Reloading 357 mag

[Sir Toast]

What powder are you using? The answer to that question determines what website you go to. Go to the powder manufacturer's website and look at load recipes. Make sure you get the grain of the bullet right.

Start in the middle and work your way up in small increments. Make sure you can can identify the signs of over-pressure. Don't toy with hot loads. Take your time.

.357's will test your press. It is a long, tall case. If the plate isn't centered almost perfectly, your rounds will look like a dumpster fire.

Good luck.

[Imageview]

Fortunately my one and only double charge was with a 38 special round, which made it a very hot 357 equivalent. It was a good learning experience, but.only because I luckily did not have catastrophic consequences. That will never happen again.

[Sir Toast]

Oh yeah. A lockout die is great. Saved me before.

[Sandspider500]

Oh hell ya! 180gr RNFP Hi-Tek coated bullets with some 2400 powder rocks ...

Yes sir.

[JagerDog]

If you look up rifle loads in 357 mag they are lower max powder amounts for same combination of bullet and powder type than for a revolver.

I do recall this with cast bullets. That's to keep the velocity down to reduce leading.

[Kokopelli]

Here you go. One Book One Caliber - The Complete Reloading Manual For The 357 Magnum (2004) PDF

[Cowboy T]

Hello everyone,
I am reaching out to you ALL for an advise.
I want to reload 357 and I could use a recipe you know it works for you


Will

Tommy Gun,
I want to learn to shoot better and cheaper with my357

That's a noble and laudable goal. Where you are now is where I was about 12 years ago. It can be done, and not only is it not difficult, but it's fun!

The .38/357 family of cartridges is what we shoot the most of, and yes, the wife and I do handload. So, like many other Calgunners on here, we're in a good position to advise you.

First and foremost, like the others have said, please get at least two good reloading manuals. The ones I have are Lyman's, Lee's, and Hornady's. Of them, I find myself using Lyman and Lee for load development, most of the time. This is because I cast our bullets out of waste lead. Doing this has reduced my cost per round to ridiculously low levels. It's great.

Tabasco,
I appreciate your comment.
I see I should start with Bullseye and 125gr bullets I have 2 questions.
1. Can I use 9mm bullet?
2. What type of primmer SPP or LPP or Magnum SPP if there such a thing?

Bullseye is a very good powder for both .38 Special and light .357 Magnum. The 125gr bullet is one of the most commonly used ones. Now, to your two questions.

1.) You "can" use a 9mm bullet, but I wouldn't. There's no good reason to do so; the proper size for .38/357 is 0.357" (jacketed) or 0.358" (cast). 9mm bullets are typically 0.355", which is too small, and yes, that 0.002" to 0.003" does matter. As others have said, accuracy will suffer greatly due to an improper fit for the chamber and bore.

2.) Both the .38 Spl and .357M use SPP. Whether you use a standard or magnum SPP depends on your powder. For H110 or W296, you will use a magnum primer, and Hodgdon specifically says to do that. So do the reloading books. For just about every other powder, though (e. g. Bullseye, Titegroup, W231, 2400, and so on), you will use a standard, or regular, SPP.

We have several loads for .38 Spl and .357M. Our most commonly used one uses a 105gr cast bullet with a light charge of either Bullseye or Titegroup. It's a nice, powder-puff load intended for marksmanship practice, and it duplicates the in-flight ballistics (to 25 yards or so) of most factory 125gr .38 Special loads. I developed this load with the wife in mind, but I like it, too.

For .357M, which I tend to shoot a lot more than the wife does, I have two loads. One uses Bullseye under a 158gr cast bullet, and it's similar the old FBI .38 Spl +P+ loads. The other uses a reasonably hefty charge of 2400 (the traditional .357M powder) under the same 158gr cast bullet and is considerably more powerful. It's about 3/4 to 7/8 of a full-house .357M load.

What are my powder charges? There's a reason I haven't listed them. I developed them by consulting at least two reloading manuals (Lyman and Lee, in my case) and then slightly tweaking them as needed, for what I wanted to do. You need to do the same.

Hopefully this helps get you on the way to doing that.