Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading 357 Mag Reloading

Wade nailed it. I think last time I bought once fired 38 sp. brass I paid ~$50 for 2000 cases shipped in a USPS flat rate box. It works perfectly for plinking loads and since I have both 38's and 357's, works great for me. I rarely see once fired 357 brass, and it's much more expensive than 38 sp.

Waders.... sent you a PM.

I didn't realize there was much price difference between the two. Dad mentioned 357 so I went with it.

as for speed..... don't care really, just going to pick a light plinking load and let him go make some noise.



So, looks like 38 brass it will be with some Universal or Unique powder with small pistol primers.

It's about supply and price. In cowboy action shooting, .38 spec is a popular case in .357 revolvers.

Unique is clean if you burn it hot, dirty in low powered loads. Lots of CAS shooters like Clays. Am. Select is another good one and pretty clean.

I tested of a number of CAS powders, shooting low powered loads. Cleanest was Solo 1000. Clays was almost as clean. Tite Group has more flash but is clean.

As posted before, with light loads that don't fill the case, you gotta be careful not to double charge. Lot of choices, lot of good advice on this thread.

Check out cast bullets for CAS. Those guys know a lot about plinking type loads for .38 spec.

DF

That's no joke--those guys have it dialed in. They'll probably have loads that barely spit out of a 4" barrel that will stick in a 6" barrel!

You been there...

DF

Hard to beat this advice.

I started with this advice in 1974 and still use Unique and cast bullets. Also use a lot of HP-38.

Over the years we tried Bulls Eye, P-5066,Universal, Herco, Red Dot, 700X, SR4756,2400.and HP-38/WW231.
Some Meter better but any medium pistol powder will work well.

If you want to keep it clean and load less than mid range "hot", try HS-6.

In my 357 mag rifles Hodgon Lil'Gun provides some of the best loads, burns clean and provides some of the top velocities with lower pressures (according to Factory info). It does great in pistols also.

Steve.........

Started loading the .357 in the KISS mode. Had some 158gr Montana Gold HP, some Blue Dot, Power Pistol, and H110. Ended up loading a bunch to shoot with 10gr Blue Dot. Trooper MkIII and recoil weren't bad at all. Wasn't shooting groups and didn't bring a chrono. But SWAGing sight adjustment then blasting whatever was on the berm was quite fun. Daughter shot some as well and had a big grin. Same logic and used 15gr Blue dot with a Nosler 240 in a 629 Factory Comp. Daughter really grinned on this one. Was a bunch of fun. Blue dot seems a little dirty but sure works.

Titegroup is great if you just want standard loads but it's so dense and requires so little powder that you could easily double charge a case. A double charge would be catastrophic. Its charges are so small you could actually fit 3-4 charges in many cases and definitely damage or kill yourself if you fired one of those. I used to always run 7g of titegroup with a 200g cast as a light load in my 44s but I had to be very careful on the progressive.

Bb

Late to the show, but I'll opine nonetheless.

1) I used to shoot 38 SPL, but when I got into reloading, I opted for 357 Mag brass and 38 SPL loads. The brass lasts forever. I use Starline brass for my EDC and use 1-fired from Gunbroker for my plinking loads.

2) Universal is cleaner than Unique. I switched to Hodgdon Universal about a decade ago, and was so glad I did. Some folks say they can't get the same velocities with it-- Unique is the faster of the two. At practice load levels, it makes no difference.

3) If you're using a progressive, I use Universal. For single-stage loading I use Titegroup. You can make a pound of it go farther. However, you use so little per round that a Progressive has a hard time sensing no powder or double powder conditions.