What magnum powder besides 2400 for 4” - 5” barreled 357’s?

[Hi-Speed]

Some questions I hope you can help me with:

What other powders do you recommend besides 2400 (only magnum powder I’ve ever used in handguns over last 45 years) for use in shorter 357 Magnum revolvers as the Ruger BH 4 5/8”?

I would think that H110/WW296 would be more appropriate with longer barrels 6 inches and up for better and complete powder burn? Does anyone have experience with H110/WW296 powder n shorter barreled 357 Magnums say 4 to 5 inches?

Are there any other magnum powders you would recommend to duplicate a 1,250 fps load in this shorter barrel length besides 2400?

[Winger Ed.]

I'm a big Blue Dot fan for a 6" and also Marlins.

[AlaskaMike]

Absolutely for H110/296. A lot of folks get caught up about barrel lengths vs burn rate. You'll still get better velocities with H110/296 vs 2400 in a 4" barrel, you'll just also have more muzzle blast.

I'm still working my way through my 8 lb jug of 296 with my .357 mag loads with a 4"model 28, 16.5 grains at a time with my RCBS 38-150-k bullets.

While I love 2400 for this role, 296 works every bit as well, and even has a nice peppery smell to it.

I didn't really like Blue Dot for loads like this. It doesn't meter nearly as well, and it burns dirty enough that my forearms had as much powder residue as the revolver barrel.

You might also look at Accurate #9, and also the Shooters World equivalent.

[fastdadio]

Depends on what your goals are. Plinking, full house barn burners, or both, as the mood of the day dictates.
I vote for TightGroup, H4227, 296, or Longshot. I've loaded with all of these and they do well. Plug your load into the Hodgdon data site and see what happens. All except 296, are very versatile powders across the bench. Act fast, because right now, all except H4227 are in stock at Hodgdon.

[Sasquatch-1]

I have not loaded .357 but when I couldn't get 2400 a while back, I switched to 110 and 296 for .44 mag. I now use Titegroup for full mag loads. The plus side is I am using 9 grns. of powder as opposed to 22 grns. of 296/110. So I get twice as many rounds per pound of powder. The down side is Titegroup burns very hot.

Here is load data from Hodgdon's web site for a 124 grs. cast lead flat point:

BULLET WEIGHT
125 GR. CAST LRNFP
CASE WINCHESTER
PRIMER WINCHESTER SPM

Manufacturer Hodgdon
Powder Titegroup
Bullet Diam. 0.358"
C.O.L 1.580"
Starting Load Grs. 4.0 Grs.
Vel. (ft/s) 1,055
Pressure 13,800 CUP
Maximum Loads 5.4 Grs.
Vel. (ft/s) 1,274
Pressure 22,800 CUP

Hope this helps.

[Nobade]

#9 fan here. Able to equal velocities of H110 but with less muzzle blast and slightly less powder used. Blue Dot is darn good too.

[Kosh75287]

Alliant Unique, BE-86, or Herco, if you can find them. AA#5 also works well, and may be a shade more available.

[derek45]

Absolutely for H110/296. ....

this

[Larry Gibson]

I'm a big Blue Dot fan for a 6" and also Marlins.

Me too. Also works fine giving magnum level velocities under 158 gr cast in my 2 1/2" M19 S&W. Blue Dot load data in CBH #3.

[lawdog941]

Enforcer, HS6, CFE Pistol. Depends what you're shooting, didn't mention weight of bullet.

[centershot]

Blue Dot! It will do anything 2400 will do in a .357 Magnum and will save you 2-3 grains per charge.

[357Mag]

Some questions I hope you can help me with:

What other powders do you recommend besides 2400 (only magnum powder I’ve ever used in handguns over last 45 years) for use in shorter 357 Magnum revolvers as the Ruger BH 4 5/8”?

I would think that H110/WW296 would be more appropriate with longer barrels 6 inches and up for better and complete powder burn? Does anyone have experience with H110/WW296 powder n shorter barreled 357 Magnums say 4 to 5 inches?

Are there any other magnum powders you would recommend to duplicate a 1,250 fps load in this shorter barrel length besides 2400?


Hispeed -

Howdy !

I've been shooting WW296 pretty much exclusively in S & W "N"-frames of 4", 5", and 6".

I have been shooting 158SWC's predominently, and they don't necessarily have to be GC'd.

The charge I have settled on is 14.5gr WW296 and SP Mag primer, under Lyman .357" cal SWC's of 158-172gr.
This was the lightest charge that Winchester ( Olin ) used to list in their free handout reloading pamplets.

This is a bona fide' magnum load, which shoots great from my current custom 4" heavy-barrelled M-520.
It also shot superbly from my M1894SC .357Mag, bullets sailing completely through a steel plate @ 4' from the muzzle; when I did an inpromptu run through a pistol course..... and all I had with me happened to be the carbine.

Also was going to use the load shot from my custom M-520 for local " practical " handgun matches at a local club in NE Indiana. I had to first shoot " sponsored " in 3 preliminary matches, before being " accepted into the club officially.
They used a pendulum-style " power meter " to determine who qualified as " major calibre ", and who was ( in their minds ) shooting " minor calibre ". Thing was....they adjudged me minor calibre for the first 3 get-to-know-you matches,
and shooters could not ask for the power meter to be brought out to validate loads until they were accepted members.

I put in my first 3 preliminary shoots, and was accepted. Upon the very 1st shoot after becoming a " member ", I called for the power meter to be brought out, and when you did that.......all shooters had to do a sample shot on the meter to be assigned major / minor power category; before the official match began. At the time, the club had been populated by shooters using customized 1911 .45ACP's, and they were ardent followers of one Clint Smith. I was the sole exception.

Come to find out, a few shooters had been automatically granted " major calibre " status, as they were shooting .45ACP.
The power meter showed some of their loads as " minor cal " in power, but they hemmed and hawed around; and did not
assign the lower power rating to those ( effectively ) cheaters.

My turn came, and upon my 158SWC hitting the the plate.... the welds broke, and the plate fell off the end of the pendulum ! Poor welds sure, but was humorous ( to me ) to see happen ! The rig had a protractor afixed to a moving needle, which held the highest degree of arc reading the the load produced. My loads degree of arc movement was nearly twice that of the lowest .45ACP loads, and still higher than the reading their legal " ball " loads produced.
They grudgingly assigned me " major calibre ", but they still did continue to use drills that required things like mandatory reloads and such.... which biased success more towards the use of their chosen gun.
I gave them a couple more tries as a member, then excused myself from their most gracious company.

My point: 14.5gr WW296 Mag primer and a 158SWC is a no-kiddin' " Magnum" load.


With regards,
357Mag

[stubshaft]

You cannot go wrong with 296/110 in a 357 Mag!

[Soundguy]

Depends on what your goals are. Plinking, full house barn burners, or both, as the mood of the day dictates.
I vote for TightGroup, H4227, 296, or Longshot. I've loaded with all of these and they do well. Plug your load into the Hodgdon data site and see what happens. All except 296, are very versatile powders across the bench. Act fast, because right now, all except H4227 are in stock at Hodgdon.

Titegroup is my main go to pistol powder.

4227 is fine..but not economical. The blue powders are good too.

[mfraser264]

AA#7 works well too especially in the short barrels...

[Hi-Speed]

Thank you all! You make this old man happy!

[HWooldridge]

My preferences in order: Blue Dot, WW296, 4227.

One thing I like about Blue Dot is the muzzle flash is less conspicuous than the other two and it's a dark orange rather than a bright yellow white. No big deal unless you are trying to shoot something at night and want to have some vision left after the first shot.

[rintinglen]

A very useful, albeit expensive and hard to come by powder is Vihtavouri N-110. In the .357 Magnum, it uses charges virtually identical to 2400 to obtain similar velocities. Except at the very top end with heavy for caliber boolits, you can safely substitute one for the other. 14.5 grains of either under a 158 grain SWC gives a good load.

[Rapier]

My mag carry load with a 4” 66 is H-110 under a 162g RCBS, also works real well in my 6” 5T M-19. I have shot many pounds of #9 as well. It works well in my 94-C Marlin as well, with the RCBS 200g.

[downzero]

H110 and W296 (same thing) are the only magnum powders you ever need. I played with 2400 because it uses standard primers and has plenty of power, but really, if I could only pick one magnum powder, it'd be H110/W296. There is no need for anything else.

[farmbif]

I guess I'm the only one who likes Alliant 300 mp for my highest velocity mag pistol rounds. meters like water and gives great performance and accuracy in guns ive used it in.

[megasupermagnum]

Bluedot is my go to for sure. It's basically fast 2400. I'm not sure why the comments on it being dirty or metering bad. It meters at least as good as 2400, and it actually meters pretty dang good for any flake powder. As for being dirty, if anything it is cleaner than 2400. Out of the remaining "magnum" powders, bluedot is by far the best for loading down with. Generally muzzle flash/blast is less with bluedot than the ball powders like H110.

H110 has been the mainstay magnum powder for good reason. You can't go wrong it it for full power loads. It's almost impossible to overload a 357 magnum with it. It works really well in any barrel length. Accuracy is almost always very good to excellent. The downside is it is a one trick pony. Outside of magnum handguns with full power loads, H110 is basically useless. .410 shotgun is an exception. The myth that H110 has to be loaded no less than 10% of maximum is just that, a myth. That said, H110 does not load down very much before velocities become inconsistent.

I'm not a big fan of IMR 4227. It's kind of cool in 44 magnum giving an oddly soft recoil, but in 357 magnum I just don't like how much speed you are giving up.

Lil' Gun is one I haven't seen mentioned. It's pretty much the same thing as H110. Sometimes Lil'Gun can get more velocity, sometimes not. It's a perfectly viable alternative to 2400 or H110.

300MP is still relatively new to me. I did a bunch of testing with it last year. It is a good powder. It is on the slow side for 357 magnum, but it does seem to allow good velocities at lower pressures than H110. It is marketed as not needing magnum primers. I've tried it both ways, and it seems like H110 to me. Sometimes a standard is better, a lot of times a magnum is better. Metering, cleanliness, and anything else is about the same as the other magnum ball powders. With more and more Hodgdon powder being discontinued at random, I can see myself going more to this 300MP in the future.

Accurate #9 is about between 2400 and Bluedot, except it is a ball powder. It's suitable powder. I see nothing real impressive about it though, and one problem I'm seeing with Accurate powders in general is they can vary in burn rate a ton from lot to lot.

Accurate #11fs is closer to 300MP than anything. I've not tried it due to me not being impressed with AA #5, #7, or #9. One feature of this powder that might be worthwhile is supposedly this powder produces low muzzle flash.

Vhitavouri N110 is an interesting powder if you find it. Technically N105 should be closer to 2400, but I like N110. At first you might think it is just another H110 wannabe, but you will find that it is actually a stick (extruded) powder with fine kernels. It meters fairly well. What I like about N110 is that it truly does perform best with standard primers from what I've seen. It can be downloaded, but not nearly as well as bluedot. Accuracy with this powder can be really good. I don't use it for two reasons. #1 it's expensive (not that it matters much with the state of things today) #2 it's kind of rare, and loading data can be sparse. There's a fair amount of data for 357 magnum though.

One last powder I have no experience with is Ramshot Enforcer.

[AlaskaMike]

I guess I'm the only one who likes Alliant 300 mp for my highest velocity mag pistol rounds. meters like water and gives great performance and accuracy in guns ive used it in.

I haven't tried it in my revolvers yet, but I love 300MP in my carbine loads. My copy of Propellant Profiles has some interesting information that seems to indicate it's basically 296 but with an added flash suppressant. Of course, published data shows that there's more to it than that--it's clearly slower burning than 296.

[MattOrgan]

Alliant 300 MP produces higher velocities that H110, W296, A#9, or 2400 in the .357, .41 Magnum and .480 Ruger loads I’ve tried using cast bullets that are “standard” weight or heavier for caliber. I use 170 grain, 220 grain, and 400 grain bullets respectively. But any of the above powders are excellent for heavy bullet loads in .357. I’ve got soft spot for 2400 after 50+ years of use, but haven’t been able to find any for a while. Luckily the other powders have occasionally been available so I can still shoot.

[justindad]

I’m using Enforcer with the NOE-360-160-WFN. This bullet leaves more space in the case than available load data. I worked up the charge to get to a point where nearly all powder was burnt, and available data says I’m not likely to be overpressure. Odd thing is, the felt recoil is softer than using moderate charges of True Blue and Accurate #7.
*
Oddly soft recoiling, slow burning powders is what I am after because I have a 3” K6S with hard wood grips, and it doesn’t weigh much. I am considering IMR4227 and/or a 170 grain wadcutter from Accurate Molds. The grips are so purdy that I’m hoping my hands toughen up before I get something rubber.

[Daekar]

Another vote for Lil'Gun. I would've preferred to use H110 initially, but it wasn't available in my area when I started loading 357. It can be surprisingly effectively, especially in long barrels. In a rifle it's like cheating, the power you can get is just ridiculous.

[gc45]

Another vote for H110 and #9.

[Three44s]

HS 6 is my favorite magnum revolver powder for upper medium field loads.

For full power it’s 2400 and then max full power H110!

Three44s

[Newtire]

Enforcer, HS6, CFE Pistol. Depends what you're shooting, didn't mention weight of bullet.

HS-6 here too.

[Ramjet-SS]

Some questions I hope you can help me with:

What other powders do you recommend besides 2400 (only magnum powder I’ve ever used in handguns over last 45 years) for use in shorter 357 Magnum revolvers as the Ruger BH 4 5/8”?

I would think that H110/WW296 would be more appropriate with longer barrels 6 inches and up for better and complete powder burn? Does anyone have experience with H110/WW296 powder n shorter barreled 357 Magnums say 4 to 5 inches?

Are there any other magnum powders you would recommend to duplicate a 1,250 fps load in this shorter barrel length besides 2400?

Little more muzzle flash with 296 and 110 but I use it with 158 grain hard cast in a 2” all the time. Then when run in the rifle it’s absolutely perfect.

[TurnipEaterDown]

I see the replies above cover the original question well.
Worth adding is: WC820 is most often similar to AA#9 and is flash suppressed.
Accurate #11FS is flash suppressed, and I believe that is what the "FS" is for.
I also remember an article recently (last year or two) where a powder distributor (believe it was Western rep) was quoted as stating that 300MP, W296, H110, 11FS were all actually within the same specification. i.e. They are 'the same' for pressure curves for a given loading condition within allowable lot-lot variation.

[scottyp99]

I'm a big fan of HS-6 for medium to "approaching full power" loads in .357 Magnum with lead 158 grain boolits. My favorite handload for .357 Magnum is 8.5 grains of HS-6 under a 158 grain LSWC. I get about 1150 fps out of my 4.2" Ruger GP100, which figures out to 464 foot pounds of energy.....not full blast by any means, but still, not too shabby either. And 8.5 grains is pretty close to the starting load for this powder and boolit, I'm sure you could easily push it up past 1200 fps with no problems.

Scotty

[Newtire]

I'm a big fan of HS-6 for medium to "approaching full power" loads in .357 Magnum with lead 158 grain boolits. My favorite handload for .357 Magnum is 8.5 grains of HS-6 under a 158 grain LSWC. I get about 1150 fps out of my 4.2" Ruger GP100, which figures out to 464 foot pounds of energy.....not full blast by any means, but still, not too shabby either. And 8.5 grains is pretty close to the starting load for this powder and boolit, I'm sure you could easily push it up past 1200 fps with no problems.

ScottyI got avg. 1110 fps using 8.0 gr. HS-6/540 and a 160 gr. P/C NOE roundnose in my 6" gp100. I'd be careful about using any more of powders that fast. 6.0 gr. Unique is another great load as is 8.0 gr. Herco in that same gun, using same boolit. These loads are all very accurate but I'm not going any higher in charge wt. I have some other loads using 2400, Win. 296/H110 and a few using lil'gun that give great accuracy as well but this thread is not for those powders. I use Small rifle primers and seat to the crimp groove. Am using a taper-crimp if that makes any difference. These loads do great in the .357 Rossi rifle (24") that I just picked up as well. Not much recoil in the Rossi rifle. HS-6 is some pretty good stuff as far as I'm concerned. Our local Bi-Mart just got some in at around $31.00 a 1 pound can. Don't hear much about Herco anymore but it really does the trick if you have any lying around.

[mcgrathjosh30]

Bluedot is my go to for sure. It's basically fast 2400. I'm not sure why the comments on it being dirty or metering bad. It meters at least as good as 2400, and it actually meters pretty dang good for any flake powder. As for being dirty, if anything it is cleaner than 2400. Out of the remaining "magnum" powders, bluedot is by far the best for loading down with. Generally muzzle flash/blast is less with bluedot than the ball powders like H110.

H110 has been the mainstay magnum powder for good reason. You can't go wrong it it for full power loads. It's almost impossible to overload a 357 magnum with it. It works really well in any barrel length. Accuracy is almost always very good to excellent. The downside is it is a one trick pony. Outside of magnum handguns with full power loads, H110 is basically useless. .410 shotgun is an exception. The myth that H110 has to be loaded no less than 10% of maximum is just that, a myth. That said, H110 does not load down very much before velocities become inconsistent.

I'm not a big fan of IMR 4227. It's kind of cool in 44 magnum giving an oddly soft recoil, but in 357 magnum I just don't like how much speed you are giving up.

Lil' Gun is one I haven't seen mentioned. It's pretty much the same thing as H110. Sometimes Lil'Gun can get more velocity, sometimes not. It's a perfectly viable alternative to 2400 or H110.

300MP is still relatively new to me. I did a bunch of testing with it last year. It is a good powder. It is on the slow side for 357 magnum, but it does seem to allow good velocities at lower pressures than H110. It is marketed as not needing magnum primers. I've tried it both ways, and it seems like H110 to me. Sometimes a standard is better, a lot of times a magnum is better. Metering, cleanliness, and anything else is about the same as the other magnum ball powders. With more and more Hodgdon powder being discontinued at random, I can see myself going more to this 300MP in the future.

Accurate #9 is about between 2400 and Bluedot, except it is a ball powder. It's suitable powder. I see nothing real impressive about it though, and one problem I'm seeing with Accurate powders in general is they can vary in burn rate a ton from lot to lot.

Accurate #11fs is closer to 300MP than anything. I've not tried it due to me not being impressed with AA #5, #7, or #9. One feature of this powder that might be worthwhile is supposedly this powder produces low muzzle flash.

Vhitavouri N110 is an interesting powder if you find it. Technically N105 should be closer to 2400, but I like N110. At first you might think it is just another H110 wannabe, but you will find that it is actually a stick (extruded) powder with fine kernels. It meters fairly well. What I like about N110 is that it truly does perform best with standard primers from what I've seen. It can be downloaded, but not nearly as well as bluedot. Accuracy with this powder can be really good. I don't use it for two reasons. #1 it's expensive (not that it matters much with the state of things today) #2 it's kind of rare, and loading data can be sparse. There's a fair amount of data for 357 magnum though.

One last powder I have no experience with is Ramshot Enforcer.

I agree with everything except that h110 is only good for magnum handguns. I live in a straight wall state, and have had good results with h110 in 450 bushmaster as well.