suggestions for .357 bullet

[leas327]

Hello eveyone I am new to the forum and new to casting. I have been gathering up equipment to get started. I would like some reccomendations on a mold or bullet for a .357 magnum. I plan on using this for bowling pin shoots in a Smith and Wesson 627. For those who don't know in pin shoots you have to knock 5 bowling pins off a 4'X4' table at 25 feet. I have been using my 1911 for this and a 200gr. rnfp .45 round can take a pin off clean. The guys that use .357 say that the 140gr. hp and 158gr. swc don't have enough power/bullet weight to get the job done. They have say to use 180 jacketed hollow points that are loaded pretty stout. Since I don't plan on using jacketed bullets can anyone suggest a bullet/mold that will help me out. BTW this site is great and I have learned a great deal from reading the stickies and just general lurking.

[Rex]

I have never shot pins but a friend who does casts a RCBS 180 Gas Check bullet for that use. I have no idea what powder he uses.
Rex

[SethD]

There is a 200 gr semi wadcutter in the group buy section that would be good for what you want to do. Down side is it probably will not be in our hands for six or seven months at least. If you want a production mold lymans 200 gr round nose, #358430, would probably work too as will numerous 180 gr molds.

[Bass Ackward]

You have an OAL that is going to require you to seat very deeply or exclude some designs altogether. Why not design what you need?


http://mountainmolds.com/

[Shiloh]

Lyman 358665 158 gr FN and 358429 170 Keith Style SWC work fine.

Shiloh

[GabbyM]

Lyman #358430. it's a 195 grain 1R round nose. Can load some 2400 under it. 11.0 grains is max listed at 1018fps from 5” barrel in an old Lyman book. Lyman quit listing the bullet in their new books relegating it to the 35 REM rifle. I don't know if that bullet fits in a model 627 with a mag case.

I have that bullet if you'd like to try some.

Also have the Magma 230 grain bowling pin bullet. It's a big wad cutter that has a cylinder nose protruding out of the case. Not a fast reload proposition. Big boy is .875" long with .325"L .350" diameter nose.

[GP100man]

How `bout this 1http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx110/GP100man/th_102_0195.jpg



A Lyman 357446 dresses out to 165gr swc??

[Harter66]

I tinkered a bit once with some 4x4 posts and a 357. The 158grn swc's passed through and left posts standing while some little bitty 85 and 95 grn hp's knocked them over every time. I'm thinking soft wad cutters. That said myLEE 158rn fp drops at about 162 and has a nose flat of .300 . A cowboy bullet of sorts.

[JIMinPHX]

It's been a long time since I did anything with pin shoots. As I recall, the most important thing was to hit the pin 1.5" - 2" below the red stripes on the neck. If you hit too high, too low, or off center, then the pin would fall over or spin, but not get knocked off the table.

The most effective bullet that I saw for that competition was one that had a rotary saw tooth cut into the nose. It was a real mean looking little slug that could actually bite into the tough shell on a pin a grab it good. I have not seen any of those slugs in over 15 years now.

If you want to use cast for that, I would think that something with a large meplat would be the thing. I'm thinking that the Ranch Dog 360-190 might be a good choice. That mold might be a little hard to find though. A Lee 358-158RF might be an option & it should be easily available. If you wanted to get fancy, you could pull catshooter's little trick about adding a plate on top of the mold to stretch the boolit out a little longer & add a gas check shank. That would probably add a few extra grains of weight to it too.

I think that a soft alloy would transfer energy better. The hard ones tend to shatter too easily.

Seriously though, accuracy is the key to that game, not just a few extra grains of boolit weight.

[epj]

You definately should steer clear of round nose designs. I think the Lee 158 RNFP would work pretty well. I shoot it in my 627 with good results.

[HeavyMetal]

When I shot pins, a long time ago, I found that the smaller calibers had a tendency to split the pins.

The 9mm was famous for it. I think the 357429 would be to long for the gun but maybe not.

I think Lee's 158 round flat "cowboy" boolit would be the ticket here. The real hot tip wuld be to experiment with velocity with some spare pins. I think a solid hit in the 1100 to 1200 fps range might get you what you want faster and you have splintering issues.

I always felt the 180 to 200 grain 357 boolits were to slow and their success with pins kinda compliments my idea on velocity.

Any way that's where I'd start.

[LeadThrower]

Here's my pins boolit, designed at Mountainmolds.com. It's a 215 grain truncated cone, loaded over 10 grains of A9 in Starline 357 mag cases using CCI 550 primers and launched from my ruger gp100. The pins have no idea what hit them!

I designed it to feed flawlessly in my Marlin 1894c, and it does.

[fredj338]

Yeah, momentum rules in pin matches. I have only shot 45s but I would think a 170gr-180gSWC or FP running 1250fps or so would clear a pin off the table. It would offer more momentum than a 200gr 45acp @ 950fps. A 180grLFP would likely fit your S&W cyl. a bit better than a LSWC.

[Shiloh]

My best efforts where with a 1911 using a .45 200 gr SWC. For revolver, with the 38/357 boolits mentioned above or a S&W 625 .45 Auto Rim.

Shiloh

[Little Jim]

I have not shot pins for over 20 years, but when I did it was with 158gr swc gas check point. I still use this mold from RCBS today. I run them hot with 2400 and they did a fine job. If you hit it, it went off the table. IT's a good little mold and I have problrey 15,000 out of it and as good today as when I bought it. It also dose a nice job on deer at 30 yards. Lyman also puts out a 155gr swc gas checked but have not tried it. hope this helped. LITTLE JIM:

[Little Jim]

I have not shot pins for over 20 years, but when I did it was with 158gr swc gas check point. I still use this mold from RCBS today. I run them hot with 2400 and they did a fine job. If you hit it, it went off the table. IT's a good little mold and I have problrey 15,000 out of it and as good today as when I bought it. It also dose a nice job on deer at 30 yards. Lyman also puts out a 155gr swc gas checked but have not tried it. hope this helped. LITTLE JIM:

[leas327]

I was telling a friend I work with that I was getting into casting and he brought in an old Lee 166gr swc mold for me to use. I am going to try it first since it won't cost me anything but my time. I also saw an N.O.E. mold that was 180gr. GC with a pretty large metplat that looked interesting. Thanks for all the opinions, you guys gave me plenty of things to think about. Like I said in my previous post this site is full of knowledgable and helpful people.

[1Shirt]

If you can get your hands on one of the 35 cal Ranch Dog molds, think you would have a real winner. Mine runs close to 190.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[Beerd]

If you can get your hands on one of the 35 cal Ranch Dog molds, think you would have a real winner. Mine runs close to 190.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

shameless plug : http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=73902

[leas327]

Beerd that mold looks pretty interesting but I don't think it will work using .357 brass. The current swc I have loaded up measures .310 from the crimp groove to the tip af the bullet and there is only .045 from the tip of the bullet to the face of the cylinder. I could probably load it in .38 brass to get more clearance but I am not sure if I will have enough powder capacity to get enough velocity.

[Percival]

Had a chance to stop at Clelands in Toledo for the first time this weekend and saw a bullet that really intrigued me in their cast bullet section. Magma Engineering has a 230 gr full wadcutter in .358 dia that they label as a bowling pin bullet. 55A is the mold number I believe. If you're looking for a super duper heavy bullet, I've never seen anything like it. I don't see it working with mag brass though. They are long, as is evidenced by comparing it to the other bullets next to it on their spreadsheet.

http://magmaengineering.com/PDF/BBOct132008b.pdf

Incidentally, if anyone has this mold, I'm interested in procuring a few to play with.

[leas327]

Percival, that thing looks like the way to stuff the most amount of lead into a .357. I would like to get a couple to see if I could make it work before I bought a mold. It would probably start to tumble after any amount of distance but I only need it to go 25 feet so I bet it works great for that.

[Bass Ackward]

Look at these. Scroll down to the Thunderheads if you want to try some first.

http://www.pennbullets.com/38/38-caliber.html

[GabbyM]

Had a chance to stop at Clelands in Toledo for the first time this weekend and saw a bullet that really intrigued me in their cast bullet section. Magma Engineering has a 230 gr full wadcutter in .358 dia that they label as a bowling pin bullet. 55A is the mold number I believe. If you're looking for a super duper heavy bullet, I've never seen anything like it. I don't see it working with mag brass though. They are long, as is evidenced by comparing it to the other bullets next to it on their spreadsheet.

http://magmaengineering.com/PDF/BBOct132008b.pdf

Incidentally, if anyone has this mold, I'm interested in procuring a few to play with.

PM sent.
Anyone else interested in trying these 230 or the 195 grain contact me via PM.

[GLL]

Talk to Bruce at BRP ! He produces a modified version of this 358627
(215 grains) and can provide it with or without the Hollow Point or Gas Check.

GREAT MOULDS !

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=58620

Jerry

http://www.fototime.com/764FE0DF38E319D/orig.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/D567983BBE2911D/orig.jpg

[MtGun44]

Wow! :shock:

That is SOME big .357 boolit!

Bill