Viht. N110 in .357 Mag: primer choice

While working on jhp loads for a lever, followed Speer's recommendation to use small pistol primers. Used Fed 100 primers, and got very close to the velocitys expected. Accuracy was good (at slightly less than the max loads listed) and less blast than the slower powders tried.

Later tried some of the loads in a pistol, and the velocitys were not as high as expected.

Vihtavuori's 2006 manual as well as their online data recommend small RIFLE primers in all their .357 mag loads.

Click to expand...

For loads in a 10" 357 TC Contender I followed their load data and used small rifle. The loads were extremely accurate and I'll use N110 as my main 357 powder with the TC.

My 44 Mag revolver turned it its best accuracy ever using N110 and large pistol magnum primers.

I followed the Viht book and used small *rifle* primers for 357 with N110.

N-110 is my powder of choice for top end loads in my magnum revolvers.
I have found that it will outrun H110/W296, does the job with less flash and blast, is clean and meters well in my Dillon SDB.
If you want to load at less than max, N-110 will back down smoothly into mid range.
It is more expensive, but powder is a small part of overall cost.

These advantages apply to both my 357 and 41 mag revolvers.

Some will question if the rifle primers will be consistently ignited in revolvers.
If your gun has had the springs ligntened, you might need to be concerned.
In my guns, they work fine.

Be safe and have fun !

-steve

VihtaVuori has specified small pistol primers with its .357 Magnum loadings since 2008 (6th Edition). Interestingly, that same 2008 6th Edition shows an almost universal drop in powder weights from the previous edition in 2006. I'm wondering if they got a new pressure measuring system installed between editions...

srsmith said:

I followed the Viht book and used small *rifle* primers for 357 with N110.

N-110 is my powder of choice for top end loads in my magnum revolvers.
I have found that it will outrun H110/W296, does the job with less flash and blast, is clean and meters well in my Dillon SDB.
If you want to load at less than max, N-110 will back down smoothly into mid range.
It is more expensive, but powder is a small part of overall cost.

These advantages apply to both my 357 and 41 mag revolvers.

Some will question if the rifle primers will be consistently ignited in revolvers.
If your gun has had the springs ligntened, you might need to be concerned.
In my guns, they work fine.

Be safe and have fun !

-steve

Click to expand...

My experience with N110 mirrors yours, only with the .44 magnum. As a bonus, it groups much better.

lapua.com has reloading data. fwiw

just looked at the 2006 reloading data. the only revolver caliber using a small rifle primer is the 357 magnum AND 357 maximum. i think they may have confused magnum and maximum. suggest you use a small PISTOL magnum primer for the 357 magnum.


murf

Here's the link to their on-line reloading data. I can't find the manuals anymore. Glad I downloaded them when I did...

http://www.lapua.com/en/products/reloading/vihtavuori-reloading-data/relodata/6/27

.357 Magnum now calls for small pistol.

Their 9th edition is here:
http://www.lapua.com/en/home.html

Click Customer Center and select Downloads.

My experience with "hotter than suggested" primers is that often there is little change in average velocity and a marked decrease is the variation of velocity.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO EXPERIMENT WITH THIS, YOU MUST BACK DOWN AND WORK UP AS YOU SHOULD IN ANY LOAD DEVELOPMENT.

I am an amateur hobbiest, not a professional, so take care.

Be safe and have fun !

-steve

Hi
I sent V-V an email about the 'sm rifle primer' deal and the rep was quite surprised about this. He said it should have definately been a small pistol primer. He also said that using a mag primer was not necessary or recommended.

I've been doing a little cross comparison and examining some of the 125gr .357 Mag factory loads. So far I haven't been able to duplicate factory velocities in my S&W 4" 686 with any of the powders tried, using the Sierra 125gr JSP. N-110 is among the contestants..



It was a rather cold day when I shot this trial. Typically groups and extreme spreads tighten up when the weather gets warmer.
I later shot a group with 18.5grs N-110 and got a velocity of 1323 average when it was a little warmer.



No pressure signs were noticed, but I'm pretty sure I ran up against the wall with 2400 and Enforcer.
Velocities read with a Oehler Mod 33 at 8' from the muzzle.


Hope this helps some.