Shooting heavy cast in .357 Handi rifle questions.

[koger]

I have a Handi rifle that is a tack driver with jacketed bullets up to 180 gr, as heavy as I have tried. I have 500 .358 200gr cast for a .35 Remington that are Hi Tek coated, no GC. Anyone ever shot anything that heavy in a Handi rifle? The heaviest other mold I have for .357 stop at 165 gr Keith/Thompson mold. All feedback welcome.

[BABore]

Not in a Handi, but I shoot 225 grain GC (no GC) in a Ruger 77/357 with a 1:16 twist. Loading subsonic, shooting surpressed. Stabile past 300 yards. I have also shot a 275 grain bullet subsonic. Was okay at 100 yards. Never shot it farther. Both WW231 and AA #5 work very well. Bullets were cast from 30 to 1 and Hi Tek coated.

[rockrat]

also, not a Handi, but have shot 250grainers thru my ruger #1 rechambered to 357max. It really likes a 235grainer from an HM2 mould.

[Nobade]

Sure, works great. For longer range the rifle type bullets work better than pistol type ones.

[jwhite]

My 357 handi rifle has had a steady diet of 190-230gr cast bullets. Pretty much all I load for it now.

[JohnH]

There is data for 357 Magnum using the bullets Lyman and RCBS made for the 35 Remington. Most of it can be found in older Lyman manuals (#46 & #47) in the Ruger/Contender section.

[GhostHawk]

My handi rifle in .35 7mag started out with a steady diet of 200 gr cast lead over 4.6 grains of Red Dot.

It does very very well in the accuracy department. The only reason I load anything else is that a 125 gr cast mold uses a lot less lead.

[Jedman]

Most factory chambered handi rifles in 357 have a very generous chamber that many people have found will chamber the 360 Dan Wesson cartridge. 200 gr. Cast should be able to be loaded out way longer to a OAL at least .200 longer than sammi specs for the 357 magnum. Twist rate I believe is 1-16 and that will surely handle a boolit that length. It should shoot well !

Jedman

[cwlongshot]

More in a Maxi H&R then Mag. But ABSOLUTELY!!
Many had a very slow twist so might not prove stabile. But wont be a harm. Might be a lot of fun!!

In a 1:16 I can shoot Saeco 245's all day long 100% stabile. But 270g are not quite stabile.

I have a NOE 360-232 mold thats been awesome!! Plain base jt shoots GREAT from my Savage Maxi and real well from my H&R maxi.

I shoot 220g MP hp's regularly from my Legends & Maxi's. Its been a good one!

CW

[gpidaho]

Koger: Yes, I've done exactly that with the 200gr. bullet you mentioned. In my Handi 4gr. or 4.5gr. Unique worked well. Gp

[koger]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

[hornady308]

I have a typical Handi in 357 with a long chamber. One of my hunting loads uses a Lee 200gr (RCBS clone) over 16.5gr Lil Gun with a col=1.873. I would love to do some more experimenting, but the shortage of primers is ruining my fun. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to use this load on whitetails at a reasonable distance.

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