Range Report on first reloads: Incredibly dissapointed

[Dark Mod]

Loaded about 300 rounds or so of .357 magnum with 158 grn LSWC using 5.2 grn of Hercules red dot smokeless shotgun powder.

Long story short, they were wildly innacurate, this was done at Angeles out door range. I took some more to an indoor range today to test out just how innacurate, and at 7 yards my groups were about 6 inches. With factory ammo they are just over an inch.

I have a feeling that changing powder will have a big effect. Im gonna try winchester 231 and report back

Range report with new ammo added below:

[iareConfusE]

That's one hell of a significant difference... from 6" on reloads to around 1" on factory... Can powder selection really alter accuracy THAT much? I didn't think that powder could effect accuracy so dramatically.

[Waldog]

With that big of a difference I would suspect the bullets, not the powder. Your LEAD bullets should be about .001, and no more than, .003 over bore size. If they are smaller than bore, accuracy will be terrible. Is your barrel "leaded" up? A few rounds of lead bullets with crummy lube will lead a barrel and accuracy will be terrible. Also, if your cylinder lead (free bore area in front of the chamber) may be the too small for your lead bullets. If is squeezes your bullet undersize prior getting into the barrel, accuracy will be terrible.

[DougJ]

I always load 10 to 25 rounds for a particular load before I make a batch. Usually that means I have 3 or 4 different loads to try before I commit to building a larger number. I can't imagine that you could get accuracy that poor at such a short range, especially powder related... Are you sure the bullets you're using are sized correctly? Assuming they are I would recommend that when you try the 231 you start at the bottom of the load chart, make small batches of ant least 3 different loads evenly spaced between there and about 10% less than max. Start from the bottom, shooting for function, while checking for pressure signs and accuracy. Make some notes and move to the next loading up untill you find something you and your gun both like.

[f4tweet]

Is 5.2 gr a maximum load? If it is, dial it back a bit. Let somebody else who you know shoots well try your revolver and load.

[XDRoX]

Yep, probably not the powder unless you are getting unburnt powder.

[foesgth]

Faster than a speeding bullet

Did you by any chance run them over a chrono? I'd be very curious to know how fast they are traveling. I have used Lil Gun shotgun powder in some magnum loads. They are usually so fast I get leading in the barrel. The first 6 rounds or so are killer however! Did your bullets have gas checks?

[J-cat]

That's one hell of a significant difference... from 6" on reloads to around 1" on factory... Can powder selection really alter accuracy THAT much? I didn't think that powder could effect accuracy so dramatically.

It can.

[J-cat]

Loaded about 300 rounds or so of .357 magnum with 158 grn LSWC using 5.2 grn of Hercules red dot smokeless shotgun powder.

Long story short, they were wildly innacurate, this was done at Angeles out door range. I took some more to an indoor range today to test out just how innacurate, and at 7 yards my groups were about 6 inches. With factory ammo they are just over an inch.

I have a feeling that changing powder will have a big effect. Im gonna try winchester 231 and report back

Try working-up a load from min to max. I bet you'll find one that is pretty accurate. And don't load 300 to start. Load in small batches of 5-25.

[Dark Mod]

Ive tried the same load with Copper plated wad cutters as well as lead Semi wadcutters. The leading may be the issue, ill have to make a few batches with varying loads to test them out. Ive just cleaned the living heck outta the bore so i should be able to tell.

[huckberry668]

Leading doesn't degrade accuracy like that. if you're sure your powder charge is exactly 5.2gr for every round then it's the bullet quality. it could also be you crimped the bullet out of shape.

Question, is the bullet hard cast or swaged? swaged bullets are very soft and 5.2gr of Red Dot may be blowing the base out of shape. try using lower load like 3.5 or low 4s.

[Dark Mod]

Leading doesn't degrade accuracy like that. if you're sure your powder charge is exactly 5.2gr for every round then it's the bullet quality. it could also be you crimped the bullet out of shape.

Question, is the bullet hard cast or swaged? swaged bullets are very soft and 5.2gr of Red Dot may be blowing the base out of shape. try using lower load like 3.5 or low 4s.

Its possible. The bullets are horrible quality i dont know if they are cast or swaged but they look very old and are kind of crusty or gunky from whatever theyve been stored in.

Ive whipped up a batch of copper plated semi wad cutters. 10 of each from the loads of 5 grn up to 6.5 grn (using winchester 231, max load is 6.7)

I have also cleaned the gun very well. This should eliminate Leading, and powder from the equation. Also the last ones i had made were very poorly crimped and i crimped the living hell outta these things this time so improper crimp can be eliminated as well. im gonna try for the range right now and get back to you guys tonight, ill post pictures of my groups.

[Black_Talon]

Also the last ones i had made were very poorly crimped and i crimped the living hell outta these things this time so improper crimp can be eliminated as well.

"Crimping the living hell out of them" doesn't necessarily mean that you are crimping them correctly. You certainly do want to make sure that you're belling your mouths enough. Also try to use brass that's fairly consistent in length, otherwise you'll end up with the shorter ones having less crimp than the longer ones.

[Dark Mod]

Great Success! Check out the results of the new powder and a clean gun! big improvement. Still not as good as it usually is but ill chalk that up to user error, i was in a hurry and didnt have my glasses on me. These were all fired at 21 feet.

Alot of it was probably the leaded barrel, and a bit of it was probably a combination of crimp and powder. Either way im excited.

5.5 grn:



5.7 grn



6.0 grn



6.2 grn



6.5 grn



6.7 grn

[Dark Mod]

BTW here is a control group using the bad powder and badly crimped ammo i had left over. still pretty innacurate but the clean gun helped alot. Also i think these wadcutters were tumbling through the air a bit, probably because of the bad crimp: