357magnum hunting/hot load

[bowfishn]

My GP100 likes 190 gr FNGC (or 180 gr HPGC) Boolits with 16 grains H110 loaded at 1.600" COAL.
Shot 100s out of both my 6" and 4.5"
Cases fall out of Cylinder
Next lot of H110 I will have to start down a couple grains and work up again, it is what you have to do when running top end loads.

[rintinglen]

I got this from another site:

It should be helpful (the Hodgdon response in Yellow) to those using 296/110:

https://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi?em=agnews1802

With all due respect to that author, Virtually every Magnum Revolver H110/296 Load listed in Hodgdon's manual is reduced 4-12%. Most seem to have a spread of ~10%, high to low.

[megasupermagnum]

With all due respect to that author, Virtually every Magnum Revolver H110/296 Load listed in Hodgdon's manual is reduced 4-12%. Most seem to have a spread of ~10%, high to low.

What is said in that quote is not incorrect, but clearly H110 is not that bad to work with. There is published data out there with starting loads more than 20% less than max. There's no mystery, there's no secret effect of H110. It's a very slow ball powder, and if you go to low it simply wont burn. It has a relatively narrow operating window compared to a lot of other handgun powders, but it's still a smokeless propellent, nothing magical about it. None of this is directed at you or anyone, but this foolishness needs to stop. The great thing about H110 is that you really can't overload it... in cartridges it is meant for. These are of course 30 carbine, and all similar cartridges, mostly being the magnum handguns. That's the only thing that makes H110 unique, not that it is a max or nothing powder, it's that it only get in that range of pressure in a narrow range of cartridges.

[Jtarm]

My experience: in the 80s I bought the Lyman #46 manual, which advised max-only for 296.

I tried a recipe in .357 using exactly the same components listed in the manual.

The damn thing sounded like a high-powered rifle. Primers weren’t just flat, they looked like a puckered you-know-what. Extraction was OK.

I haven’t loaded magnum pistol rounds with 296 or H110 since the 90s, but after that experience, I always worked up.

[missionary5155]

We must always remember no two revolvers are exactly alike. Even our Dan Wessons with a barrel change maintaining the same barrel gap are different revolvers. Barrel diameter and smoothness all come into play.
So always work up with any powder. Just because a book says the listed max load is OK.... does not mean I will trust my future to it.

[black mamba]

Heavy for caliber bullets and substantial crimps greatly reduce the dangers of lighter than "3-5% reduced" loads. And since you need longer barrels for such a slow powder to give you any real benefit, it makes sense to use H110/296 only for the most powerful loads with the heavier bullets. Several powders in the burn rate of HS-6 to Accurate #7 will give 1350-1400 fps with 158 gr bullets in 5-6 inch barrels and can be worked up from as low as you wish. A hundred fps more or less in a handgun cartridge are virtually meaningless.

[Fishman]

Lee makes or at least made a 166 gr .358 mold. My load has been 14.5 gr H110 with a magnum primer. Somebody who owns the Lee manual might check to see if there is any data there.