EWY-
Here are a couple of guesses to get things started until the pros show up.
1) The labs haven't gotten around to testing the combination of Lil'Gun with the lighter bullets in the 357.
2) Lil'Gun doesn't work very well with lighter bullets in the 357, so the labs aren't producing data for something that doesn't work.
I suspect it's the latter.
On Hodgdon's web site, if you look at the comparison of max loads with the higher bullet weights using Lil'Gun and H110/W296, you'll see the following:
180 grain bullet:
110/296 _ _ 13.5 gr _ _ 1396 fps _ _ 39,100 cup
Lil'Gun _ _ 15.0 gr _ _ 1422 fps _ _ 34,500 cup
170 grain bullet:
110/296 _ _ 15.5 gr _ _ 1497 fps _ _ 40,800 cup
Lil'Gun _ _ 17.0 gr _ _ 1576 fps _ _ 35,500 cup
158 grain bullet:
110/296 _ _ 16.7 gr _ _ 1591 fps _ _ 40,700 cup
Lil'Gun _ _ 18.0 gr _ _ 1577 fps _ _ 25,800 cup
125 grain bullet:
110/296 _ _ 22.0 gr _ _ 1966 fps _ _ 41,400 cup
The progression of results with lighter bullets is pretty clear. It seems to me that sufficient Lil'Gun cannot be stuffed into the 357 case to get sufficiently high pressures for a good powder burn behind the 125 gr and lighter bullets, and a lot of the powder will be blown out of the barrel.
In this application, Lil'Gun is acting like a slower powder, despite what the burn rate chart indicates.
What say the pros?
--Bob
This is a good post. I have used these powders in the .357 and found that the velocities quoted are way higher than I achieved and also that the chargers also differ in either direction based on my own experience.
Firstly, any gun is an individual - you cannot expect uniform results from 2 specimens. Nice when it happens, but can be not overly common.
Secondly, once you gain a level of experience as a handloader, you owe it to yourself to experiment on your own and leave the books on the table.
It is extremely rare for me to reference a relaoding manual unless I am loading for a cartridge for the first time. After a while, there is little point as the knowledge you gain on powder behavior becomes anough that you can qualify your opinion when a burining rate changes. As an example, When I was send a then new S&W 500 Magnum to review, there was no reloading data available so I created my own from scratch. In doing that, I determined the primer issue long before it was published and generally known.
The other thing I would point out is that once you have determined a load with a particular bullet weight, in this case Lil Gun and the 158 grainer, you can simply start with that load and shoot groups by gradually increasing the charges until either a safe maximum is reached or accuracy begins to fall away.
As a final note, I learned about 25 years ago that cartridge case shape changes the powder burning characteristics. This is why your comments, "
In this application, Lil'Gun is acting like a slower powder, despite what the burn rate chart indicates" are very accurate and relevent.
JW
