So I have a .357Mag revolver with a 3” barrel, hardwood grip, weighing 25 oz. The barrel is not high on the grip, so recoil is straight into my hand with very little muzzle flip. Sights are set for .357Mag ammo and I like that. I have three bullet molds I can use: NOE 369-160-WFN, NOE 358-124-TC, Lyman 358439 (my cylinder is longer enough to use the crimp groove, which I prefer).
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My main load is NOE 360-160-WFN over 13.6 grains of Enforcer. This will not be fun to shoot when it gets to be 30 degrees outside, so I’m looking for a softer load.
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I tried somewhere around 10.5 grains of Accurate #7 under the 158 grain bullet - that hit hard, and even deformed my primers more than usual. I went as low as 7.3 grains of True Blue under the 158 grain bullet, and that had a very sharp recoil making it just as painful as the full Enforcer load. True Blue under the 124 grain bullet wasn’t different, but was much louder (which I like). Last, I tried 7.5 and 7.0 grains of Unique under the 124 grain bullet - that was comfortable.
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The bad thing about these lighter True Blue and Unique loads is that they shoot very low, so come winter I plan to work the Unique load up as high as I can withstand in freezing temperatures. The other problem with Unique is that it mixed with my Felix lube to produce mud around my cylinder, although other powders were in that mud.
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I will describe Unique and Enforcer as having light-for-velocity recoil. I will describe True Blue and A#7 as having heavy-for-velocity recoil.
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Are there any other powders that have soft-for-velocity recoil, that don’t produce so much soot?