Favorite .357 lever gun load?

[Jim22]

Size your cast bullets to .360" let the magic happen.Steve in N CA

Will do, Steve. I just cast up some Lee 158 gr plain base boolits and powder coated them without sizing. They are close to .360". Gotta try 'em. I also have a Ruger 77/357 I want to shoot. Any tips for it?

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

Will do, Steve. I just cast up some Lee 158 gr plain base boolits and powder coated them without sizing. They are close to .360". Gotta try 'em. I also have a Ruger 77/357 I want to shoot. Any tips for it?

Only tip that I can think of with that 77/357 is to keep your OAL down so that it feeds through the magazine. That is the big limitation of that little fun toy.....and the reason I never got one. My loads wouldn't fit as loaded, and they work through all my 357 guns.....

[Rifletom]

11.5gr A2400 under a Missouri RNFP coater, std primer. Wonderful load in my Henry.
Another is 6.0gr Universal under Missouri 158 RNFP coated. But, that 180 load is pure magic!

[farmbif]

I think .360 is the only size die I ever used for anything ive ever loaded in 357 mag and they chamber in both my old Rossi 92 and the ruger six shooter.

[hornady308]

I have an M92 with a 24" oct. barrel. It loves most anything sized to .359". My plinking load is any 150-160 cast bullet with 5.5 grains of Unique and a standard primer. My hunting load is (1) the NOE 359-190-HP in a 38 Spl case, crimped in the bottom groove, over 15.5-16.0 gr of Lil Gun and a magnum primer, and (2) the Lee 358-158-RF or Lyman 358156, WCWW, over 14.0 gr 2400 with a standard primer in 357 brass. These targets were fired with open sights/old eyes or a small red dot.

[oley55]

The load data contained below may or may not exceed published load data and has not been verified to be safe. Accordingly prudent and careful load workup procedures must applied.


My Rossi R92 with; case hardened receiver, 24" hex barrel, Marples #65 Tang and Lyman #17 says: "it doesn't know or understand why it would want or need a plinking load!"

So my normal/preferred load is a .359" BTB 185gr (187gr actual) FNGC over 15.3gr of H110 in many, many times fired Federal cases, coal 1.56". Best ever day with perfect star alignment got me a 1 3/16" group. Relooking at my records I am always in the 1.5"-1.75" realm. Again my records also show 2" or less for any load/s falling within 14.5-15.3gr of H110. Note: my groups are always 5 shot groups.

Now that I am finally casting my own, I gotta get my hands on a mold to duplicate those BTB bullets. Pretty sure they came out of an LBT mold or something very close.

I will add and can not explain why, I had horrible keyholing with IMR4227 (13.0-14.2gr). Two trips and got the same twice and have never bothered to figure out why. I expected much better from IMR4227 in that 24" barrel.

That R92 is by far my most favortist and fun rifle to shoot. Also there is something just too cool about squeezing off a round and then a 1/2 second later hearing the sound of that WFN bullet smacking that paper target 100 yards away. Just brings a grin to my face, both then and now.

[P Flados]

My son recently got a 20" steel Henry.

I happened on the "plinker" without any real effort. I load a "low recoil" 38 for the wife to shoot in an LCRx. That load, 2.5 gr Titegroup under a Lee 105 RN (the drop at 110) shoots very good. It feels more like a 22 than anything else with that load.

For a stout load, I played around with stuff I had and found that it liked my custom 180 from a mold I made for my 357AR Max. I did initial load development in 38 cases, and switched to 357 case trimmed to 38 length once I found that the gun liked the bullet.

This gun has bad vertical string when not at a node at either the top of the bottom of the POI range that is about 3" tall at 25 yards. I ended up with a load of SW Heavy Pistol powder good for a Quickload calculated 1500 fps at 35,000 psi. This puts the POI at the bottom of the POI range and provides decent groups.

[NEKVT]

For a heavy bullet cast load my 1894C likes the RCBS 35-200-FN at .359 with 12.8 H110 lightly crimped over ogive to the std 1.59 OAL. Chrono'd 1470fps for 18.5". Same load w/o GC shot almost as well. Want to see what it will do with 4227.

Hornady 180 XTP over 14.0 H110 got nice round 5 shot groups just under an inch at 50yds with 2x scout set up. Haven't chrono'd this one yet.

Good light load is RCBS 148gr WC with 3.0 of just about any fast pistol powder.

[alfadan]

6.0gr unique under a RCBS 158swcgc. Or 12gr AA9 but the Unique load is easier on the ears and a is a laser beam.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

My flattest shooting best hunting round is a 125 JSP over a compressed load of H110. 21.8 grains and a small magnum primer.

Very accurate in my rifles. 2,227fps 1,376 ft/lbs out of an 18" barrel.

I would not recommend this load in any handgun.

Since my sights are a pain to adjust on my Rossi I don't really have a cast plinking load. They all have a very different POI.

[Rrusse111]

My walk around load; 9.5 gr of Blue Dot with the Lee RF 158gr boolit; Marlin 24"CB. Circa 1450fps and deadly accurate.

[Terminatorret]

My current favorite is SUBSONIC 180gr .358 cast over 6.5gr Blue Dot producing about 1090fps from a Ruger 77/357.

[robertbank]

My favourite load I got from reading Ron Flexall' writings. 14.5gr of IMR 4227 under the 359429 in 357 brass was accurate in my Rossi 92 which has since been sold to buy a Remlon 1894 in .357mag. It too shoots lights out with the same load. My Remlin seems to work best with heavy bullets run fast, I out a 1.5x5X scope on my gun to help my old eyes out. The gun is inside of 1" at 25 yards and holds that grouping to 50 yards. I am not much of a shot with a rifle but enjoy the lever guns. I needed a scope to ensure any form of accuracy so I moved over to the Marlin from the Rossi 92, Easier to clean and mount a scope on the Remlin. I do miss my Rossi though it shot really well. 14 gr. of H110 under the 358429 bullet gave me the same results using .357mag brass. Winchester SPMP were used in both loadings.

Take Care

Bob

[PAndy]

I've been shooting a lot of 800x and 180 cast/coated bullets. Mild loads 5.2 to 6.5 gr. At the low end it is down in the 1100 fps ballpark out of 20" barrel