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What are your favorite loads for 357 mag and 38 spcl? Thanks!

I haven't shot any .38 special in a long time. From memory, like 5.9 grains of 231 under a 125 grain JSP? I can't swear to that. It's probably in the +P range. I still have some left over from plinkin' loads for an SP101 .357 I had 15 years ago.

In .357, 13.5 grains of 296 under a 180 grain Nosler HG partition. Fresh-trimmed WW brass, Fed 200 primers. Half inch at 50 yards from my scoped 10" contender.

17.5 (!!!) grains of 296 under a 158 grain XTP HP, same primer and brass. This is WAY over max but was a "book" load when I was working up loads for my GP100 and Blackhawk years back. Shoots good, but when it's used up I won't load any more, I don't want to risk getting it in my J frame S&W.

I used to run 16.0 grains of 296 under the Sierra 170 JHC. Same situation as with the 158. Sierra reduced that quite a bit in later manuals.

A marlin lever action I had for a while liked about 20 grains of IMR 4227 under a 125 grain XTP HP. Mostly though I used around 13.5 grains of AA#7 under that bullet. Both of those were with WW small pistol standard primers.

Don't rely on my .357 loads. Lot of that stuff was worked up for heavy framed guns years ago. We decided blue pills were not hot enough so we created the purple pill. ('cept shooting those tended to create shrinkage, not ... "extension". Fear of death will have that effect.) We created something else we called a +T load, "beyond Taffin", after gun writer John Taffin who had some pretty, um, energetic loads in data he wrote up in American Handgunner over the years. So, sort of joking around here but seriously if I had to do it all over again I'd not be pushing the poor little .357 quite so hard. Nor the guns. Nor the body parts nearby.

I never blew one up, but one time I saw a S&W 19 with a distorted frame, one chamber wall bent out and cracked. It changed my view of the whole "crowding the envelope" deal. What really got my attention was the 'tard was still shooting it, he'd just open the cylinder to turn it past the mangled chamber 'cause it was bent out far enough to block the gun from cycling. Shouldn't have been a surprise, the same guy showed up later with a 1911 clone in 10mm he was mad at because (being the gun's fault of course) the barrel had split inside the slide and tied up the action.

If you are loading for .357, pay attention to primers vs powder. Magnum pistol primers can have a huge pressure increase with 2400 with minimal velocity gain. It can sneak up and bite you in the a$$. If you get a sense of being slapped in the front of the pants leg by the shock waves, back off. Real hot 2400 loads feel like something is detonating, not burning. Some of the older data can get you into real trouble. I'm not joking about that at all.

Tom

Favorite loads for what purposes? I like about 5.0 grs. of Unique with a 158 gr. hard cast semi-wadcutter in the .38 Special with standard primer of your choice for a nice plinking load. That isn't too bad a small game load giving less bloodshot meat than a high velocity .22LR.

I much prefer #2400 over H110/W296 for .357 Magnum loads. IMHO #2400 is a more forgiving powder than H110/W296 or Blue Dot. Use a good standard primer with #2400 and whatever bullet you need to get the particular job done. The Remington 125 gr. SJHP is a great coyote/varmint bullet when throttled up to about 1,400 fps from a 6" barrel. That load is easy enough on the gun, yet a very effective vermin load. Makes for a quite good self defense load against the two legged predators too.

.357 Magnum

14.0 gr. 2400 with a standard pistol primer under any 158 jacketed bullet or gas checked cast
16.0 gr. 296 with a magnum primer, any 158 gr. jacketed or gas checked cast

I've gone a grain higher on 296 with 158 jacketed to see what would happen but see no reason to anymore. A gas checked cast bullet usually gives lower velocities so I went to 17.0 296 for those, but have come back to 16.0 for everything. The above two loads generally give around 1200-1300 fps depending on barrel length and have shown good accuracy across at least five .357 revolver so far.

Target load
3.7 gr. 231 under a Speer swaged hollow base wadcutter. Some revolvers shoot this one better, some shoot the .38 target load listed below better.



.38 Special
These next two are my loads for anybody's store bought cast bullets.

4.5 gr. Unique under anybody's 158 grain cast.
4.0 to 4.5 gr. 231 under anybody's 158 grain cast.

Something you might try if you have a .38 Special revolver is 10.0 gr. 2400 under a 158 grain cast. I had a S&W Model 15 (4" .38 Spl) that disappointed me, it wouldn't shoot well with any load of Unique or 231. I turned to 2400 for the heck of it with a Speer 158 gr. swaged SWC, tried 10 grains and consistently got those "one ragged hole" groups. I don't know the pressure, it might be +P, and have only tried it in that one .38 Special revolver, so don't know if it would work out of a .357 chamber or not.

Target load
3.2 gr. 231 under a Speer 148 swaged hollow base wadcutter.
Very mild, usually very accurate.

2.7 grains of Bullseye with a HBWC is the classic .38 target load.

I guess I forgot to say what the load would be for. I would like one load for shooting as cheap as possible. I would like to use lead, but they seem to be way to dirty in the past. If any one shoots lead, and it stays clean like jacketed/plated load I am defiantly interested for the money saving advantage. I am also looking for something for deer hunting. Thanks!

RD58,
Try a quality hard cast bullet, not one of the soft swaged ones from Hornady or Speer. The swaged bullets are soft and do lead the bore if shot at too much velocity and also leave a dirty residue in/on the gun.

Remington bulk SJHP bullets are available for reasonable prices at Midsouth or Midway USA. For .357 mag, I use the 140 grn SJHP with 8.7 grns Unique; for .38 sp. I use that same bullet with 5.8 grns Unique.

Using Lee's powder spoons, the 0.7 cc spoon will give 5.8 grns and the 1.0 cc spoon gives 8.7.

I shoot a lot of early model Smiths (1915-1930's) so I shoot a basic .38 load for old and new models of 3.5 grains of W-231 under a Cast 158 LSWC. These shoot great in just about all of the guns I own. In the Jacketed .38's a Speer 110 grain JHP with 2400 or 231 does good.

My standby load in .357 that shoots good for all of them thus far has been 12 grains of 2400 under the Speer 158 grain JHP or JSP. Accurate and plenty of velocity.

Remingtondude58.Try speeding up your cast bullets or slowing them down depending on where the leading occurs.If the leading is at the forcing cone end,you are pushing hard bullets too slow.If it is at the muzzle,you are pushing soft bullets too fast..

If you are getting a lot of fouling,I'd suggest you do some fire lapping with one of the kits that Brownells sell to smooth out your barrel.
I load a lot of .357 at 38 velocities. My favorite load is 4.5 gr of Univeral clays and a 158 gr cast bullet in a 357 case. The Universal Clays is a might cleaner burning than W231,but I use the same load with W31 too.
For my wife, I load 3.5 gr of either powder in her 38 with a 115-148 gr wadcutter or semi wadcutter.

For serious loads I load 13 gr of 2400 with a 158 gr XTP in my .357

Great info! I have not started loading 357s yet, but have shot lead bullets in other guns before, and it has always been dirty. Once I start I will absolutely pay attention to that. Should I be expecting lead to be about the same dirtiness as jacketed/plated with the proper charge? or will it still be a lot dirtier? I am OK with a little more dirt, but when it is trowing a dust everywhere, and the gun is so dirty i don't think it is right. Thanks!

Remingtondude. Probably the dust you are seeing is the powder you are using,and it could be the lube in the bullets.Typcaily you will see only leading in the barrel and some in the forcing cone.If the timing is off a little you will see some on the forward face of the cylinder.
I have not tried a wide variety of lubes, but several powders.I have not tried the newer Unique, but a lot of guys used the older version because they were shooting cowboy action and like the smoke as it looked like black powder. W231 burns little cleaner,but hands down I like Hodgon Universal Clays

15 gr/2400/small pistol mag primer/158 gr jacketed or hard cast bullet. Shooting this in Model 27, it's high pressure but safe. Work up to it, hard roll crimp.

I'm using 6.5 grs. of the old style Unique with the cheap Remington swagged 158 gr. SWC lead bullets. Out of my 3 inch M60 Smith, it's good for as little as 3/4 of an inch for three @ 25 yds. Needs a firm crimp, and it's really all I want from a 24 oz. gun.
Be advised that the new 2400 is not nearly as slow as the older lots of 2400.
I'd also caution you on getting powder happy with a handgun. They simply are not made as strong as rifles are. And, even worse, they often don't warn you when you are loading them hot.
We've got all sorts of romp stomping handgun cartriages and loads these days. There simply is no need to hot load a handgun. E

GF1,

I am under the impression that you are NOT supposed to use magnum primers with 2400. I've read it gives markedly more pressure with virtually no velocity gain. What has been your experience with the magnum primers?

I've read the same, no Mag Primers with #2400. I do not use mag primers with that powder and have not suffered from it.

Does anyone have a load using titegroup? I got barrys bullets 158 grn