.357 LSWC

B

Bucksnort1

New member
At a gun show, I purchased two bags of 100 each of .357 lead semi-wad cutter bullets. The bags are from the same manufacturer and are labeled as 158 grain bullets. The bullets look as good as any I have purchased.

I measured a handful from one bag. Most are between 160 and 162 grains. In the third edition of Lyman's Pistol and Revolver Handbook, there are recipes for a 160 grain (#358311) linotype bullet. My question is.

Is it ok to use a Lyman recipe or can I use a recipe for a 158 grain bullet?
 
Two grains difference is totally insignificant.....totally. First of all, that's normal variation in many casters bullet making unless they're buying pure alloy in bulk. Second, it's not a all out magnum load. The Lyman book is very useful in that it gives you data from different molds, but those weights and styles cover a lot of ground. I've been reloading for fifty years and I've loaded hundreds of thousands of rounds.....SAFELY. If you have more than one reloading manual you will find different loads for the same bullets simply because they tested them in different guns or test barrels. All loads provided have a very significant safety margin to begin with. Trust me, two grains is nothing to be concerned about. I've often been given or purchased bullets that were from a mold that was supposed to cast them at 158g and they were a tad over 160g. I kept the powder the same and they shot fine....no, they shot great out of my gun. It's just a variation in alloy. Now, sometimes your "magic" load might not shoot as good as the last bag of bullets because the alloy was really different. That's just a good reason to buy from the same manufacturer each time so what you get is as consistent as possible for accuracy. FWIW, I've gotten bullets that measured different at the base than someone else's and they didn't shoot as well. Little things like that can make a difference sometimes, but they were safe to shoot. Keep it within reason, if there's ten grains difference, go to another load selection. Get a copy of Lyman's Cast Bullet reloading manual, that will help you also.
 
Don't know what you are shooting, and this is not what you asked, but LSWC would not chamber in my 19-4, so I trimmed cases .010 and keep the spent brass separate. Those bullets don't run in my rifle either.
 
Don't know what you are shooting, and this is not what you asked, but LSWC would not chamber in my 19-4, so I trimmed cases .010 and keep the spent brass separate. Those bullets don't run in my rifle either.
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The only reason a bullet won't chamber in a handgun or rifle is that there is a crud ring in there from either not cleaning your gun, or shooting .38Spl and not cleaning the crud ring out. Also, you're not shooting his bullets, you're shooting someone else's bullets with the same mold number(?) and without measuring the diameter of your bullet you don't know if your diameters are the same as his. The OP already has the bullets and he'll soon know if they'll chamber or not. The only time I ever had bullets that wouldn't chamber was due to them being oversized (for reasons unknown....perhaps they were out of round from being cast in a beagled mold) or the gun not being cleaned well.
 
Except for a 44 Mag seeing 44 Special on occasion as a CAS backup gun, my guns have never seen any ammo except what matches the stamping on the barrel. No crud rings. You are off the mark here. These bullets to which I refer are both Missouri and X-Treme LSWC 158. A friend with a bullet casting business tells me that most casters are using the same mold for a bullet weight/type because few or no choices are available. In any case, I would know best what my experience has been and whether it is worth sharing.
 
This isn't overly complicated if you have clean chambers in your gun. Measure the bullet diameter and the chamber diameter. If the bullet is the correct diameter and doesn't fit in your gun, something's wrong with your gun.
 
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