Thread: Lee 358-158-RF and Other Bullets

Yep Marty, if I had to choose one powder for the .357 it would be AP70N. I do have Trail Boss and it has performed well with some loads, but it hasn't helped as much as I'd like with the Lee 158RF bullets. When I first started reloading for the .357 I used some swaged Speer 158 grain round-nosed projectiles. They worked pretty well with 4.2 grains of Trail Boss as I recall.... and that was through the Rossi with the slow twist. I wish I'd kept better records back then. I still have one target with an excellent group of these on it. If the Speer bullets had a flat nose I might have just stayed using those. I bought some Speer hollow semi-wadcutters, but I couldn't get those to group as well and I gave them away.

I haven't noticed any unburned powder. And I agree that fast powders should be better. I bought some APS350 which is meant to be even faster than Trail Boss. I tried using it with my 200 grain subsonic loads. However where my groups at 25 yards can be less than 0.75 inch using AP70N, the group I propelled with APS350 was about three inches if I recall correctly.

I find it interesting that what apparently works for some doesn't necessarily work for others. For a while I've been aware of the saying 'Every rifle is a law unto itself', and now I'm experiencing the evidence.