Favourite 38Spl or 357 Mag loads

[dodgyrog]

My club gun will feed one and not the other and have heard that to be not un common. So suggest you make some dummies of both calibres up and test throughout with both.

DM

Plenty of dummies on here.

[Tony-c]

158gr TC GM hardcast bullet, 4.4 grains of Vit310, COL 1.595

in my marlin that does CTC 1" groups rested at 50 with ease

but didnt work as well in my other marlin that prefered lower load of 3.7gr, a bit of experimenting is always required, I was quite surprised by just how much the groups opened and closed by changing COL

[Tony-c]

when I do the job properly this is what mine does off hand, 12 shots 25m, stg 1 T&P1

this is postal league target so the X is 10, and the 10 is 9, and the reduced dotted line is my X

[DavidRees]

158gr TC GM hardcast bullet, 4.4 grains of Vit310, COL 1.595

Do you know how fast these are, and the muzzle energy? I have access to these bullets and the powder, and may well give this load a try.

BTW, that COL is .005 greater than the max for .357, if I recall correctly; my Marlin is very fussy, and will not work with loads over the max of 1.59. These rifles do vary quite a bit, so your suggestion to experiment with the individual rifle is good advice.

[Tony-c]

I will double check the COL as that was from memory, but Im sure that I also noted it was outside the "spec" however it was fine and it grouped even better with 1.6" but wouldnt feed them, had to single load them

sorry but I dont have a Chrono.

its basically on a par with bulleye powder in terms of speed, but its far far cleaner,

[DavidRees]

158gr TC GM hardcast bullet, 4.4 grains of Vit310, COL 1.595

Do you know how fast these are, and the muzzle energy? I have access to these bullets and the powder, and may well give this load a try.

I'll make up a batch, and put them across my chrono, and report back -- might be a few weeks.

Agree wholeheartedly about how clean Viht powders are in general.

Funnily enough, I seem to be the only person in my club who uses Viht; practically everyone else is a Bullseye user. Price, and availability, seems to be the key factors. Getting hold of Viht in Scotland is not easy, but I find it worthwhile.

[Sim G]

158gn SWC with either 5.0gns Unique or 6.0gns HS6. Both for around 975fps

125gn jacketed and 21.0gns of H110 for over 2000fps!

[Dougan]

I'm reading about you guys changing the COL - I've always put a light roll crimp into the cannelure; so my COL has been dictated by the type of bullet...what type of crimp (or not) are others using? do you use bullets without a cannelure, or just ignore it?

[DavidRees]

I'm reading about you guys changing the COL - I've always put a light roll crimp into the cannelure; so my COL has been dictated by the type of bullet...what type of crimp (or not) are others using? do you use bullets without a cannelure, or just ignore it?

I put a light roll crimp into the cannelure also -- so my COL is also set by that position on the bullet. Only problem is the GM 180gr LTC bullets are quite long, and if not careful, a roll crimp in the cannelure can result in a COL > 1.59" in a .357 case. I've resorted to trimming the cases slightly in the past. For the lighter loads, one could easily use .38 cases (if your rifle feeds them), but it is unwise to load up .38 cases with loads beyond the SAMMI maximum for that calibre, in case someone tries them in a .38 only gun--unlikely I know, but safe practice nonetheless.

[Dougan]

Tried a 10 shot group at 25m tonight, sitting with the front end rested on a bag...

I was pretty happy with that, but if I could hold it steadier I'm sure it'd be much tighter...