Originally Posted by gnoahhh
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Originally Posted by taylorce1
Originally Posted by OSU_Sig
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
gnoahh,

Apparently you haven't yet read my recent article in Handloader on the .350 Legend--which describes an inexpensive and simple way to vastly increase the selection of bullets usable in the .350....
MD, In what issue was that article? I normally don't miss your articles but this one doesn't ring a bell with me.

Resizing jacketed bullets through a Lee Bullet Die I imagine. My buddy has been doing it with a lot of .358 bullets.

You guessed it! Works slickly and easily....

The HL issue is the latest, which may not have arrived yet for paper-copy subscribers.

I'm a "snag it off the newstand but only if there's an article in it I care to read" kind of guy. I guess I'll swing by Barnes&Noble on my way out of town this morning and grab a copy, if they're open today.

John, didn't I read a caution from you not long ago about forcing jacketed bullets through a smaller diameter die, that said bullets could see their jackets separated from their cores in the process, due to springback of the gilding metal versus the lead cores staying fully compressed?

Instead of forcing the .357 Maxi .360" cast bullets I shoot exclusively, through a Lee die, and risk collapsing the grease grooves (even if already filled with lube), I would simply call Tom at Accurate Molds and have him cut me a cavity or two for the desired size and alloy and call it good. (I use a few push-through dies, but I make them myself. A chunk of 7/8-14 all-thread and a lathe is your friend.)

Notice in my original post I mentioned the AR platform and bolt guns being the province of the Legend. I'm a single shot guy when it comes to experimenting with stuff anymore, and finagling a falling block rifle to deal with a rimless case is a lot trickier than working with a simple hook extractor. Additionally, my Martini Cadet .357 Maxi (and soft 200 grain cast bullets at around 1800fps - out of my 26" barrel) will serve quite well for the amount of hunting I'll actually do in our straight wall counties (very little), so future .357 Maxi work will be to further an idea I have for a target/bench gun to use in ASSRA competition - a .35 plain base soft cast bullet of +200 grains pushed via breech seating at 1400fps or so to remain barely super-sonic at 200 yards. The Maxi case (as well as the Legend case I should think) I reckon to be about ideal for the small-ish powder charges needed to achieve that. I wouldn't want to have to work with the rimless Legend case in that endeavor. Mayhaps even a .32 straight taper wildcat based on the Maxi case, think scaled down .32-40, to make use of the library of .32 molds I already have.

Do you powder coat any of your cast stuff and what alloy recipe are you using?

I’ve transitioned from lubrisizer to powder coat because I hated the mess. I was shooting cast in pistol only so it never bothered me much but when I started shooting cast in rifles, the lube bothered me that much more. It’s a different game, shooting cast in rifles, but very enjoyable and dirt cheap when it comes to bullets. That’s why I cast, I couldn’t afford to shoot jacketed bullets as much as I shoot cast. (Of course, I know you know all this! :-) ) The 350 Legend is an easy and cheap to load cast bullet cartridge and my rifle is a bolt gun.

With that said, 357 pistol bullets are tough to chamber and I’ve given up on them. Tried some wadcutters once, shot 10, brought the rest home and pulled the bullets as they were almost impossible to chamber with the gun on the bench. I had to hold the gun almost vertical and shake it to get the cartridge to drop into the chamber… Groups were lousy too…