.357 Magnum ( Rifle ) Reloading

[Toprudder]

I recently purchased a Rossi 92 in 357. Tell you what, shooting 125 gr. HPs over 22 grains of WW 296 off the bench sighting it in made my old, sewn back together shoulder hurt pretty quickly. That's why I have no interest in the 44 caliber model.

I’ve got a Rossi 92, 16” 357mag, and a Rossi 92 20” 44mag. Big difference in felt recoil!

I'm very curious about the 300mp claims in real life versus the stats they are publishing

I can tell you that I get 1800fps with a 158gn jacketed bullet from my 16” Rossi 92. That is about a half grain under max published data, which was the most accurate in my rifle. 300mp in either 357mag, or 44mag, does really well in rifle. In 5” or less barrels, you won’t see any advantage over other powders like H110, though.

Be wary of the data from Alliant, the published velocities of 300mp are from longer barrels.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

I’ve got a Rossi 92, 16” 357mag, and a Rossi 92 20” 44mag. Big difference in felt recoil!


I can tell you that I get 1800fps with a 158gn jacketed bullet from my 16” Rossi 92. That is about a half grain under max published data, which was the most accurate in my rifle. 300mp in either 357mag, or 44mag, does really well in rifle. In 5” or less barrels, you won’t see any advantage over other powders like H110, though.

Be wary of the data from Alliant, the published velocities of 300mp are from longer barrels.

That’s still nearly 100 FPS faster than H110. I might buy some to try in my Henry. I wonder what it will do out of its 20 inch barrel.

 

[Toprudder]

That’s still nearly 100 FPS faster than H110. I might buy some to try in my Henry. I wonder what it will do out of its 20 inch barrel.

It was about 150fps faster for me in the 16” barrel.

A 20” barrel would be interesting.

 

[Eagle 17]

So does anyone think that it's worth it to modify a Henry S.S. 357 Mag. Rifle for a 357 Max ?
If so what can I expect to gain with the 357 Max.

It has a 22" Barrel with a 1:16 Twist.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

So does anyone think that it's worth it to modify a Henry S.S. 357 Mag. Rifle for a 357 Max ?
If so what can I expect to gain with the 357 Max.

It has a 22" Barrel with a 1:16 Twist.

Start with .360 Dan Wesson, but proceed at your own risk.

https://www.danwessonforum.com/forum/reloading/loading-data-from-the-old-dan-wesson-website/

Scroll down to .360 Dan Wesson data.

I made up some dummy rounds out of .357 magnum brass and 158 gr LRN crimped in the lube groove to try in my .357 Big Boy, and while they would chamber OK, they wouldn’t feed, so I abandoned the idea. I’ve heard that they will chamber and fire in most single shot rifles without modification, but you’d have to check your rifle. They seem to be pretty close to .357 Max in performance. If you make some rounds by seating long in .357 brass and like it, Starline sells 360 DW brass in the pistol section.

 

[Eagle 17]

Start with .360 Dan Wesson, but proceed at your own risk.

https://www.danwessonforum.com/forum/reloading/loading-data-from-the-old-dan-wesson-website/

Scroll down to .360 Dan Wesson data.

I made up some dummy rounds out of .357 magnum brass and 158 gr LRN crimped in the lube groove to try in my .357 Big Boy, and while they would chamber OK, they wouldn’t feed, so I abandoned the idea. I’ve heard that they will chamber and fire in most single shot rifles without modification, but you’d have to check your rifle. They seem to be pretty close to .357 Max in performance. If you make some rounds by seating long in .357 brass and like it, Starline sells 360 DW brass in the pistol section.

Thanks for the info., I'll look into it.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

Thanks for the info., I'll look into it.

Here’s some more. http://www.lasc.us/RangingShotDanWesson360Revolver.htm

 

[Random 8]

So does anyone think that it's worth it to modify a Henry S.S. 357 Mag. Rifle for a 357 Max ?
If so what can I expect to gain with the 357 Max.

It has a 22" Barrel with a 1:16 Twist.

I would say that unless you are hunting in a "straight wall rule" state, probably not. The .357Max was originally an attempt to get as much as possible from a straight wall case in this diameter. It gained a second life due to the rules nuances of IHMSA silhouette competition, and a third with straight wall cartridge rules. If not limited to Straight walls, there are more efficient .35s and other out there with bottle necks. In the Henry platform specifically, there are the .30-30 and .308 available, both of which are superior. That being said, it is a relatively inexpensive modification. Can't remember the company doing it, but you just send them your barrel assembly and it wasn't a bad price. I considered it when my state was considering a straight wall rule.

Hornady shows 250 fps gain with a 180 XTP, and the maximum tested with a 6" shorter barrel in a contender, so probably in the 300fps range of increase at the expense of less available load data and more expensive brass.

 

[Eagle 17]

I would say that unless you are hunting in a "straight wall rule" state, probably not. The .357Max was originally an attempt to get as much as possible from a straight wall case in this diameter. It gained a second life due to the rules nuances of IHMSA silhouette competition, and a third with straight wall cartridge rules. If not limited to Straight walls, there are more efficient .35s and other out there with bottle necks. In the Henry platform specifically, there are the .30-30 and .308 available, both of which are superior. That being said, it is a relatively inexpensive modification. Can't remember the company doing it, but you just send them your barrel assembly and it wasn't a bad price. I considered it when my state was considering a straight wall rule.

Hornady shows 250 fps gain with a 180 XTP, and the maximum tested with a 6" shorter barrel in a contender, so probably in the 300fps range of increase at the expense of less available load data and more expensive brass.

Thanks for the info., very helpful.

 

[Eagle 17]

Here’s some more. http://www.lasc.us/RangingShotDanWesson360Revolver.htm

Thanks again, lots of great info.

 

[Eagle 17]

Got some 110gr XTP's in, gonna load them hot for my 357 Rifle
with H110 and see how they do at the Range.

 

[Eagle 17]

I took my Henry .357 Magnum S.S. out to the Range
to see how my Loads would do.

- 158gr JSP -
- 140gr FTX -
- 125gr JHP -
- 110gr XTP -

All loaded with:
H110 - Powder
WSPM - Primers
Hornady - Brass

The 158's and the 140's did best with the high winds ( as expected )

 

[Eagle 17]

These .357 Mag. 110gr. XTP's could give a comparable 350 Legend load a run for the money.

 

[Eagle 17]

Working up a new .357 Magnum (Rifle) Load :

Bullet - 110gr. XTP - Hornady
Powder - Titegroup - Hodgdon
Primer - WSPM - Winchester
Brass - .357 Mag. - Hornady

This is a new Powder Load for me so as far as Powder Charges,
Velocities and Cartridge Overall Lengths go it will be a work in progress
with my results to be noted when I have tried them out at the Range.

 

[AZAndy]

I made my 2 Rossi Levers much easier to shoot. Go to NOE Bullet Molds and they sell a rail mount that will fit a Rossi. Yours is probably already drilled and tapped under the rear sight which is easily removed. I put one on my 357 first and then mounted a cheap red dot tube just to try. With the long eye relief, it makes the gun shoot amazing. My eyes are getting too old for iron sights and don't do real well with the peep sights, so I'm in love with the rail. Cost is about $35 I believe and they are the only people I know of that sell a rail or any other type mount for Rossi.

Thanks very much for the suggestion regarding the mount! Just ordered one. I didn't know anything like that existed.

 

[Eddietruett]

Thanks very much for the suggestion regarding the mount! Just ordered one. I didn't know anything like that existed.

They are the only company I know of that makes any type of rail or scope mount for the Rossi that isn't fastened on the side. Mine works well

 

[Buck13]

It was about 150fps faster for me in the 16” barrel.

A 20” barrel would be interesting.

From such a small case, if I had to bet, I'd wager there's no advantage in velocity between 16" and 20". Unfortunately, BBTI didn't test any handloads to verify if the very slow powders affected that.

http://ballisticsbytheinch.com/357mag.html

 

[Buck13]

Is there any argument to be made in favor of the 180 grain XTP over the 158? Or does the loss of velocity undermine the higher BC and SD?

 

[George P]

I have some old manuals and when I was looking through them I'd swear .357 was certainly listed in the rifle section, not sure if the load data was different than pistol data though, I'd have to dig into it.

It is in my older Sierra Anniversary book

 

[kcofohio]

Is there any argument to be made in favor of the 180 grain XTP over the 158? Or does the loss of velocity undermine the higher BC and SD?

There is, but I cannot find the link yet. When my old phone crashed, I lost a lot of saved links. I seem to think the article had to do with using Alliant's 300 MP powder. If I find it, I will post it.

 

[kcofohio]

Is there any argument to be made in favor of the 180 grain XTP over the 158? Or does the loss of velocity undermine the higher BC and SD?

Found it! Article is by Brian Pearce. It starts off about Marlin's new 1894CS, then goes into handloads and factory loads. Beware: It is a heavy .pdf file.
https://grizzlycustom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Pearce-SBL-Article.pdf

 

[Jessesky]

H110 was the surplus WC820 powder sold by Hogdon. The same powder used in the original 30 carbine load. If it’s developed for an 18 inch carbine, then it should be an ideal 357 rifle load.

I use H110 in my 20” cimarron 1873

 

[Sneakshot92]

This is pretty interesting stuff. Makes me wonder about my old friend Blue Dot. (Probably a bad idea)

 

[Toprudder]

Thanks very much for the suggestion regarding the mount! Just ordered one. I didn't know anything like that existed.

Yes, I have that mount on my Rossi 44mag. I bought a fixed 4x Weaver scouting scope for it, and love it! Really nice combo. I had to do a little filing to get the mount to sit flush onto the barrel, the dovetails were raised a little on the barrel. I also bedded the mount to the barrel.

Rossi used to make a mount very similar but it has been discontinued. They still make a mount that will fit, intended for one of their other rifles, but it is not machined for the taper of the barrel, and most scopes don't have enough adjustment to make up for the difference.

 

[surfsup1955]

Enjoyed the information and certainly a lot to consider here. I just picked up a new Ruger 77/357 and look forward to finding it’s intersection of energy and accuracy.