Loading for a S&W Model 52

[Evil Dog]

Had one back in the late 70's or early 80's... have no idea why I ever let it go. Bought a 1983 vintage last week.... it's currently in mid Kalifornia 10 day Hostage Hold. Back then I was loading a 148gr double ended wadcutter ahead of 2.7gr bullseye. Really a no brainer when it came to flush seating the bullet. My current 148gr wadcutter mold has one of those nose buttons (or whatever it might be called). Makes "flush seating" the bullet a bit more interesting. To have the entire bullet flush with the end of the case requires the bullet to actually be seated below the case mouth.



Looks a bit strange but if that button sticks out front the cartridge won't fit into the magazine.

Does this look about right to those of you that shoot a 52?

[Windy City Kid]

Evil Dog,

A lot of people load the button nose boolits backwards for a S&W 52. When you load them in reverse, load the boolit just bellow flush of the case mouth with a roll crimp.

You might have to size them to .357" diameter to get them to chamber freely.

[C.F.Plinker]

When I was using the button nosed bullets, I seated them to an overall length of 1.185. That left just a bit of the shoulder sticking out of the case mouth while still letting them feed through the magazine. The button on yours looks to be a little bigger than the one on the boolits I hadcast up. Try seating them like Windy City suggested and see how they shoot.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

With WC's that have button noses its sometimes hard to get the seating depth right so that rounds feed. That is why many 52 shooters turn the bullets upside down and then seat flush with the case mouth. 2.7-2.8 grains of Bullseye is an old time favorite. I found that I could get a bit less sharpness of recoil by using a slower powder so I went to 2.6 grains of 700X. Feeds and groups well. LLS

[Evil Dog]

I'm going to have to experiment a bit more with loading these bullets backwards. Yesterday was my first trip to the range with the new-to-me 1983 vintage Model 52-2. Tried out several different loads involving Bullseye, W-231 and WST. They all seemed somewhat mediocre to me... not what I would call 10-ring accuracy at 25 yards shooting from a rest. I had loaded some backwards though with 2.8 Bullseye... what a difference !!! Still not 10-ring accuracy but a lot tighter group. Think that I am going to repeat the test loads with W-231 and WST but load the bullet backwards this time around.

[Windy City Kid]

Evil Dog,

A couple of shooting buddiies of mine use S&W 52's for Bullseye. I think they load .38spl. WC's with 2.7grs. of WST, they like it better then Bullseye powder.

Start at 2.5gr.s of WST and work your way up to 2.8grs. of WST, stop when it cycles the slide and that should be 2.7grs. or 2.8grs. of WST.

Remember don't use to much boolit lube, it will open up your groups, lube only the bottom lube groove if you can. If you get leading, lube two of the bottom lube grooves.

This is my PPC load for my S&W model 14. The Lyman # 35891 (150gr. WC), 2.5grs. of WST, lubed with Carnauba Red in only the bottom lube groove, 1" group or less @ 25yards. Very flat shooting, very low smoke, excellent accuracy and very clean burning.