Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles .356 Win and Reloder 15

Anyone ever try Reloder 15 in their .356 Winchester? It has occurred to me that it should be a good match, as Re 15 works very well on .308, .338 Fed, and .358 Win. I recognize that the .356 is slightly less powerful -- but not enough to make Re 15 a bad idea. Yet, while I can find plenty of loads amongst all four cartridges using H335; WW748; and IMR 4198, one of them doesn't list the Reloder 15.

I've had good success with a number of loads with other powders in my .356, so that's not the issue. Just curious if anyone is using Re 15 in the .356 Winchester, and what their results are.

Thanks...

Dennis

I�ll have to admit it has never occurred to me to try Reloder 15 in the 356 Winchester. Reloader 15 gives the highest velocities in the 307 Winchester, giving up just a bit of accuracy to Hodgdon Varget. Varget gives up a little less than 100 fps to Reloder 15 in the 307 Winchester using 170-grain bullets.

In the 356 Winchester I often load 50.0 grains of Hodgdon Varget behind the 220-grain Speer flat nose bullet for 2,365 fps. This is a heavily compressed load. At 100-yards this load will sometimes put three shots into 1 � inches. This load seldom delivers three shot groups over 2 inches if I do my part. This is pretty good shooting for me with a Weaver V-3 but I use big rectangular aim points when group shooting.

For accuracy shooting with the 220-grain Speer bullet I shoot a load of 40.0 grains of Alliant Reloder 10x. While not giving the highest velocity this load it will deliver surprising accuracy at about 2,270 fps from the 20� barrel.

With the 220-grain Speer seated .469� deep it looks like you have room for about 42.0 grains of Reloder 15 � un-compressed. I will be interested in reading how it performs for you. Do you have a Winchester or a Marlin?

It occured to me to use it for the .356 for the first time today...and I've been using Re 15 for quite a while, including on the .358, when I had one, and a whole set of similar cases.

I have a Winchester 94 AE...it was a .444 and I had a factory .356 barrel put on it. Pretty fun -- half magazine and pistol grip. Don't think there are a lot of .356 Winchesters out in that setup.

I have a whole pile of good loads for it, so that's not really an issue. Just had a thought hiking out in the woods this afternoon that I'd never worked with Re 15 with the .356, so I went looking for data. Not much there, which seems odd to me. It seems like Re 15 ought to work with the .356...

Thanks for the info...

Dennis

I also load for a 358 Winchester, one of the late production Savage Model 99A�s. I find this rifle more difficult to load for as the light barrel is more sensitive to differences in powder type, charge and bullet weights.

I live in West Texas so our game is lighter than yours. The 200-grain bullets provide plenty of punch for everything we have. I shoot the 200-grain RCBS gas check bullet quite a bit in my Winchester along with the 200-grain round nose bullets from Remington, Sierra and Hornady. For use with these lighter bullets I tend to use the faster powders.

I also have a 444 Timber rifle which handles well but the ports are an abomination. I purchased a 307 barrel for mine but have not yet installed it. I believe it will make an interesting rifle, similar to the Model 64 carbine.

My father and a brother lived in Fairbanks for several years and they carried dads 356 when berry picking. Dad said he was not looking for trouble but if it found him he had no concerns about using the 250-grain factory loads or handloads using the 220-grain Speer bullet. Of course the country is in general more open up there than down in your country.

Interesting parallels there... . I bought my first .444 from Steelhead because I had spent too much time in the tight woods in winter with .280/.35 Whelen et al -- all with 22" barrels and 2-7 scopes. Decided I needed a .444 with a 3X, so I got one. Really nice piece at a really good price -- as dusk came upon my shooting practice I learned that a ported big bore is a lousy rifle for self defense in the dark . So I bought another one, with a synthetic stock and a 20" unported barrel. It's a wonderful, functional rifle -- even took it caribou hunting one year. I was going to sell the ported one, but happened to come across a 20" barrel, factory-fresh, at the Numrich Arms website -- so now I have a .356 rifle, and a .307 barrel. Some day I'll come across another rifle, and hav it mounted too. Just because it would be cool... .

I've carried the .444 some just for bear protection, and would have no qualms about 270 and 300 gr bullets. Not something I want to shoot at three or four hundred yards, but then nothing much is dangerous there either. At bear-threat range the .356 and .444 rifles will do just fine.

Our deer are smaller than yours... .

Dennis

Conversely I was looking for RE15 loads for my 20" BLR in 358 Winchester. I am using 48.9g 4320 to push a 225 Sierra at 2375fps. Since 4320 and Re 15 are extremely similar in volatility and density I thought to try Re15 because I have 8lbs of it, heh. However I hear that Re15 is a bit stronger nowadays since it is coming from Sweden.

Can I ask what you were using the RE 15 for in your 358?