Yup, very interesting Stovey, I think my buddy wants to start reloading now after the adventures we had at his place. I was just over at hodgdons web site and I see where its listed for 110gr Hornady bullet with H110/W296 clocking in at 2078fps with their listed max load!!!

Holy cra#! That's got to be a top-strap torcher for sure. I know some that like pushing fast light pills like that for big boom and fire but, boy is it hard on top-straps. I plink and push mag loads with 158gr pills in 38/357's.

I found-thru trial and error(mostly error) that the 158 gr bullets seemed to work the best for my 6" guns!The lightweights did'nt seem to stabilize well.110s,125s,even 140-146s not all that good!Now in a snubby the 110s were awsome!The muzzle blast ball of flame could kill at three feet!

Trblshtr,
I have found that the speer 140 grain HP bullets work very well in my 6" Ruger. They leave the muzzle at 1460 fps and shoot well out to 100 yards. My groups used to run about 1.5" at twenty-five yards (twenty-four rounds). I haven't fired full power loads in the last 7 years due to my back injury but I am working up some less potent loads for the gun so I can shoot again. With the sale of my house the reloading room is all packed up which will delay the work-up until I sell and move to Walla Walla.

Paul-I've got an old security six-6"and it only seems to get along with the 158s either cast or jacketed.I have several other brands and configurations with 6" barrels and the general consensus is that the 158s seem to perform optimum.Walla Walla is the good side of the state.I used to spend alot of time on the road between portland and Lewiston when my dad lived over in White Bird Idaho.Nice towns farther east of WW,small comfortable farming towns with lots of open areas to shoot/hunt!Sorry to hear about your back injury-maybe that dry eastern air will help you out better!Definately warmer in the summer!!! Hope your move goes smoothly!:lol:

I shot the 158 grain bullets for a while too but when I started competing in hunters pistol I did some testing. I found that nearly full power loads with the 140 were slightly more accurate and they did a better job of knocking the metal targets over - even at 100 yards!
The preliminary tests I did with the Fackler box showed the 158 penetrated further but didn't expand as well as the 140 HP but beyond 75 yards the 140 penetrated farther and still expanded well. At close range the 158 is the superior round but it falls behind at around the 80 yard mark. That being said, for hunting deer sized game the 158 would be my choice - limiting the 357 to around 50 yards - but then I use a rifle for hunting game that size and use the 357 for shooting smaller critters and targets. I also carry it (all 6 inches) for concealed carry.
Every gun is individual in what it digests so it may be just my gun or the way I use it.

ok I had a look in my old "bibles" my winchester tenth edition 1989 manual has a 357 mag load with 158grnj.h.p pushed by 16.6 grns of296 for 1610fps

Yep! that is what Winchester says....
My chronograph showed a lot less. - All my records are packed away but I think it was shooting from my 6" Ruger at 1250 or so.
There was also a warning from Winchester to use "only as listed" and never reduce the load from 16.6 grains of 296 and that was also the maximum load.

Elvis, I think the figures you have are for a rifle barrel.

Back in '65 when I was a noob at all of this, a young self-styled hot-shot asked one of our club's old reloading hands how to load ammo as hot as possible. The old guy gave him a hard look and said, "Just start low and add a half grain of powder until she blows; then back off a half grain." Most of us got the message and at least I've never forgotten it ... and I still haven't blown anything up either.

wncchester wrote:

Back in '65 when I was a noob at all of this, a young self-styled hot-shot asked one of our club's old reloading hands how to load ammo as hot as possible. The old guy gave him a hard look and said, "Just start low and add a half grain of powder until she blows; then back off a half grain." Most of us got the message and at least I've never forgotten it ... and I still haven't blown anything up either.

Sage wisdom!

I went upstairs and dug thru the closet and pulled out 2 older reloading manuals from Lyman and Speer and scanned the 44mag as an example of how loadings have changed. Also included is a 2002 Lymans scan of the same caliber. I have not yet looked at my older Hornady books yet or Sierra books.

My load for the 44mag was 22.0 gr 2400/240gr jhp!look at then and now!

this might just be advertising hype(im almost afraid to post this for the flak im gonna get) but it was interesting and makes me wonder if we would ever know we were over max load til a rupture

www.shootingsoftware.c...9%2004.pdf

Ominivision1 wrote:

Elvis, I think the figures you have are for a rifle barrel.

nope. just triple checked and its definately under handgun loads.