Them's is plinkin loads and I'd keep 'em that way till ya find how fast ya can push 'em before ya lead up that sexy lil roller all to hell and gone.
Start SLOW and work up. See smoke and smell wax and well... get the Chore-boy and Kroil out. The key is finding a load that matches a lot of things. (BNH + PSI + curve + chamber + barrel + etc) I'd much rather under power them and go for decent groups than see how fast I can push the cast stuff. Scrubbing sucks.

I'm still didlin with my .38 cast loads in my 2" .357.
I loaded my first rounds and the "math" said I was way under max and super safe and it turned into a 3 hour scrub fest.

God that's a nice gun Wiersy. Doubt you'll have ta use it on an intruder. Just open yer safe and shine a light in there. The relfection should blind them then whomp 'em with a bat, tie some duck decoys on and call the dogs on 'em.

stovepipe wrote:

whomp 'em with a bat, tie some duck decoys on and call the dogs on 'em.

ohh.. thats sooo evil!! I love it!

I like evil.

For right now I'm only loading 6 at a time starting low just to see what that roller likes to eat. Of course with the rain lately it's hard to get to the range. I'm not really into scrubbing.

You loading 357 mag cases or 38 specials ???

I've got both but I'm concentrating on working with the 357 mags right now.

Hodgdon Basic Manual

357 Mag
Winchester SPM
158gr XTP
Titegroup 6.1 Max

Yep I found that last night and printed out the loads from there.

Those are MAX for the .357 case using a JHP! DANGER!

Shoot plinkers as much as ya can and keep that lil' beauty tight. A steady diet of full house will loosen her teeth pretty quick. Full house every so often is no problem.

Load up some reduced mellow START loads in the .357 case at around 750 FPS for your cast bullets.
I will NOT recomend loads, published or otherwise, for obvious reasons, esp to friends.

Using the .357 case for plinkers cuts down on scrubbing time too as there is 95% less chamber fouling. Ya prolly already know all this but...

That is such a nice shooter!
I love the feel of those stocks shooting mellow loads.
Double-tap's are fun too!

Yes sir that is max just as I stated!!! It was only a reference for the powder/load he's working on.

I would rather scrub the chambers.........opposed to flirting with special loads in a mag case !!!

It was also for a JHP, not a lead RN -gc.

The regular Hodgdon manual, not that POS quick referance one on the website, has reduced loads in it for lead around 800 +/- FPS or so... use a HV midspeed to start. Has 'em for my .44m too.

And I see your point regarding too much space in the case as that is an often overlooked issue. Never actaully seen the resulting rumored KB but I've heard about those concerns, per say.

I'm not to excited about hot loads in the 357, I just don't want something to light that it is going to be miserable to clean. So far I haven't had any leading with the Dardas bullets.

I may just try them next time or go back to plated. X-Treme's plated one's I can push pretty good but still much less than full house.

Plus, with well tumbled brass the X-Treme's make really pretty, shiny rounds.

I had a good test load the other night it wasn't the wimpy pop and not a heavy load either so I'm gonna try some more of them.

Argh...I got 2000 rounds of these other butter-bullets I gotta shoot up in .38 and .44.

Good on ya for finding a fun load that don't lead it up like a pencil.

Sounds like a little scrubbing in your future.