Reloading qestion?

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bookkie

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I'm looking for two different powders to load up some 357's. A real fast one that will finish it's burn in 2 1/2" of barrel and a slower one that will fill a 8" barrel. does anyone have any recomendations? I'm also looking for a good source for the powder and primers. Best prices I've come up with so far is $50 per 5000 on the primers and $14 per pound on powder.

Thanks,

Richard

P.S. Golden rule of reloaders.... It don't save you any money... It just allows you to shoot more for what you spend... :)
 
Dood, (not to be a wisea**, but) look a little further down the board in Handloading/Reloading, prolly get a better answer sooner
 
I have found AA#2 to be a good powder for the 2 in barrels. I don't know what velocity you are looking for, but hot .357 loads in the J frames are unpleasant to shoot. I dont have my data her before me but I load 125 gr HP and 110 gr Hp at from 1000-1100 fps. That is as hot as I care to shoot in my 640. A slower powder such as Unique will leave unburned powder which will get under the star and tie up the gun. Something like AA 5 would probably be as good, but AA 2 gave me what I wanted in the 2 in gun.
 
In my Dan Wesson I use Red Dot with the short 2.5" barrel and Blue Dot with the 6" barrel. Ive settled on 6.0 grains of Red Dot and 12.5 grains Blue Dot both with my own 158 grn Cast SWC. This works well IN MY REVOLVER, Please work up in yours.

Rew
 
Bookie; most handloaders use two different powders for the .357, but not because of concerns of bbl. length. One slow powder is used for full power loads, and another, faster, powder is used for mid to low power loads.

Contrary to popular belief, the powder which reaches the highest velocity in a long bbl. will also reach the highest velocity in a short bbl. The American Rifleman addressed this issue some years ago.

I cannot emphasize too much that you should never utilize loads which are suggested by other posters, or are printed in any reloading manual that is not the latest. This is because the powder companies are retesting their data, using the latest piezoelectric method, and Winchester (Olin) significantly reduced several of their pistol loads after piezoelectric testing.

Here is how to get the latest data. Go to Shooter's Gunlinks: http://www.shooters.com/gunlinks/index.htm

Click on Product Manufacturers, non firearm. There you will find an alphabetical list where among many other things, all the powder manufacturers are listed. Alliant and Winchester (Olin) have downloadable manuals in .pdf (Adobe) format, and you can download the Adobe software right at the Win site if you don't already have it. Hodgdon has an excellent manual as well.

Once you have selected a load, be sure and pay attention to all the components; primer type and mfgr., case mfgr., and OAL.

Good luck, and reload safely. Walt Welch, NRA Life member since 1972, reloader since 1957.
 
Bookie,
Walt made an excellent point about getting the latest data for reloading. For many years one of my pet .357 loads used a maximum charge of W231. This load was very stout and very accurate. Not long ago, while checking data on another bullet, I discovered that Winchester has dropped the max W231 charge by over a grain! So, its back to the drawing board for me. Better safe than sorry.
 
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