Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Loading for the wife's 357 sp101

I bought a little 3" sp101 357 for the wife to carry while hiking and fly fishing in Island Park. She's only 5'4" and about 125 and doesn't really care for recoil so I figured a 357 is probably about max for her.

I started with some 158 xtp's and worked up loads ranging from about 1000fps to 1225fps. The warmer loads recoil a bit in that small of a gun.

I then picked up some hunters supply 190g hard cast wide flat noses from midway. I tried the following loads to start.

5g titegroup drove the 190's 950fps with not too bad of recoil

7g longshot ran 1025fps with a bit more recoil

14g of lilgun ran 1125fps and recoiled quite a bit

I just loaded some more of the titegroup 950fps load and I'm going to have her go out and try them. If she handles it ok I might go up to the next one.

Do you think that there is much advantage to running a hard cast wide flat nose bullet 100-200 fps faster or is 950 ok?

In my 44 mag I run 310g hard cast flat noses at 1150-1200 and they seem to shoot through anything at those speeds.

I know a 357 is definitely small for bear country but I want her to have something she can handle well to back up her pepper spray. Island Park is right next to Yellowstone and has a lot of black bears, grizzlies, and wolves that aren't afraid of people. The last few years have averaged 3-5 maulings per year.

Bb

357 is kind of nasty on recoil in that sp101 if loaded hot. I'd steer clear of the XTP. The best load I've used is a 170gr Kieth with a MAX load of h110. 15.1gr. I've looked at the HS 190's but never tried them.
Almost anything 357 is light for a bear load no matter how hard it's pushed.
I'd be looking for a gun that makes a hole that starts with a 4

I use a 200 grain hard cast in my SP101. Probably ought to add Hogue grips. Give her a little more to hang on to. 180's should be ok too, if that's what you can find. but I highly recommend a grip change.

Probably not practical for you to switch, but the heavier 4.2" barrel SP101 may handle the recoil better, and still has a small grip for small hands. This one's stainless.

The Hogue grips are a good idea, as they'll make the revolver much more controllable.

As to loading, I'd stick with a good 180gr hard cast bullets or the Hornady 180gr XTP. For practice, you could load Oregon Trail's 180gr cast bullet over 5gr of Unique for a soft-shooting, but still pretty powerful, load.

I really liked that 4.2" model. A local shop had one new for $510 and I was going to sell the 3" one and buy the 4.2" but it sold while I was having surgery and the shop says they can't get another one.

I liked the hi viz adjustable sight on the 4.2" model too, Seems like a great way to go because the small grip for small hands and it still weighs enough to control. The longer sight radius doesn't hurt either. Looks like a good trail gun for the wife and we may still end up there. The extra barrel would also give me more speed with the same loads.

Tomorrow I'll have her try the 190 hard casts at 950 and see what she thinks.

I about bought her a Taurus titanium 4" 41 mag and figured I could load a good wide flat nose down to around 900 but a friend told me those ti 41's are brutal with anything. When it comes to non expanding and slow speeds I've always preferred a bigger diameter bullet but a 190 357 should at least dig deep.

Tomorrow I'll set one of these HS 190 bullets on the concrete and hit it with a hammer to see how the lead holds up. I've seen some hard cast fracture when you do that which isn't a good sign.

Bb

If you can get a flat bullet, running at 900fps out of that little barrel and she can handle the recoil, there isn't really a need to go elsewhere.

I just posted this in another thread, and it seems pertinent here as well. I have carried the Buffalo Bore factory .38 Special +P loaded with the 158 gr. LSWCHPGC in a 3 inch Ruger SP101 that chronographed an average of 1064 fps MV. I did not have any trouble handling that round. I carried that combination in the woods and in town for a few years. There are no grizzlies in my woods, though.

I also tried the Buffalo Bore 180 grain hard cast .357 magnum. It's one of those "don't miss with the first shot" rounds in the SP101.

She took the 101 out today and started with some lighter loaded 140 xtp's that I used to carry in my Lcr. She didn't mind those so she tried the 190's at 950 and shot 5 without much complaint other than the trigger guard hit her finger a little. She shot pretty well with the 190's.

Then she wanted to try my Glock 20 and all I had was 200g jhp's loaded at 1150fps. She pretty much emptied a mag with no complaints. Maybe instead of buying the 101 I should have just let her carry my old 629 mtn gun 44 mag. I usually carry my pd329 so the mtn gun doesn't get out much. The sp101 grip does fit her better though and she shot better with it than the glock 20.

I've got to thank the TV series Top Shot because before watching it she had no interest in shooting.

Bb

IMO heavy and slow always trumps light and fast when it comes to shootability.

In handguns anyway.



Travis

She's better off hitting her target animal with a load that has recoil she can shoot well enough with. That would be the best load for her. Even if its a 38 Special. Hits count more than recoil and noise.

Heavy bullets seem to do better from short barrels too. I upped the titegroup charge in the 190's from 5g to 5.2g and then to 5.5g. The 5.5 load gave me avg 980fps compared to the 5g at 950fps. We'll see what shoots better but I may just go with the 5g load. I'm not sure the extra pressure at 5.5 is worth 30fps.

As a side note I took my glock 20 with the kkm 40 s&w barrel in it and worked up a little higher than what I've been running. 8g of longshot with a nosler 200 jhp was giving me 1150fps but I walked it up to 8.4g and it went to 1200fps and very consistent. Note that this was with 40 brass loaded long to 1.25" so don't even think about trying these loads in a standard 40 at regular seating depths. The kkm barrel is awesome and brass looked fine afterwards. No bulges or smileys. I love not worrying about picking up brass. I found a source for 40 brass at $25/1000 so I don't even try to chase them.

Bb

If this is for bear protection I wold definitely look at hardcast with a wide meplat or a Barnes TAC-XP bullet.

Last Saturday I shot a Barnes 185g TAC-XPD load from my Kimber .45 into water jugs and recovered it from the 6th jug. I also recovered a 225g AccuBond from my .338WM from the 6th jug.

In fact, the only loads that out-penetrated the .45ACP Barnes load were two loads from my 7-1/2" Ruger SRH .44 Mag. A 240g Speer JSP was recovered from the 8th jug while a Speer 300g Gold Dot SP exited the side of the 10th jug.

More info is here:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._101_Water_Jugs_No_Survivors#Post8833546

I had already ordered some Barnes 80g TAC-XP bullets for my .380ACP and look forward to testing them when Midway finally ships. I'll probably try 115g in my 9mm Luger as well. It remains to be seen if the Barnes 185g TAC-XPD load will be reliable in my Kimber (not looking good as I had a stovepipe problem with the first shot). If not, I may try handloads or Cor-Bon factory stuff.