LBT design WFN questions

[00buck]

I have been looking every night this week online and in my reloading books and I haven't found a load I'm comfortable with.

I have 50 .357mag cast boolits that are gas checked and weigh 178.5 grs.with the checks.

They are .719 long and .359 dia.

I'll be shooting them out of my Marlin 1894C

I have H110, Lilgun, 2400, Trail Boss, Holy Black and a few others

I need more manuals

Are there any recommendations as to where I might look further?

Thanks Pards

[Outpost75]

What is your intended purpose for the load?

For a general-purpose .357 Mag. RIFLE load a CASE FULL of 4198, either IMR or Hodgdon, or Alliant RL7, compressed about 1/8" to provide base support for the bullet, exactly the same as if you were loading black powder, will give an accurate and uniform load of about 1450 fps from your 1894C with 180-190-grain bullet. You cannot get enough of these powders into the case to get into any trouble. You cannot overload, but you have an accurate full-charge load which is effective on game.

Dirty little secret...

I load my .44 Magnum, .44-40 and .45 Colt lever-action rifles exactly the same way using a bullet which is somewhat heavy for the caliber. Works great.

[00buck]

I would like to load them to suitable deer hunting loads..
I do have a new pound bottle of 4198
Thanks for the response

[JSH]

I would make sure that your Marlin will cycle them first.
I shoot a couple of custom molds and an LBT 180gc WFN, I use H110/296 and lilgun.

[00buck]

I did see loads for 180gr Nosler Partition jacketed bullets using H110 and Lilgun.
Can I use this same data for these cast gas checked boolits?
I know these powders can't be down loaded..so I'm not sure about a starting load. As far as substituting jacketed data to cast lead.

[RJM52]

Don't know about Lilgun but with H110 I have a simple formula that has worked on .357/.41/.44 Magnum... Fill the case so that the base of the bullet just sits on top of the powder... Trick is that with the same caliber bullet two bullets of equal weight may have different powder weights depending on the distance from the base to the crimping groove...

When loading a .41 Magnum, the Cast Performance 250 WFN takes a max of 20.0 grains...yet their 255 WFN will take 22.0 as there is less bullet shank below the crimping groove.

I use a dowel a little smaller than the case to use as a gauge to figure out how much powder will go into a certain case with a certain bullet...

Bob

[sghart3578]

For my Marlin 1894CS I load a NOE 180 WFN GC with 12 gr of 2400 or 12.5 gr of A #9. This bullet is similar to yours.

Very accurate.

[FullTang]

00buck---have you checked the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook? They list plenty of loads for the Saeco #354 WFN-GC 180 gr boolit, which sounds pretty close to what you've got. 11.1-12.3 gr of 2400 or 12.7-14.0 gr of H110 should get you a useful hunting load (1399-1628 fps, depending on how high you want to go.) These starting loads should be well below max pressure, if you're at all concerned about not having exactly the same boolit.

[00buck]

Thank you for all the good information
I appreciate it
I feel a lot more comfortable about trying some different loads now

[Outpost75]

I would like to load them to suitable deer hunting loads..
I do have a new pound bottle of 4198
Thanks for the response

While not to maximum potential rife velocity, a WFN bullet of 10-12BHN performs very well on game at this level if you keep the range within 50 yards or so.

[00buck]

I picked up a Lyman Reloading Handbook 49th Edition today..nice!

[Djones]

LilGun is my favorite. Two whitetail does (about 50 yards) and one coyote (175 yards) have fallen to this combo below.



David Jones

[robg]

165.gr GC boolits with 13.5gr 2400 =1530 fps in my win trapper 194grgc boolit 11.5 gr 2400= 1250 fps . but these loads are too long to cycle through marlins ,if you seat boolits boolits deeper drop loads and work up, these are not max but the most accurate in my trapper.