".357 Special"

C

CZ_

New member
Why don't the ammo manufactures make .357 magnum ammo loaded down to weak .38 spl levels?

With .38 special shot out of a .357 magnum chamber, you tend to dirty up the inside of the chambers more due to the shorter .38 case. Wouldn't it be nice to have options in .357 magnum other than hot loads or the moderately powerful "medium velocity" .357 magnums? In time, such a "lightly loaded" .357 load might even become popular enough to surpass .38 special and be priced near .38 special. They could even call it the ".357 Special" for marketing purposes.

I enjoy full house .357 magnum loads as much as anybody, but I think it would be nice to have MORE options, not less.

Thoughts?
 
My guess would be cost and demand.

It would almost certainly cost more just for the larger brass, not to mention any setup costs. When it is all said and done, most people would just go buy the cheaper .38 special.

Again this is just a guess.

Chris
 
I'm not a reloader, but would imagine that a cartridge that has a lot of empty space where powder should be might not have the proper ignition and/or burn characteristics to reliably, and safely, launch a bullet.

But...that is just an un-experianced opinion!
 
BTW, I was bringing this up because I notice on my GP-100, I've shot so many .38's in it, I am having a hard time chambering some .357's fully. I guess I need to clean it A LOT better.
 
If you shoot lead, you can get 1,000 SWC or RN .357s advertized at 995 fps from

rozedist.com

@ $149.50 for reloads, or a piddling $91.40 if you send in equivalet brass (which is pretty easy, shootin' revolver). Not quite '.357 special', but close to '.357 special +p' ;)

cw
 
One thing that may come into play is the brass. A 357 special could get by with a weaker overall design to save cost of material. Maybe even a smaller primer, I don't know much about 357 for reloading yet.

So if someone tried to load one up hot, brass problems might occur.

I shoot a little 38 special, might even be looking at a 38 special revolver. All mine so far are 357 that I shoot 38 special in.

I plan to load some mild 357 magnum rounds once I get up and running and knowledgable on doing so due to concerns about the build up mentioned. So far I have never had any buildup, but I don't shoot much 38 special and when I do, I run an empty 357 mag case into each chamber to clean it out a bit.

I also agree on cost and tooling problems plus many folks these days don't even own a revolver, it took me a while to finally get one.

Of course this same thing might work with the 44 mag and 44 special concept. Now in lever actions I like 44 special since you get more rounds, but again you are messing with that build up idea.

Reloading is worth the hassle to me to dial things in to where I am happy.

And great question, I never considered someone making a 357 special, I just knew that is what I would do with some 357 brass.
 
.38 sp ammo is cheap for the same reason 9mm ammo is cheap: it's used in huge volume. A "357 spcl" would be a subset of the .38 spcl market (could only fire in magnums, not true .38's). Thus, fewer rounds of .357 sp would be made and the price would be higher than .38 sp.
 
I would LOVE the ".357 special". I had the same idea myself. I tried all kinds of "supposed" light .357 loads. None of them seemed all that "light". (Although I think it was a 110gr Winchester that wasn't TOO bad.)

If you shoot .38s (for whatever reason) and THEN decide you might need a bit more punch... the .357s just might not fit. I know you should keep the gun clean but that MIGHT not be an option under some conditions.

(Besides, I swear it makes it tougher to clean if you use .38s!)

- There isn't THAT much difference in the case size. Surely there is a powder that they could use that would give performance comparable to the .38! HEY! I'll send an Email to Winchester right now and see if they reply. (Don't hold your breath.)

Logistar

(Email to Winchester sent)
 
I build very light .357 magnum loads with Speer 148-grain hollow base wadcutters over 3 grains of Bullseye and Speer standard small pistol primers. There's a lot of empty space in the cases, but they're easy on what's left of the right wrist and much more accurate than I'll ever be again.
 
Georgia Arms does does three pretty light .357 loads:

They do 158-grain LSWC @ 1100 fps for $95/500 (a little hotter than a .38 Special +P).

They do the the same load with a plated bullet runs an extra $7.50/500 (also a little hotter than a .38 Special +P).

They do a 158-grain LRN-FP 2 800 fps for $92.50/500. It is definitely in the .38 Special Range.
 
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CZ...
You are overworrying.
Carry empty, fired Magnum brass. When done shooting specials, shove mag brass into the chambers...

It will cut out the majority of the crud that is making it difficult to chamber the mags.

AND...if a mag goes in hard, you may get an overpressure situation due to not enough room for the crimp to blow out and release the bullet untill pressure is above normal.

Don't have to clean em, but is wise to knock the crud out of the chambers.

Sam
 
.38 special brass have more positive ejection, especially in snubs with short ejector rods. Thus making them better suited for use in high speed shooting competitions.

K.
 
Houston Cartridge sells a remanufactured .357mag "Cowboy" load which has a 158 gr RNFP (round nose/flat point) lead bullet with MV of around 1000 FPS. Feels just like a mild .38spl to me in my .357 revolvers. And it seems almost like .32 caliber in my .357mag lever rifles! I shoot a ton of it in my lever rifles and Colt & Cimarron SAAs and love it.

http://www.houstoncartridge.com/PRODUCTS/remanufactured_ammunition.html

Sounds like just the ticket for you... a .357spl!

:D
 
Why don't the ammo manufactures make .357 magnum ammo loaded down to weak .38 spl levels?
Click to expand...
All the people who want those,reload. I did just that for quite awhile, but finally got a nice big lot of free .38 brass. I find that accurate loads are easier to achieve in the .38 brass.
 
You can buy a "chamber brush" that is slightly larger than your .357 bore brush. Makes it a lot easier to clean out the "dreaded .38 ring"

For just a couple of bucks, you can save a lot on ammo.
 
.357 spec

As noted above one can achieve light loads in both .357 and .44 mag. The Alliant manual has some light loads for .44 mag with 200 gr bullets on which the recoil is about what a 148 gr wadcutter .38 would be. The Laser Cast manual has a number of "Cowboy Loads" which are light using 158 gr and 125 gr bullets. Most of the loading manuals have light loads for .357 using cast 148 gr wadcutters and 158 gr SWC's.

Anyhow, tailoring one's loads is a good reason to get into reloading.

Tom
 
quote:

"That's what I use a .40 S&W brush for "

****************

Yeah, but the brush is cheaper than buying another gun.

Then you still have to buy another brush anyway. :D
 
Yup, the brush trick is great for chambers

Use a .25 for the .22, .40 for the .38/357, .45 for your .44s, and a .50 in your .45s. Just don't run it all the way through, othewise your going to squeeze it back down to caliber size as it goes through the chamber mouth.:)
 
I'm with Sam.
Shove a fired .357 case into the chamber to ream out the heavier part of the buildup.

.44 and .45 cal brush---I've gone to using a .410 Ga shotgun bronze brush instead of the pistol calibers. It seems to be more robust/coarse/heavier duty and lasts 5 times longer.
 
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