Thanks djp for that link, somehow in the few years I've been on the 'fire I missed that post. I didn't know if anyone else had a like idea, but figured if there was such a person they'd be around here. I'll take your recommendation and pm Mr Penndog.
Thanks to the rest of you for your input too.
As for some of the "issues" with this round, I'm pretty set with brass. The Marlin I picked up a few years back came with a decent supply, along with dies, bullets and even a couple of boxes of factory ammo (still not fired by me yet :/). I also have some Quality Cartridge brass which I'm not sure I like yet, and I found some more factory brass at a gun show once. If I ever have the need, I'll use some of those forming hints on some of the multitude of 357 brass I've got hanging around.
I've also got various bullets to try from my 25-20 loading. Using the 75 gr Speer flatpoint w/cannelure I took a javelina with my .256 7.5 inch revolver. +/- 15 yd shot. Lungs and liver were mush but exit wounds not overly large (he was still standing after running a bit so he got a second round). I imagine if I'd have hit him in the shoulder I'd have ruined a bunch of meat, but he was hit behind the leg both times. I'd be interested in seeing how an 86 gr gas checked SWC would work out of a rifle length bbl. And as I mentioned the Marlin came with a number of bullets including a box of the hard to find 60gr hp.
I still think someone ( a gunwriter perhaps) should talk to Ruger and try to breathe life back into this interesting little round. Maybe if they'd have come up with a bolt gun the first time around we wouldn't be having this topic to knock around now.
