Thread: Reloading Mysteries

Smith & Wesson 38/357 mag barrels have 1:18 3/4" twist so your 16" Bergra is fine your 200 gr bullet really has the wrong shaped nose for good terminal performance
at subsonic velocity a HP is the best then a FP take a look at the Lyman Keith designed 358429 it performs well on animals, make your lead as soft as possible 50/50
Wheel weights and pure lead is as hard as you should go even then you may not get much expansion at full power loads, Don't try hot rodding your loads .357 mag
max pressure is 42.000 C.U.P Rifle and Pistol it is not the strength of the firearm it is the case, If you want high velocity look at Winchester 296 powder.

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate the very useful and encouraging information. I'd never thought about rifle 'twist' during recoil. When I shot the heavy bullets that grouped to the right, I was resting the rifle on sandbags with virtually no grip to counter the torque. I must try holding the rifle tight next time to see how much of a difference it makes. That info certainly helps to dispel some of the mystery.

I like the look of that Lyman 358429. Thanks for the suggestion. I will keep my eye out.

I am using what I believe to be fairly soft lead. I got a lot of leadlight 'came' scrap which I made ingots from. I do add a little tin in the form of skinny leadlighting 50/50 solder, but I suspect it doesn't always mix in well.

Yep, those .357 cartridges with lead projectiles remind me of .22 cartridges as well. I like the look of them.

Here is a picture showing three of the projectile types I have. On the left is a Speer swaged lead semi-wadcutter hollowpoint. I bought these from Reloaders. They didn't group consistently for me when using Trail Boss powder, but the one group I recently tried with APS350 grouped well enough for close-range subsonic hunting. I haven't taken them hunting yet. The middle bullet is the home-cast Lee 358-158-RF. This performs well. On the right is the new Lee c358-200-RF. The meplat isn't so big on this, but it should be better than a pointed nose.



Here is another question related to accuracy. Why do some powders seem to work better with certain projectiles at similar velocities? Can a faster powder sometimes deform the back end of a bullet before it gets underway maybe?

Yesterday I received my cute little muzzle forward suppressor from Waitaki Engineering and I was keen to try it out. The thread in the suppressor was perfect, and it screwed straight on with no hassles. I fired a few shots with the scope still on the Bergara and was happy enough with the accuracy. I then removed the scope and adjusted the open sights as best I could. I found that the rear sight was loose and could move from side to side, so I took it right off... cleaned it up... then refitted it with a big squirt of acid-cure silicone between the mating surfaces. It was secure after that. Although I would not generally be comfortable about shooting game at over 75 yards with this rig, I tried shooting a group at a five-inch paper disc set up at a hundred yards using my subsonic 200 grain cast bullets. I got a group of about 3.7 inches... which was satisfying enough considering the coarse, fluorescent open sights and the fact that I was covering the target with my foresight to allow for the distance. I shot an even smaller group with the Rossi Puma and 125 grain slow cast projectiles, but for some reason the point of impact was several inches to the right even though at 25 yards it hits centrally. It was getting fairly late at this stage and the light wasn't marvellous... and perhaps i had the gun on a cant. Dunno. Earlier in the day I made a video recording the sound of a shot through the suppressor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2tezDd8ty4