does that's not so great is give off a huge muzzle flash. If that's not a problem, go ahead and use it. I usually use a SR primer with it, and as stated above start at the lower listed charge and work up. Note, this powder has very little range to operate in. You can't use "reduced" charges with W296. That being said, my carry around "in case of bear" gun is a Ruger 101 with a 3" bbl. I also shoot a 180g bullet with it. The recoil is a bit heavy, but the accuracy is superb. If that's what you have to work with, load some up and give it a try. If you don't like it try something else. In my Ruger, I didn't find anything that shoot better, and with the fixed sights it hits to POA. Here's a ten shot group fired double action at 25 yards. This bull is 3.8". I'm satisfied with it.

[Pete44mag]

I have a two S&W model 686's in 3 inch and 6 inch barrel. The W296 is extremely accurate in both guns. As NSB said in post#3 the muzzle flash and side flash from the forcing cone gap are tremendous. I use small magnum primers because the rep at Hodgdon was insistent on using them. I try to follow what the experts say because they have the testing facility and it's in their interest to keep reloaders safe. I use Titegroup to load some very lite pleasant to shoot magnums. I also use a 158 gr. SWC boolit. Start towards the lower charges and work up to you own taste. I use this powder for .44 magnums will reload .41 mag. when my new dies arrive. I think you will like the results.

[Boolit_Head]

I used 296 in a 686 with a 4 inch barrel for some stout loads a long time ago. I got good results but expect a lot of muzzle blast. Fun loads and they were real thumpers.

[nueces5]

The 296 is a complicated powder, let's take a crony and start the game with the minimum loads.

[NWPilgrim]

The 296 is a complicated powder, let's take a crony and start the game with the minimum loads.

Minimum loads with W296 should only be about 3% reduction from max. Pretty short ladder! For .357 that is going to be about .5 grain spread from Min to Max charge weight.

[Forrest r]

FWIW:

Awhile back I did a little testing with 2400/h110/mp-300 in the 357mags. I used 2 1/2",4",6",8" & 10" bbl'd firearms for the testing with a chronograph setup 10ft from the muzzles. I used 2 different cast 158gr bullets in the tests. At the end of the day the 2400 out performed the h110 & mp-300 in the 2 1/2" bbl'd revolver. In the 4" revolver they were all within +/- 30fps of each other. The h110 & mp-300 started to pull away/out perform the 2400 in the 6" bbl'd revolver. By the 8" & 10" bbl.'s, the h110 & mp-300 where really getting up their in velocity with the 10" bbl showing 1600fps+ from both powders.

I wouldn't use 296 with that light 113gr bullet. h110/296/mp-300 tend to do better with heavier bullets and heavy crimps. Now that 113gr wc and a faster burning powder in the 38spl's/357's/9mm's are a real eye opener. Several months ago I loaded up the 110gr cramer "gallery" bullet (right)
https://i.imgur.com/xHUCNJn.jpg

Using hot/heavy loads of unique I ended up with
1350fps 2 1/2" bbl'd 357
1240fps 3.2" bbl'd 9mm
1100fps 2" bbl'd 38spl
I also did some hot power pistol loads with the same bullet in the 9mm/3.2" bbl & ended up a load that was doing 1300fps+.

[bmortell]

good info ^ thanks

[nueces5]

Very good data, thank you very much for sharing
I think I'll do some tests to see how the flash of the barrel does, and I'll go back to longshot and unique

[lar45]

Blue Dot may work better in your short barrel.
Awhile back, I did some side by side testing of 296 and Blue Dot in a 4" GP-100.
Blue Dot gave higher velocity with the max load in the manual. It also had less muzzle flash when shooting in the evening.

[Moonie]

Using this combination at night will dazzle lol, lots of muzzle flash. It does work however. Personally I have switched to 2400 in 357 and keep the W296/H110 for bigger cartridges, but I do have a case of 2400.

[Norske]

My 357 and 44M revolvers have always been more accurate with 2400 than with 296/110.