Accurate 38/357 loads ?

[rhill]

nice shooting, fellow ARPC member!

[Rodfac]

Using Starline .357 brass, with Lyman's 358156 GC bullet, cast from ACWW + 1% tin, sized to 0.358" with an annealed Hornady GC; 5.5 grains of current production Bullseye gives me 996 fps from my 1980 vintage Smith M-66. This is a sub-2" grouping load at 25 yds from a rested position. It's equally good in a 1985 vintage S&W M-19 and a M-686 of the same year group. All three are 4" bbl'd guns.

Notes: Starline .357 Magnum brass and Winchester Sm Pistol primers used with all loads. With 6.2 gr of WSF, or 6.9 gr of Herco, I've chrono'd right at 1000 fps from my 4" K frame Smiths. Without the GC, 6.0 gr of Unique gave me 1034 fps and ES of 27 fps...this Unique load gave me my best accuracy of 1-1/2" @ 25 yds, BTW, and with no leading whatsoever.

The annealed gas checks seems to give better accuracy than ones that haven't been annealed. I anneal by placing a handful of GC's in a stainless steel bowl and heat them cherry red with a Berns-O-Matic torch.

I use as little crimping as possible; only enough to prevent bullet jump in recoil. At this level, a taper crimp works well and gives a bit better accuracy.

Reducing the powder charge to 5.3 - 5.3 gr. of Bullseye will give you 4" bbl. velocities that duplicate the old 'FBI' load of ~950 fps with a HP LSWC.

HTH's Rod

[357Mag]

Hylander -

Howdy !

You did not specifically say you were averse to buying another powder. If that's the case, then ( if you can obtain some )
8.0gr SR4756 under a 158SWC is a great .357Mag; load that Skeeter Skelton told us about some decades back.

It is a tad smokey, but has always been accurate for me ( 4", 5"; and 6" "N"-frames ).

For an entry-level .357Mag load using another powder other than you mentioned: my go-to load for decades has been
14.5gr WW296 and SP Mag primer under a Lyman SWC of 158 - 172gr. This was the minimum charge of WW296 Winchester
( Olin ) listed in their reloading handout pamphlet.... for 158SWC's in the .357Magnum. This load worked well not only in the handguns mentioned above, but also in Marlin 1894SC.


With regards,
357Mag

[Kosh75287]

8.0gr SR4756 under a 158SWC is a great .357Mag; load that Skeeter Skelton told us about some decades back.

If memory serves, production of SR4756 has been discontinued. Sad.

MY "go to" .357 Magnum load is 7.2/Unique/158 gr. LSWC or LRNFP. The same bullets over 8.0/Herco make for a good "all around" .357 load, also.