Again, the .357 Maximum. They're as easy to load as a .38 special and they shoot very hard and accurately.
I had a 10" .357 Maximum TC Contender that I shot IHMSA with. I started out shooting the cast RCBS .357-180 SIL bullet with H4227 at about 1550 fps, but after a while I changed over to the RCBS 35-200 FN cast bullet.
I cast them from straight wheelweight alloy, quenched, and lubed them with garden variety alox. They weighed 215 grains.
Contenders have long throats and I seated the bullet out,...just inserted it into the case deep enough to cover the lube groove.
I shot it with H4227 for a while and had no problem taking it to a bit past 1500 fps, but it really came alive with WW680. I found that you couldn't get enough WW680 in the case to get into an over pressure situation. In fact, unless you loaded the case virtually full, you would find that the outside of the cases would be smoked because it wasn't generating enough pressure to cause a seal between the case and the chamber.
I took the 215 grain bullet to a bit over 1700 fps out of the 10" Contender with WW680 and never saw the first hint of excess pressure indicators. After firing, you could tilt the barrel up and the cases would fall right out. There was never any flattening of the primers.
It is a very accurate load at that level and would just slap those 40 lb steel rams to the ground out there at 200 meters.
WW680 has been discontinued, but AA1680 is very close to its burning rate and I would expect similiar results.
Launching 215 grain bullets out of a 10" Contender at 1700+ fps really lets you know that something is going on out there at the end of your arm.
