195 gr Boolits in .357 Mag.

[Johnw...ski]

I have a S&W 8-3/8" Mod. 27 .357 Mag. revolver. Anyone have any experience shooting the 195 gr. RN boolits out of one? I will only be shooting at 50 yds. and am looking for accuracy mostly.

Thanks,

Johnw...ski

[9.3X62AL]

If by "195 grain RN boolit" you mean Lyman #358430......that has been one VERY accurate boolit in both 38 Special and 357 Magnum for me, in a number of revolvers. The W-W "book" load of 12.4 grains of WW-296 and magnum SP primers has been my favorite 357 loading for a long time. This runs ~33K PSI, so is safe in most modern 357 revolvers--and certainly in your M-27. With that barrel length, you should run close to 1200 FPS. My 4" 686 gets 1050-1075 FPS, and the 7.5" Bishawk goes 1125-1150 FPS.

[Doc Highwall]

Just make sure of your OAL because the Model 27 and 28 have short cylinders. The 19 and 66 have longer cylinders, not sure about the 686.

[9.3X62AL]

My loads fit in a pre-27 S&W, the mould design has a slight full-caliber shoulder ahead of its dome-like RN, and seated to crimp over that shoulder it fits the short N-frame cylinder just fine, and doesn't compress 12.4 grains of 296.

When I load this boolit in the 38 Special, I crimp into the top (of 3) lube groove.

[Doc Highwall]

9.3X62AL, what made me bring it up about the OAL is years ago I use to help run the silhouette matches with other range officers and I use to shoot a Dan Wesson with the Lyman 358429 and it would not fie in the Colt Pythons and the S&W 27-28's. That is when I learned that the Model 19 was originally chambered for a 38cal with a 200 gr bullet that was longer then the 357 mag that first came out in the Model 27 with a shorter cylinder. The 66 is the same gun made of stainless steel. I just want to make sure John checks his OAL when he is setting up the seater die before he crimps.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
+1 on those Dan Wessons and the long cylinders. I am very fond of seating boolits to the first grease groove and filling the case with more powder.

[Ole]

Seat your bullets and crimp (heavy) in a separate step.

I had some 190 grain RD bullets creep out of the front of my 4" GP100 last weekend. They jumped the crimp because I guess I didn't crimp them hard enough.

[9.3X62AL]

Good point, Doc. The N-frame 357s have shorter cylinders than the K-frames or the L-frames, which seems counter-intuitive considering the strength of the N-frames. Another S&W quirk we must live with. With the L-frame 586/686 series, S&W finally got their ducks in a row.