For the .357 Mag's
Posted: 05 May 2018 12:03
I had a couple of hours to call my own this morning so I decided to pass the time re-loading a bit. In looking for something simple that didn't require a lot of brain power, I decided to use up some prepped and ready .357 mag brass and some Nosler 158 gr JSHP's. I load very few jacketed handgun loads, particularly the .357 mag, but I decided to try to gear a load using those components with my shorter barreled Ruger 3" SP-101 and Rossi 16" R92. In previous tests I've found that AA#7 worked well in the 3" short barreled SP-101 and with what little time I've spent on the Rossi 16" it seemed to work well with it. Normally, I spend my time and efforts on AA#9 or A2400 for the magnum hand gun type loads and have absolutely no reason to change that in the .44 mag loads, especially now that I'm down to only 1 (Rossi 20" R92) in the .44 mag variety. The shorter barreled handguns do tend to run better with faster burning powders and I may just find out that the same will be true with the 16" Rossi. So, I decided to jump into uncharted waters (for me) today and use AA#5. I use a good bit of AA#5 in my bottom feeders, especially in .45 acp, as it performs about the same as Unique and, in my opinion, is really easier to work with. The 48 pieces of prepped and primed brass I had on hand got loaded with the 158 gr Noslers over 9.4 gr of AA#5. It will be interesting to see how they do through the chrony and on paper with the short (or shorter) barreled .357's.
jd
jd