Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

1
Hi guys,

I'll finally be picking up my GP100 at the end of the month. I wanted to get a sense of what are the best bullet choices for actual magnum loads. There are concerns I have for each bullet.

Jacketed Bullets: My concern here is the price. At about 20 cents a bullet, that drives the overall price of reloading rather high. Still cheaper than commercial ammo, but I was hoping to get more savings. If any of you guys know a place to get cheaper jacketed bullets, that would be cool.

Copper Plated: My concern is copper fouling at magnum velocities. The consensus is to keep the velocity below 1200 fps, otherwise the copper starts shredding off and could cause fouling issues, though one guy left a review on Xtreme bullets that he pushes 158gr SWC to full house loads with no issues. Any of you guys push the xtreme (or other company's) copper plated bullets to magnum velocities?

Hard Cast Bullets: My concern is lead smoke and also lead fouling. I've shot some (other person's) lead 45 ACP reloads before, and boy did they leave a lot of smoke. It also fouled up my barrel each time and I had to use chore boy to clean it up. That wasn't so pleasant. Can the smoke and lead fouling be reduced by applying the right sort of lube?

Moly Hard Cast Bullets: The concern here is fouling. I've read that moly coating will help with the smoke problem, but I've also read that they still leave a coat of moly behind in the barrel which is a pain to clean up. Yet other testimony says that the moly fouling wasn't so bad. Anyone have experiences to share about this?

--

If you guys have experience with any of these and care to share those experiences, that would help me out a lot! Thanks.

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

2
pdoggeth wrote:Hi guys,

I'll finally be picking up my GP100 at the end of the month. I wanted to get a sense of what are the best bullet choices for actual magnum loads. There are concerns I have for each bullet.

Jacketed Bullets: My concern here is the price. At about 20 cents a bullet, that drives the overall price of reloading rather high. Still cheaper than commercial ammo, but I was hoping to get more savings. If any of you guys know a place to get cheaper jacketed bullets, that would be cool.

Copper Plated: My concern is copper fouling at magnum velocities. The consensus is to keep the velocity below 1200 fps, otherwise the copper starts shredding off and could cause fouling issues, though one guy left a review on Xtreme bullets that he pushes 158gr SWC to full house loads with no issues. Any of you guys push the xtreme (or other company's) copper plated bullets to magnum velocities?

Hard Cast Bullets: My concern is lead smoke and also lead fouling. I've shot some (other person's) lead 45 ACP reloads before, and boy did they leave a lot of smoke. It also fouled up my barrel each time and I had to use chore boy to clean it up. That wasn't so pleasant. Can the smoke and lead fouling be reduced by applying the right sort of lube?

Moly Hard Cast Bullets: The concern here is fouling. I've read that moly coating will help with the smoke problem, but I've also read that they still leave a coat of moly behind in the barrel which is a pain to clean up. Yet other testimony says that the moly fouling wasn't so bad. Anyone have experiences to share about this?

--

If you guys have experience with any of these and care to share those experiences, that would help me out a lot! Thanks.
Much of the smoke from lead bullets come from the lube, you might consider shooting a number of jacketed bullets through a new barrel just to break it in. Some claim that about 500 will remove the tight spots and burrs from the factory. The smoke you see and smell is from the primers powder and bullet lube.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

4
eelj wrote:Much of the smoke from lead bullets come from the lube, you might consider shooting a number of jacketed bullets through a new barrel just to break it in. Some claim that about 500 will remove the tight spots and burrs from the factory. The smoke you see and smell is from the primers powder and bullet lube.
Indeed, I will do a christening of a few hundred commercial rounds before I go exclusively to reloads.
PiratePenguin wrote:I shoot 158 and 180gr hardcast bullets (Missouri Bullets, BHN18) over full loads of 2400 out of a GP100 and an SP101, and I haven't seen much leading at all. Same type of bullets in the .44.
How about the smoke issue, Pirate, do you still get a lot of that?

It could very well be that the lead 45ACP reloads I shot before were using some powder that did not burn that cleanly. Shooting it in an indoor range was just not pleasant, and I don't want to see a repeat of that in the future (more so than the leading, which I can get rid of with some elbow grease).

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

5
Many of the most popular powders available for calibers like the 45acp tend to be very fast burning and filthy. Bullseye and unique being the worst. I wouldn't buy any factory ammo I would buy a couple hundred rds of jacketed bullets and reload them and then buy a few cast lead and keep records of the results. The jacketed bullets will have the diameter printed on the box and although they aren't as good as a pin gauge can give you a good idea of the throat diameter of the cylinder by pushing them through. Why buy factory ammo if you can reload.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

6
I like the moly coated bullets I get locally. They're cheap and they shoot fine. Moly fouling? Never noticed anything distinct from General powder filth.

I like old fashioned cast bullets too. If I'm gonna zing em up to a million miles an hour, I might spring for gas checks if the regular hard ones don't work properly.

There's some moly-related mysterious magic procedures for target rifle barrels, but just ignore that shit and clean as usual for handguns.

Smoke? It's a goddamn firearm not an iPhone!

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

8
I've gone from jacketed to copper plated to moderately hard cast (14-15). Jacketed worked great but they are spendy. Results with Xtreme copper plated were mixed. Some sheared the plating off and left copper splotches. Others were just fine. Copper fouling is easy enough to get off.
I'm now using the hard cast, and really enjoying them. They're cheep and I've been able to really push them hard. Whatever leading I get, which varies from nothing to minimal, I can easily remove with Chore Boy.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

9
Thanks for the responses guys. What I'll probably end up doing is getting a selection of both jacketed (to initiate) and moly/hard cast to play around with; I already have some Xtreme copper plated, but judging from the responses they will probably get relegated to light loads or 38 special loads.
Smoke? It's a goddamn firearm not an iPhone!
Haha, duly noted, F-shot. Probably I should just go to a range with better ventilation :)

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

12
If you are going to reload for the caliber try them all, thats whats fun about the hobby, but don't buy anymore factory ammo. In the 357 at mag velocity my favorite is a cast bullet the Lee round nosed flat point that I cast myself and size 358 and lube with LLC BAC lube which is very soft and smokey launched with 14 grs of 2400 powder and it rings 100yd gong targets off hand all day. I have have the mold and lube sizing equipment plus free lead. If I didn't I would be buy a lot of different bullets, sometimes you can find good factory blemished in bulk packs for cheap, why not try them. Just get a good copper fouling solvent and make sure the barrel is truly clean before using cast slugs.
"Hillary Clinton is the finest, bravest, kindest, the most wonderful person I've ever known in my whole life" Raymond Shaw

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

14
I also like Sweet's. Wipe-Out is less labor intensive but needs to sit overnight...or longer. It works on other deposits, too (except lead).

eelj -thanks for sharing that pet load.

ps. I :love: smoke.
Hell is where:
The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

Re: Bullet selection for stout 357 magnum loads

16
eelj wrote:If you are going to reload for the caliber try them all, thats whats fun about the hobby, but don't buy anymore factory ammo. In the 357 at mag velocity my favorite is a cast bullet the Lee round nosed flat point that I cast myself and size 358 and lube with LLC BAC lube which is very soft and smokey launched with 14 grs of 2400 powder and it rings 100yd gong targets off hand all day. I have have the mold and lube sizing equipment plus free lead. If I didn't I would be buy a lot of different bullets, sometimes you can find good factory blemished in bulk packs for cheap, why not try them. Just get a good copper fouling solvent and make sure the barrel is truly clean before using cast slugs.
If eelj is referring to the 358-158-RF cast "boolit", then I use that as well, along with the same lube. My .357M load is very similar to his, and I get no lead-fouling. This is because the bullets are sized properly for my revolver (Security-Six--the immediate predecessor to the GP-100). Proper sizing and proper lube are the two most important characteristics for any cast bullet to avoid lead-fouling.

Another consideration: the softer your cast bullets, the better, generally, in handgun shooting. This is true from low-pressure .45 Colt all the way to full-house, original-spec (45,000 CUP) .357M loads. The reason you want a softer alloy is so that you get obturation; that "hard cast" alloy does not obturate and won't give you a good gas seal. If the bullets are a bit small, the result is often gas-cutting, which leads to lead-fouling. The hardest I ever use now is BHN 12 (wheel weight alloy), and that's for my very stout ".45 Colt Magnum" load, which is right around full-tilt .44M levels of power. Most of the time, I prefer around BHN 9 or so.
"SF Liberal With A Gun + Free Software Advocate"
http://www.sanfranciscoliberalwithagun.com/
http://www.liberalsguncorner.com/
Image

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests