Do you have any loas data for the 357 Maximum in the 20" bbl NEF Handi rifle.
Use the Hornady 180 grn Single Shot Pistol bullet.
Coach
It's a deer hammer, but I prefer taking them with my home cast bullets. Those 180 SSPs are accurate as all get out in my .357 Max 16.5" Encore barrel.
I found AA1680 did the trick with 200 gr bullets out of my 357 max contender, and it would be the first powder I'd try with the 180's.
458, what charge range are you using with the 200 gr. bullets? I have a pound of AA1680 on the shelf but haven't cracked it yet, the RL7 is just too good to me, but I'd like to know how that 1680 performs.
I'll have to look at my notes, it's been at least 5 years since I worked up the loads. As I recall the velocities didn't become consistant until the loads started to be compressed, and this was with a 200 gr cast bullet. From the 10" contender I was getting over 1900 fps with top loads, and pretty good accuracy. I know the charge was over 20 gr, I just don't recall what the max charge was.
I did some testing with RL 7, but it seemed like too slow of a powder for the max, I wasn't able to get decent velocities. H-110 on the other hand had some weird velocity excurions and horrendous verticle stringing, so I chocked it up as too fast of a powder with the 200's.
I didn't hit any success with a 190 gr. bullet until I hit 26 gr. with a 190 gr. cast 25 gr with a 215 gr. cast with RL7, 27 gr. with the 190 and 26 gr. with the 215 are my go to loads, heavily compressed, seeated into the lands and accurate as heck, both running over 1800 fps from my barrel.