357 Magnum Trail/Utility Load

K

Kwik2010

New member
I'm working on a utility load for my 357 that I carry while hunting (GP100 4"). I've made up several batches of 158 grn XTPs from Hornady. All shot well and I settled on a load and loaded about 100 to keep around but I'd like a soft point.

I'm experimenting with hardcast but I'd like something in the mean time until I can get a good fairly high velocity load with minimal/no leading. I know I won't be able to come up with a good hc load before my hunting trip in a few weeks due to my inability to find lead bullets on the shelf here.

I'm not looking to take down bear or anything like that. This loads main purpose will be close range deer given the opportunity, smaller 4 legged threats if the need arises, and a good all around round to load up and save a small stockpile of for a rainy day. That and everything else being said, lets delve into the meat of this post.

I can get my hands on either speer or sierra 158 grn soft points. I have no idea which is a netter bullet. I've shot a lot of sierra in my rifles but never any speer. I've heard great things about both but I'm curious as to anyones experience/opinions with either.

I'll be loading it over a fairly warm (within published data) load of either 2400 or H110. With either a standard or magnum primer respectively.
 
Last edited:
I've shot more .357mag than 99.9% of the people that ever owned them. I've been shooting that caliber for over forty-five years and owned at least a dozen and a half different guns ranging from two Coonans to a lot of different S&W's, and a few Rugers thrown in for good measure. After having shot over fifty whitetails with this caliber I have never found any bullet better than a Hornady XTP for accuracy or lethality. i know there are a lot of bullet casters out there and it's a great hobby if your primary concern is to reduce shooting cost. The truth is though that cast bullets are not superior in any way to good jacketed bullet for hunting....sorry if I called anyone's baby ugly here. You simply won't do any better than using a 158 or 180g Hornady XTP with either a) H110/WW296 or b) 2400 powder. I've always found that 296 and a 158g XTP shot extremely well out of every .357mag I've ever owned. Just note that the 180g loses it's ability to expand well at distances over 50 yards. It simply doesn't retain the velocity needed to expand much beyond that distance. However, it penetrates well and still kills if the bullet is placed on target. That's the secret to handgun hunting for deer: the bullet has to hit the kill area. Close doesn't count.
 
Hornady also makes the 158gr XTP in a flat point. H110/W296 and 2400 are good choices for the 357. Alliant's 300-MP may give a little more velocity in the 357.
 
NoSecondBest,

Appreciate the passionate response for XTP's. I'll probably keep loading them. But I would like a soft point to play with. I see midway has a sale on the speer ones so I'll peobably order a couple boxes and give them a try unless there's a good reason to spring for the sierra's instead.
 
I love Speer Bullets. I have shot XTPs and bonded Speer into water jugs side by side. The Speer bullets always expanded more consistently and held together better than the XTPs. Nothing against XTPs, as they shoot very well and are very affordable. But for terminal performance I have found that speers bonded Bullets perform better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
NoSecondBest,

Appreciate the passionate response for XTP's. I'll probably keep loading them. But I would like a soft point to play with. I see midway has a sale on the speer ones so I'll peobably order a couple boxes and give them a try unless there's a good reason to spring for the sierra's instead.
Click to expand...
I just ordered over a hundred dollars worth of .357 bullets from Midway and they should be here Wed's. None of them are XTP's. I still like to try new bullet and powder combinations and I have a new MGM bbl in .357max I'm playing with. They'll all get tested against the XTP's I am loading also. I'm open minded about using something else. I'm just reporting what I've learned over the last 45+ years. I've killed some deer with other bullets and they worked well. I just like the XTP's because they work well also and I can always get them to shoot very, very well.
 
I've been looking around town today and was debating trying the fp xtp. You have any experience with these? Sounds like it might be the best of both worlds forwhat I'm after.
 
I've been looking around town today and was debating trying the fp xtp. You have any experience with these? Sounds like it might be the best of both worlds forwhat I'm after.
Click to expand...
I have a good "stash" of those as well as the XTP's. They shoot the same and differ only slightly in performance. I use them more in the rifles I have chambered in .357mag (Marlin). They penetrate a bit better and don't open up as quickly as the XTP's. I can't say that they actually make any difference in a hunting situation though. If there's a significant difference I haven't found it. I'm playing with both right now in the new MAX barrel and as far as accuracy goes it's a wash. For distances under 50 yards it's really hard to surpass the properties of the 158 XTP HP bullet. It gives very good expansion and will penetrate to the off side without exiting most of the time. The FP will on occasion exit on the off side. Years ago I had Bill Davis build me two custom built revolvers. One was on a SW model 27 and the other was on a Ruger Security Six. He was probably the best revolver smith this country has ever seen. He suggested that I use the XTP's and guaranteed the guns to shoot ten shots into one inch at 50 yards out of a machine rest. His guns were known as "one holers" by the PPC crowd. Bill said that he felt they were the most accurate jacketed bullet available and that they would perform the best for my intended use....whitetails. His advice has held up for many years.
 
But Nick, we all wanna get our $.02 worth in! My favorite bullet for my .357s is a 160 gr.Lachmiller SWC cast of 16-18 BHN lead (even though the thread is discussing jacketed soft points :D). I often load this up to magnum velocities with 2400...
 
I took up with the .357 Mag. around 1965. Most factory loads were fairly soft lead and leaded up a barrel quickly.

I was already casting bullets for a couple of rifles so I bought a Lyman #358156, a nominally 158 gr. bullet that runs about 160 gr. on average in my alloy. I used it with a stiff load in the .38 Spl. S&W 38/44 Outdoorsman. Something like 11.5 or 12.0 gr. of #Hercules #2400 as I recall. (NOT FOR USE IN REGULAR .38 SPL. REVOLVERS, ONLY THE HEAVY FRAME 38/44'S)

Back then then max load was 15.5 gr. of Hercules #2400. A very stout load no longer recommended. Currently I use that old Lyman mold over 14.0 gr. of Alliant #2400. Haven't chronographed that load but it's quick enough and very accurate. Sized at .359" there has been very little or no leading from that bullet. Alloy run about 11 on the BHN scale.

Funny thing is I've run any jacketed bullets through any of my .357 Mags and maybe two boxes through one .44 Mag. Almost all my handgun get my home cast bullets, even the Ruger .30 Carbine and none lead at all if the bullet is properly sized.
Paul B.
 
I appreciate the info on the lead. I have some SNS 158 grn SWC's (label says .358" but my caliper says .359", I'm sure my caliper isn't perfect so I'm not too worried about that) that I'm attempting to load to fairly warm velocities.

I haven't experienced any leading but I've never shot more than the 3 or 4 batches of 6 I load to check for accuracy. How long would it take to notice leading? I'm incredibly green to loading lead bullets so I think I'm just nervous to load up a bunch and find out that after 30 or 40 rounds it paints my bore with lead. Maybe that's a non issue as I have no idea how wary of it you have to be but I'd like to be able to shoot at least 50 rounds of practice a couple times a month and I don't want to end up hurting my firearm because I didn't know what to look for and/or didn't properly clean it out. That's why I'm leaning towards the jacketed side for now.
 
The hotter you run lead, especially without a gas check, the more the leading. Loaded to normal velocities, it isn't that big of a deal....
 
Disregard that last post. That's a question for another day.

Today Midway got some of the speers back in stock and O got 3 boxes ordered up. In the near future I plan to have a 357 rifle of some sorts and am hoping to make this a double duty load. Thank you all for the information.
 
I own a couple of .357mag rifles. The same loads you use in the handgun will exit the rifle barrel up to 400fps faster. You don't need to develop any "special" rifle loads as long as the same load shoots well out of the other gun. Along those lines, some of it depends on the twist rate of the rifle you get. Most handguns are 1:14 or 1:16 twist. Some rifles have 1:20 and I believe the Rossi's are quite a bit beyond that. At those twist rates you'll probably have some problems with heavier bullets. I have one Browning Low Wall and one Marlin that both shoot 180g bullets "deer hunting OK" but won't keep up with the lighter bullets for just shooting tight groups.
 
Well I got some of them Speers loaded up. H110 seemed to be accurate. Load 3 is what I'm settling on for the GP100. There would have been 6 shots but I dropped 2 in the snow and couldn't seem to dig them back up. 25 ish yards (forgot the tape so I had to pace it off. One flyer but I know I pulled that one. We'll see how it holds up to deer. Thank you all again for the advice.




attachment.php
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top